E3 2021

The main bulk of E3 and the non-affiliated shows surrounding it came and went during this time. I won’t really get into it here because I already did a couple of blogs about it (linked below), but I thought overall this year’s showings were pretty good. There were a lot of solid indie reveals, and a few of the shows like Microsoft’s had a lot to offer. Good shows or not, E3 is always a fun time to drown in game announcements and see what the future has to offer.

Scott Cawthon, Creator of Five Nights at Freddy’s, Retires

Scott Cawthon, best known for the Five Night at Freddy’s franchise, suddenly announced his retirement from the franchise. He personally cited wanting to spend more time with his family, but many believe his sudden departure was due to a recent leak of his political donations to Republican politicians and organizations, a decision he stands by. Many fans were outraged by this recent revelation, though, and he was doxed and threatened as a result, and many believe this is the true reason why he is retiring.

While Scott is leaving the franchise, he did say it won’t end with his departure, stating he is trying to find a suitable successor to carry the franchise on.

Atari VCS Launched

The latest competitor to Sony and Microsoft, Atari, recently stealth-launched their console during E3. This box has been kicking around for years, and while some backers received their boxes late last year, the console-PC hybrid had a worldwide launch on June 15th. While this system was the clickbait talk of the town for many whenever news popped up about it, its actual launch has been rather quiet. The Atari VCS can be purchased for $299 or a $399 bundle which includes two controllers, and the two types of controllers sell for $59.99 each.

Cyberpunk 2077 Returning to Playstation Store

In an investor press release, CD Projekt Red announced the return of Cyberpunk 2077 to the Playstation store. The game was pulled from Sony’s store shortly after launch for its handling of refunds, and the game is planning on making its return on June 21st. Despite the re-launch, Sony recommends not playing the game on a base PS4 because of “performance issues.”

Someone Purchased Devolver’s NFT for $1000

Every year, Devolver puts on an E3 show unlike others by mixing in announcements with satire. This year, they decided to target subscription services and NFTs (non-fungible token). As part of their satire, they sold a single VHS tape (which they called “non-fuckwithable tape”) for $1000. Well somebody bought that tape, and all of the funds are going to the Scratch Foundation, which helps kids pick up coding.

EA hack

780 gigabytes worth of Electronics Art data has been compromised, according to the company. The company believes the hack targeted source codes, but that no player data has been compromised. It is believed that Fifa 21 and Frostbite Engine source code has been stolen as well as some development tools.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart

Insomniac’s Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is the latest release in the Ratchet and Clank franchise about travelling between different dimensions to stop Doctor Nefarious. Sony has had a lot of exclusive hits over the past few years, and this game seems to be no exception. I still haven’t played a Ratchet and Clank game, but I do want to try the series out, and this game looks like the one to jump into. Plus, it also seems like the first game to properly utilize the new hardware with its dimension-jumping mechanics. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart released on the 11th for PS5.

Wave Break

Wave Break is an arcade skateboarding game from Funktronic Labs, but replace skateboards with boats and add an 80s theme and guns. The arcade skateboarding subgenre of games look like a lot of fun, so that alone is what interests me with this game, but what really looks weird to me is how they manage to bring in guns and combat into the mix. Plus, there is a track creator, so the fun doesn’t stop when the campaign is over. Wave Break released on the 11th for PC and Switch.

“E3” is Getting Out of Hand

Instead of covering E3 like I normally would in year’s past, I decided to just watch the shows and put out this plus one other blog on the annual event. Normally, I would write about each show and go over the games announced and whatnot, but I noticed this year’s schedule of events to be too much. The main issue wasn’t that there were more announcements, though, it’s that there weren’t enough games to justify the high amount of shows. Of course, there were new announcements both big and small, but there were a lot of old announcements too, and in my opinion only a small handful of shows actually delivered enough meaningful content to justify their existence whereas a lot of shows filled up their runtime with filler like excess amounts of interviews, old announcements, announcements recycled through multiple other shows, and so on.

Black Red Gaming’s E3 2021 Highlights

Despite my position on this year’s E3, however, I still watched all of it (from June 5th-15th anyways), and I still found some games worth highlighting. This year felt like a year for indies, but a few large announcements also took center stage. For me personally, Spiral, Slime Rancher 2, Lamentum, El Paso, Elsewhere, and Contraband were some of my top games, but many more can be found on the list.