Monday, July 28, 2008

Has nothing changed?

One thing that was clear to me after this year's E3 was the complete lack of SOCOM coverage. Even though the game was there playable at the show, only a handful of publications put up a hands-on report on it. This could be because the game was already shown a few weeks prior at a Pre-E3 event just for the game, but the build being shown in Sony's booth was a lot fresher yet we barely heard a peep.

The result of that being, the nominations and awards that are going out from many of these websites (including GameTrailers) have completely failed to mention SOCOM Confrontation in any category. Which is quite odd considering that all recent hands-on reports are saying the game keeps looking and playing better.

But the real kicker is Comic-Con. Occurring last week and not normally a place where you see that many games, SOCOM Confrontation was playable on the show floor. And while it seems that many casual visitors got hands-on time with the game, I have not read a single preview from IGN, 1up, or GameSpot (or anyone else for that matter), about it's presence at the show. Not in podcasts either. Even though it was being shown off in Private Beta form.

So who's to blame? The media who keeps "ignoring" SOCOM? Nope. I put the blame on Sony.

While in the past year Sony has managed to finally support the SOCOM community with a dedicated community person and for the most part, keep us fat and happy, what they have failed to do is generate any hype outside of this hardcore base of SOCOM fanatics.

For a game that supposedly looks and plays great, as said from various 'qualified' people around the web including Jeff Gerstmann (GiantBomb), Jeff Hayes (IGN), and Thierry Nguyen (1up), Sony hasn't been able to deliver the hype on their end. The most obvious example of this was their E3 Press Conference, where Confrontation was nothing more than a 5sec video between a mish-mash of other titles.

Considering the legacy and power of the SOCOM franchise, I've been extremely disapointed with how Sony has treated it. Keeping the core community happy is not going to blind us to the fact that its been severely under-hyped (yes, history shows that most hype is generated within the company, not the media), and how that will hurt its userbase come launch.

To me, it feels like Confrontation is being sent to die. Unless we witness a huge marketing push come September and October, its clear Sony doesn't have much interest in pushing the game. Maybe they feel it's on auto-pilot and that it can sustain itself, but personally I don't think that's true. This is a franchise that went through a world of hurt and someone has to let those casual gamers know that the real SOCOM is back, while informing those who are unfamiliar with SOCOM why they should care.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree man, this game needs and desearve more hype... I posted in your forums thread!

Anonymous said...

This is HoLyGhOsT btw, that is my AIM I used to post on here ;)

Anonymous said...

What really bugs me Dave is the fact that SOCOM never had any spotlight. It was always benched by SONY and so on with other media. SOCOM was a great successful game since day one but it never got any kind of hype or media buzz, whats sad is a lot of people dont even know what SOCOM is. If anybody generated any spotlight on SOCOM it was the core vets of the original SOCOM that have passed the word around.

Nobody completely understands SOCOM, there are so many crappy games that get so much hype, thats not deserved.

It really pisses me off that SOCOM was always benched while crappy titles getting recognition.

WOW I'm pissed NOW! Nice post. Hellman get a f'ing job so you can buy the headset with the game will ya...?

Marc said...

I think a lot of people (wrongly) see this SOCOM as a placeholder. They're waiting for the Zipper SOCOM project, for whatever reason.

Derek Ferreira said...

arc may have a point. Maybe Sony sees MAG as the big tactical online shooter of the future and Confrontation is only there to keep us happy 'till MAG ships.

hockeyman1212 said...

um. i changed. from crazy to tired. yawn. lol.