An early highlight of the EA press conference was Command & Conquer: Rivals, at least for our author Schuhmann. He hasn’t had this much fun in a long time regarding the shortest hype in the world.
The shortest hype in the world: Yesterday, the first press conference of E3 2018 took place. Electronic Arts was up. I watched the pre-show in the live stream “E3MAX” by GameStar. The hosts were overjoyed for about 3 minutes and then suddenly very sad. What happened there?
Oh God, they are bringing Command & Conquer back
Command & Conquer at E3: One of the GameStar employees spotted a banner for “Command & Conquer” on the show floor in LA. Within seconds, a dream scenario was constructed based on this banner that brought tears to the eyes of every PC nostalgic and strategy fan.
The dream scenario: Like Age of Empires, Command & Conquer is coming back! Perhaps in an HD remastered version or even as a new installment.
Nostalgics in full hype: For about 3 to 5 minutes, the editors were excited and danced in their chairs during the live stream. You could hear the genuine euphoria of PC gamers, who still have a bit of their hearts in the 90s and are against online and Free2Play. But it got even worse.
The grim premonition: Then one of the editors murmured in the live stream, “Yes, behind this banner, there are mobile phones involved.” And a dream world fell apart.
Hype gone: Immediately, the mood shifted. Because of course: EA is making a mobile game out of Command & Conquer. The dreams of PC strategy fans were instantly shattered. But it didn’t go well for EA either. A trade show is the most dreadful place to present such a game.
Mobile is just bad on a big stage
EA’s plan: In EA’s plan, two iconic gladiators were supposed to confront each other in a gripping battle. The audience would see it, be excited and applaud. The people at home would get into it, realize how fascinated everyone in the hall is by the battle, and become totally hyped about the game. Only then would they reveal to the fans: “This is Command & Conquer: Rivals – we are bringing your dream game back, and everyone can play it.” People would faint from excitement, then wake up and rush into the Google Play Store, downloading the download of Command & Conquer: Rivals in droves.
The reality: They invited NickatNyte (Clash of Clans specialist) and InControl (pro StarCraft player). The two then sat down on chairs, pulled out their mobile phones, and tapped around for 3 or 4 minutes. Then the shoutcaster was yelling something like “This is incredibly important – totally important – just one more shot – Wow!” Along with that, gameplay was visible which nobody could really make sense of, looking like any standard mobile game or a PC game from the late 90s.
Very weak applause
The reality: Mobile is just bad on a big stage. The problem is: Watching a mobile game is like watching chess when you don’t know the rules. The game is unreadable for outsiders. The shoutcasters yelled some militaristic commands like “Nuke, Nuke,” while the two eSports pros tried to pretend it wasn’t just a ridiculously well-paid PR gig, and the mood after the segment was quite low.
When the EA manager asked for applause after the presentation, it was so thin that they quickly moved on with the program. The highlight was then to tell the people: “That was Command & Conquer Rivals,” but it didn’t really impress anyone. Better to quickly show the trailer.
The audience problem: Mobile games cater to “casuals,” but at a gaming fair, hardcore fans are present. EA faces the same problem every year with sports games: The audience for those games is just rarely at the fair. The people who are there want to see new installments of their classics or innovative core games: shooters, role-playing games, adventures, action games.
EA did not do Command & Conquer: Rivals any favors with this
Mobile games can be good, but you can’t see it here: The presentation ultimately says nothing about the quality of the game. Mobile games don’t need to be readable for the uninformed or have top-notch graphics to work. Hearthstone also needs to be played to understand it. But when mobile games are presented in the way Command & Conquer: Rivals was, you can understand why PC gamers and nostalgics have a meltdown when they hear “mobile” in connection with their favorite game franchise.
The headlines following the conference were lines like “Look what they’ve done to Command & Conquer” or “Command and Conquer disappoints everyone.”
How can you promote a mobile game?
Mobile has to be presented differently: These are problems that the gaming industry is struggling with, as evident with Lineage2Revolution. Mobile generates a tremendous amount of revenue, and publishers also want to spend a bunch of money on PR, but this way, it doesn’t work. To reach the mass of gamers, investing in commercials like in the past with Clash of Clans would be better. Or you really have to bring the game closer to the players and let them experience it themselves. Anyone who thinks they can present a new mobile game as an eSports event is taking on a mammoth task.
After Command & Conquer, Warcraft is next
Blizzard will have the same problem: How to make these mobile games appealing to their “core audience” will be a problem all western publishers will have to tackle. Especially considering that by the end of the year Blizzard will have to explain to its fans why they are not getting a “Warcraft IV” as a PC strategy game, but rather a “Warcraft Mobile.” We will see at BlizzCon how Blizzard handles this. Maybe PC fans will again freak out for 5 minutes, “Oh God, they are bringing Warcraft back,” before they realize, “Oh, there are mobile phones involved.”
