From our other sites
The story
Sony’s ‘State of Play’ broadcast on September 5th (nicknamed ‘Sutepure’ by fans) drew a strong reaction on 5ch’s hardware/industry board (Gaming Hardware, aka ‘Geha’). The main points of contention were that the first and second halves repeated the same footage, and that the interview segments featuring voice actors ran long compared to the small number of titles actually showcased. Some posters even timed each segment down to the minute, and the thread also compared the show to next week’s Nintendo Direct (set for the 9th) and discussed the lineup of participating publishers like Bandai Namco and Konami.
What people said
Gundam: 2 min
GT7 update: 3 min
Voice actors are part of the development team too, y'know 😡
Nintendo Direct can showcase like 40 titles in 45 minutes though…
…Note:
Apparently international viewers found it painful to watch to the end
Do they seriously think most people only watch one half or the other?
Seriously, this.
The second half was probably tailored for the Japanese audience, but Nintendo Direct sometimes changes which games it highlights between the domestic and overseas versions too. Japan could've just simulcast the second half plus a little extra.
Some followers were hyped beforehand thinking 'they specifically split it up, so the Japan-focused part must be the real deal!' — and then went dead silent two hours later. Honestly felt bad for them.
There's also a chance the first and second halves were handled by different production teams that just didn't communicate with each other.
Rhapsody in Scarlet & Rev: Noir (also on Xbox)
Gundam (also on Xbox)
Monster Hunter Wilds expansion (also on Xbox)
FF7: Revelation (also on Xbox, Switch 2)
So Gundam isn't coming to Switch 2 currently? That's kind of surprising.
It's Bandai Namco, so that's just business as usual.
Surprising? That's just a classic Bandai Namco move.
The real question is whether the interview was too long…
Not whether they count as 'developers' or not.
Oh I see. Guess that was just my own assumption.
First time on Geha? Bandai Namco is the kind of publisher that snubs Switch even for casual-friendly Shonen Jump games.
Gundam's total franchise revenue is in the same ballpark as Sanrio or the Shonen Jump properties, so the industry has propped it up as a counterweight to Nintendo/Pokémon among the older gamer crowd ('on-geezers'). This dates back to at least PS2's 'Federation vs. Zeon DX,' so it's deeply entrenched.
But that same history means younger generations have had far fewer chances to get into the Gundam IP for decades, and the fanbase keeps aging. The 40th anniversary was clearly more subdued than the 30th.
Half of it was nothing, and the other half was just follow-up info on already-announced titles.
SIE apparently felt confident about this show, so there's a huge disconnect with what users actually wanted.
And on top of that there was movie and LEGO stuff too…
I kind of think the individual publishers should've just prepared trailers that actually show off the gameplay themselves. Bandai Namco and Konami got long segments, so they definitely could have.
Wait, is there even usually a pre-announcement of the game lineup?
I glanced at the viewer count during the interview and it had dropped like crazy lol
They clearly don't understand their own audience. Why's a male voice actor hosting anyway?
Sony also couldn't manage to absorb Nintendo's dominance by the DS era, so it went after the weaker target instead.
On the games side too, they were blatantly trying to be the star of the kids' market — though that failed.
Didn't she become a voice actress specifically because she wanted to play Jolyne?
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
‘State of Play’ is Sony’s regularly-held in-house broadcast, often compared with Nintendo’s ‘Nintendo Direct,’ scheduled for September 9th. On the Gaming Hardware board, the density of new information relative to runtime is a perennial topic, and this time complaints centered on the structure of repeating the same trailer across the first and second halves, as well as the length of the voice-actor interview segment. Within the thread, some speculated this structure resulted from poor coordination between the overseas and Japan-specific broadcasts, while others criticized the lack of advance notice about the interview segment — leaving opinions split on whether this was simply a runtime-balance issue or a lack of preparation on the PR side. Note that the discussion around Bandai Namco’s Switch strategy is speculation based on the company’s past patterns, not an official statement.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, “Geha”) thread “We Timed How Long That Excessively Long State of Play Interview Actually Was.”
Leave a Reply