This year’s summer season of announcements, dominated by E3’s events, seems to have featured a significant number of non-violent games. According to a recent analysis, around a third of the titles shown across the week’s various shows highlighted gameplay with no combat. Though not technically under the E3 umbrella, showcases like the Wholesome Direct, Devolver Digital, Future Games Show, and Summer Game Fest Kickoff Live greatly contributed to this year’s boost of peaceful games.
While this year featured a few triple-A highlights like Elden Ring and Breath of the Wild’s sequel, many walked away from the show impressed with the indie titles. Of the most anticipated independent games of E3, several shied away from violent mechanics. The painterly Planet of Lana’s trailer, for example, revealed an absolutely gorgeous world under attack. The protagonist of this cinematic puzzle adventure seems to use brain over brawn by sneaking past the game’s threatening enemies. Indie events, however, were not the only stages giving the spotlight to tranquil titles. During the Summer Game Fest Kickoff Live show, host Geoff Keighley announced that an Xbox-exclusive, indie demo event would be kicking off during the week. The ongoing event will come to an end on June 21, leaving players a few days to check out dozens of indie titles for free.
Having looked at 349 video games and 15 events, Gamesindustry.biz reports that 115 games that appeared during E3 and the week’s several satellite shows could be classified as non-violent. The writer gives most of the credit for this rise in peaceful play experiences to indie showcases, pointing out that 63 non-violent games – nearly half of the overall total – were featured in the Wholesome Direct. Major publishers did not quite hit the same numbers and only 15 games were shown on the big stages that met the study’s specifications. Though it's important to remember that the non-violent games that were shown, like Shedworks’ Sable, are some of the most anticipated indie titles of the year. Nintendo had the largest percentage of non-combative games in its E3 event compared to the other industry giants, with 22%. Despite winning the silver medal in the high-profile category, only 13% of the Xbox Showcase titles were considered non-violent.
Surprisingly, E3 held an official, 24-game strong Indie Showcase this year and, while it placed relatively low on the non-violent scale, this certainly indicates that the industry is giving more time to its smaller experiences. The big winner of this showcase, according to the audience poll, was Neko Ghost, Jump!, Burgos Games’ debut platformer.
It is not surprising that the number of games at E3 giving players a new way to interact with the virtual world is so intertwined with the independent side of the industry. Theses smaller titles can often explore themes and mechanics that larger, risk-averse studios cannot, and this is an important point of the report. This look at non-violent games is, as the article says, “not intended to decry violence,” but rather to highlight how often games rely on the same mechanics time and time again.
Source: Gamesindustry.biz