The relatively small studio Digital Extremes demonstrates with Warframe what large publishers often struggle with: the perfect presentation of news. The in-house event TennoCon does this better than E3.
Presentations by big publishers: Often bland despite millions spent
A lot of new titles were presented at E3. There were stages, and “influencers” were invited for a lot of money to showcase the games. It was about millions. However, the presentations at the press conferences rarely made a significant impact.
Too often, the trailers were clinically created at the drawing board, showing too little or lacking that certain something. Much was already known, and surprises were rare. They were well-measured snippets of information that were often forgotten once the trailer was over.
Even though Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Sony, or Microsoft are the big gaming giants, the presentations at E3 often lacked any “impact,” any effect on the fans in the audience.
Digital Extremes knows its audience
In stark contrast is a 17-minute gameplay video of Warframe presented at TennoCon. They kept all the aces hidden until presentation and are now revealing them one by one with delight.
The difference from E3: The Warframe developers know their audience very well. They understand their wishes and expectations and play to them like a piano. In a 17-minute video, they showcase the new update “Planes of Eidolon” and rely on the “Aha” effects. They aim for the excitement of the audience to spill over to the viewers.
Whenever a new feature is announced, it slowly becomes apparent until the fans realize: “Yes, this is really possible in Warframe!” Then applause erupts.
So these points are impressive:
- At the beginning, a bug lands, and a vast sky opens up. “Something is different here.” There is no audio commentary; the image feels like an intro trailer for itself.
- Then the impressive new village Cetus is introduced: a strong backdrop. Tribal music and alien language. Children are playing, and meat is being chopped. Great science fiction visuals.
- Then the commentary begins. The tension drops again. After a stroll through the marketplace, the first major innovation: Warframe gets freer crafting, allowing players to build weapons from components. The fans have been waiting for this and applaud. There will even be the ability to name the items – scene applause.
- The next highlight: Quests can be accepted
- Things really get going when the presenters truly leave the city and go outside. The first gate is already exciting, but nothing happens, just another corridor. The audience cheers the presenter on: “Woooh!” one calls out. Come on, hurry up. After the second gate, everything changes. The viewers finally realize, “This is an open world!”
- A small thing, but brings applause: You can shoot a bird, and even fishing is possible.
- Next highlight: Warframes can fly in this open world
- Next comes a longer passage with action
- And finally, there is a look at the Eidolon, the giant monsters. But this is not elaborated upon, and the presentation ends here on a high note.
A clear tension curve over 17 minutes, many small and large highlights. A lot of new information all packed into 17 minutes. That was a presentation that thrilled the fans.
How much weaker it would have been if the developers had shown all this with slides and bullet points or in small scene segments or with fragmented dev videos, as Bungie did with Destiny 2?
As skillfully as the presentation of Warframe is made, the 17 minutes of gameplay remind one of the legendary appearances of Steve Jobs when he presented new Apple products like the legendary first iPhone. Jobs and Digital Extremes know the expectations of their audience very well. They play with their expectations. They meet them in one moment, exceed them in the next.
The trailer gives the fans what they hope for and then even one more, and another, and another.
This is how presentations should be done, dear AAA publishers. Please, more presentations like this in the future. And fewer announcements of announcements and mini-bites.
Just as the fans were thrilled by the presentation on Saturday, that is positive, honest hype. That is a good feeling. Give us that more often.
What was presented in detail at Warframe can be read here:
Warframe is getting an open world – becoming more like “MMORPG”
