Deep Silver, the publisher behind Saints Row and Dead Island, has big plans for E3 2016.
“We have a lot of games in the pipeline and are very much looking forward to E3,” CEO and founder Klemens Kundratitz told MCV, “where we are not going to be absent and where we will make our next major announcement.”
Just what Deep Silver has in store is anyone’s guess. The most recent activity from the studio’s mainline IP left few bread crumbs to follow. Earlier this year, a canceled PSP Saints Row was released to the public, free of charge and full of (not unexpected) problems. More recently, the estranged sequel Dead Island 2 was revived by Sumo Digital, who picked up the IP after Deep Silver’s spat with the game’s original creator, Yager.
If it seems Kundratitz was inordinately assertive about Deep Silver not skipping E3 2016, it’s because he was, and for good reason. Over the past two months, multiple major studios have dropped out of the upcoming trade show, many to pursue independently hosted events.
It started in January with EA, who withdrew from the show floor to host its own event, EA Play, two days before E3 begins. Earlier this month, Activision dropped its booth as well, despite plans to reveal the next Call of Duty.
Less than one week later, Disney Interactive and Wargaming bailed as well. Wargaming cut to the quick in a statement:
“[E3 is] a show that is very centralized on retail product, and as a free-to-play digital download gaming company, we’ve realized that while the show may be a good fit for lots of other publishers and developers, it’s currently not a great fit for us.”
Nevertheless, the company behind E3, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), is confident in this year’s showing.
“[E3] remains a very important place to be,” the ESA’s Rich Taylor told Venture Beat. “We dominate social media. We dominate a lot of traditional media. It’s a launch pad without peer in this industry and entertainment across the board.”
Source: MCV
Via: GameSpot
