Topic: Episode 978: Cotton Is Coming!

[NWR_Lindy]

Not the fiber.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/75837/episode-978-cotton-is-coming

It's the end of the Summer Games Flogging, where everyone in the industry creates their own Direct, making the entire marketing thing lose almost all of its juice just due to over-exposure.

I guess it's sheer opportunism that resulted in Geoff's Games Guzzler ending up in the E3 slot, following the show's dual-death from a pandemic and the failure of the industry to maintain its own plaything.

I've seen people blame the ESA for "killing" E3, and this is a very odd take. The companies themselves are the ESA. The ESA is E3. These are all the same thing. Nobody failed anyone, everyone failed everyone else.

The short story is that being "on the floor" of E3 got too expensive for the ROI - particularly if you were buying up huge real estate. Activision, then Microsoft (still separate at this point), and eventually even Sony decided the juice was not worth the squeeze. Sony never got to see their exfil come to light, due to... you know... but Microsoft was well-positioned to just move across the plaza to a building already bearing their name.

I don't know where I'm going with this, except to say that the current format of one to two hour blocks of trailers feels like a slog where everything blends into a slurry. The Game Awards Enterprises was just fueled by enough self-importance and material resources to attempt to seize the mantle themselves. The imitation is pale.

I still would have gone with the cruise ships.

We don't have any news from the Hot Fun Fiesta not because it hadn't happened yet, some of the video presentations had already run. We just didn't cover them.

We only have New Business this week.

The returning Jon kicks the show off with an update on Saros and Outlast. He also explores eFootball just in time for the REDACTED Cup and then gives an update on Pokopia. Guillaume spends a little time on Hundred Line but then devotes most of his time to Panorama Cotton - his second-most recommend Cotton game.

After a break, James has thoughts on Mina the Hollower. They are not positive. After his lengthy examination of the game's design, Greg closes the show with Yoshi and the Mysterious Book.

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• (00:03:40) New Business - Saros. Outlast.
• (00:09:27) eFootball.
• (00:21:53) Pokopia.
• (00:42:12) The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. Panorama Cotton.
• (00:58:35) James on Mina the Hollower.
• (01:41:51) Greg on Mina the Hollower. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book.
• (01:58:08) Listener Mail kinda - When the Red Arremer underwhelmed.