All of the E3 press conferences are now over, and I have to say I’m a little underwhelmed. For the most part I saw parades of samey sequels to games I still haven’t yet played, with nothing really leaping out to grab my attention. The most interesting game announcements tended to be indie titles, but as usual these were flashed through in montages so dense that I barely had time to read the name of the game before the hyperactive video stream whizzed onto the next one.

But the thing that really got my goat this year was when Bethesda announced a brand new game with nothing but a title and a ridiculously short teaser trailer that tells you absolutely nothing about the game. I mean, what on earth is the point? I think Behold The Kickmen creator Dan Marshall nailed the ridiculousness of this phenomenon in the below tweet:

Nintendo managed to get away with this malarkey last year, but only because they did it with an established IP. Fans have been clamouring for new Metroid titles for years, so the news that Metroid Prime 4 is in development sent the internet into throes of ecstasy. The main point here is that gamers know what to expect – they know what Metroid games are like, so they can build their anticipation accordingly. But how they hell are they supposed to react to a title of a new IP, with absolutely no other information to go on?

Bethesda announced Starfield with the above trailer, yet we have absolutely no idea what this game is about, apart from guessing it’s probably set in space. Why even bother announcing it at all if you don’t have any gameplay to show, or even a CGI trailer to give an impression of what to expect? All we have is a fancy logo. THIS WAS A WASTE OF EVERYONE’S TIME.

Ack, but wait, is this just a case of brand awareness? Of getting a name out there into people’s thoughts?

Wait a minute, I’ve just realised I’ve written a whole blog post about Bethesda’s new game, even though they’ve thrown out nothing but a logo and a picture of space. I’VE FALLEN INTO THEIR TRAP.

GODDAMN YOU BETHESDA.