Business of Esports TV: YouGov Insights – E3 Titles

(Livestream 136)

In this segment, we discuss some statistics from our friends at YouGov (yougov.com/gaming-esports), specifically which video game titles debuting at #E3 people are most anticipated for.

The Business Of Esports brings you news, debates, and all the information you need to know about the gaming sector, the world’s fastest-growing market. With Paul “The Profit” Dawalibi leading the charge, and a variety of special guests, BoE TV is the only place to find insider information on the esports industry!

Check out the full livestream here:

Paul Dawalibi 51:03
I will say we do have an interesting piece of very relevant research from yougov this week. It’s short but I do think it’ll make for a very interesting discussion. Let me pull it up here and it’s related to E3 interestingly enough where they they did a survey talking about I don’t know why I can’t find it here talking about the most anticipated games of E3 hang on I have it here I know I opened it

Jeff Cohen 52:35
can we guess before yes what the most anticipated? Okay did have it here I don’t want to go first

Jimmy Mondal 52:45
most anticipated games of

Jeff Cohen 52:48
Halo infinite

Lindsay Poss 52:50
Breath of the Wild 2 whatever it’s going to be called. So

Paul Dawalibi 52:54
basically they asked they asked let me just read the question that they asked the E3 is happening virtually this year several major gaming titles are expected to be announced at the showcase which if any of the following potential E3 game announcements are you excited about and they let people Select all that apply so they could choose multiple? Okay. Any is there consensus on number one here?

Jimmy Mondal 53:19
Halo infinite I’m gonna go for Metroid something or another

Paul Dawalibi 53:23
No, I want to hear everyone’s choice for number one no Lindsay you said breath the wild Jeff said Halo infinite William said Breath of the Wild Jimmy.

Jimmy Mondal 53:34
Oh, sorry. Wrong Jimmy. Jimmy B

Jimmy Baratta 53:38
Thicc boi even with a Breath of the Wild as well. Jimmy m

Jimmy Mondal 53:43
i go old school Metro just because why not?

Paul Dawalibi 53:47
Interesting. Okay, I will I’ll put it up here. I hope you guys it’s big enough to see Breath of the Wild 2. Bye bye by mile by a mile. Interestingly enough, which I’m always amazed at the power of Nintendo. Like I think I’m surprised every time and you know, William would probably, you know, not be surprised. But I’m always surprised. I feel like just Nintendo’s not as much on my radar. So I guess I’m surprised when I see these things. But what’s interesting is if you if you if you look at just console or PC gamers, right, it’s it’s far and away the most anticipated title. Does anyone think in a console new console cycle, where we just got a new Xbox and a new PlayStation. That a Nintendo Switch game is literally the most anticipated game E3 like this, this is there some thing we can conclude from that in terms of this current console cycle.

Jimmy Mondal 54:51
I have something to conclude maybe it’s that if you build a brand and really focus on fleshing out the feeling of discovery and Instead of focusing on just graphical quality, maybe you have something year after year that attracts that. That player that knows like, I’m gonna pick up a Zelda game I’m gonna be able to explore. Whereas in Battlefield, you come to the game you’re like, it’s going to be a shooter game that gets graphically better year after year. It’s not that exciting for me personally.

Paul Dawalibi 55:20
Is anyone shocked that because a lot of the discussion even on the podcast, and I think it’s the first name you guys threw out when we talked about d3 at the top of the show. Elden Ring right Elden Ring, the trailer Elden Ring. Is anyone surprised this is dead last on this list.

Jeff Cohen 55:37
I’m a little surprised. starfield isn’t higher. I’m in a new IP from Bethesda for the first time in 25 years.

Paul Dawalibi 55:44
But that was in a bit of the like, in their, you know, they haven’t followed was the last fall It was not exactly a home run. So there may be some bad feelings. They’re I don’t know.

William Collis 55:55
It’s also like, if you look at this, it’s basically a brand, a brand rank ordered index, right? Like, like, if you literally look at it’s like, what are the biggest brands on this list? Right, Halo, battlefield, God of War, Zelda, they’re all at the top right. I also think it’s fair to say, and this might be incredibly biased. But I think it’s fair to say I think it’s also fair to say quality still matters a lot in our industry, like some of the best games of the last five years have been Breath of the Wild and the new God of War. Like, I’m like, literally, like, I’m just not surprised to see consumers are excited to see those because they were literally some of the best games to come out. You know, I think the thing about quality, the one that surprises me, here are the two that surprise me here I will say are battlefield 2042 and Dying Light.

Paul Dawalibi 56:43
Yeah, because they’re too high or too low.

William Collis 56:46
Because those are both IPS that I didn’t associate as having like, like, when was the last time a Battlefield game was a hit? Especially dying?

Paul Dawalibi 56:59
be fighting war.

Jimmy Mondal 57:01
battlefield was good, but like dying, who even played the first Dying Light?

William Collis 57:05
Yeah, like I mean, I’m starting to like Battlefield to me is and I’m not crazy. I know the battlefield games are good, dude. I’ve played battlefield. They’re awesome. Like, I’m not critiquing the quality of the game, but like, I thought the general consumer consensus for Battlefield was that it was like, you know, it was kind of like Call of Duty second place, and I’m sorry, that’s harsh, but like, you know, it’s perceived as the alternative shooter brand of Call of Duty. And I’m surprised to see it getting that much interest. And then the other one dying lady’s like exactly like, I know what Dying Light is, but Who’s heard of dying? Right?

Jimmy Mondal 57:39
It’s like, I like zombies. I like parkour, it’s hardcore zombie game, and I still wasn’t that interested into it. Really. I

William Collis 57:45
kind of thought the original dynalite was a cold head. I didn’t realize it was mainstream enough to get into this rant. Okay, get why Elden Ring is where it is. It’s an extremely specialized game, people who are into the genre like me are going to be pumped, but the game is called Elden Ring. I mean, come on, like you’re not setting yourself up for mainstream success. It

Jeff Cohen 58:02
wasn’t the way that serve it not to be I think this is usually Lindsay’s job to critique the survey design but Well, it wasn’t it wasn’t set up so they listed them all and then you just pick so it’s like it inevitably would have been on the list because it was on Yeah, the surveys list then what was the number like 5% like Dying Light had like 8% but I guess

Paul Dawalibi 58:24
like held in rain, like yeah, very high. Right? This is this the survey is relative. Right? It’s not about the absolute number. It’s about the relative number. I’m totally in disagreement on battlefield it’s never been just second wrong to call of duty. It’s always been the better game I think battlefield five suffered from really bad marketing. True really horrific marketing

William Collis 58:48
the state does a sales data show it’s always been the better game.

Paul Dawalibi 58:51
Keep in mind battlefield was never a console game. So for the console kiddies, they play a lot of cod but battlefield was always PC first.

William Collis 58:58
I mean, don’t get me wrong, like Battlefield, I always thought was the vision that appealed to me more like I loved the higher scope. I loved the better integration of vehicles like i’m not i’m not especially

Paul Dawalibi 59:07
early days. It was not second fiddle to call of

Jimmy Mondal 59:10
duty in early days is very, but yeah, totally different. But I think

Paul Dawalibi 59:16
that the brand has always had

William Collis 59:18
cachet. Paul, like Duke Nukem would have been most anticipated new IP of the year. But will

Paul Dawalibi 59:23
I think they were announcing a new game. Yeah,

Jimmy Mondal 59:25
I think 2042 is also primed for success. And given how unsuccessful Black Ops Cold War has been this past year, because war zone came out dominated and it was like, cool. We’re in the modern era, we’re doing some cool shit. And then Black Ops Cold War comes around and it just kind of like falls under the rug. No one’s even playing it anymore. Like you know, it’s the competitively but war zones still game. So I think battlefield 2042 is not too far into the future where people are like, we’re gonna be strapped with jetpacks and flying around again. But it’s like just enough to be interesting. So I think they’re setting themselves up for like a lot of success there.

William Collis 59:56
I agree. There’s a nice gap for near future tech stuff. like

Paul Dawalibi 1:00:00
can we just look at this list one last time before we move on here? Because here’s my takeaway and I love I love proving myself correct that if you look at these the top games right the ones coming at the top of this list what I see in common with all of them is big experience. Open World big world like we’re talking about experiences that feel epic, vast right God of War’s more open world Breath of the Wild definitely open world battlefields all about like now 128 players on the battlefield. The theme here is big and epic. Still still is what people want. Right for all the candy crush people are playing big and epic is still what people want. I don’t know maybe I think too much.

Lindsay Poss 1:00:51
To be fair, Harry Potter is like, for sure.

Jimmy Mondal 1:00:55
That’s the Harry Potter game. That’s the pokemon go one or what is that Harry

Unknown Speaker 1:00:59
Potter game?

William Collis 1:01:00
No one knows the MMO

Paul Dawalibi 1:01:01
legacy.

Lindsay Poss 1:01:03
I just love I love that. It’s just called Hogwarts legacy and people were like Yes, I heard about that. Yeah, doesn’t matter what it is. Who cares?

William Collis 1:01:12
Hasn’t has a really good legacy like I’m sure

Paul Dawalibi 1:01:18
Ramsey says Breath of the Wild 2 Ramsey you guessed correctly. Wade said Metroid was not didn’t even didn’t even make the top selections Craig fortunately what else is included in all just add mobile? I don’t think they asked any they put any mobile I don’t know what all the selections were. But I remember reading the article. They did not put mobile games as selections here. They were really looking at console and PC announcements. Wade says I was surprised Metroid didn’t make the list.

Jimmy Mondal 1:01:50
Hogwarts legacy brother took out to make gotta make room somehow.

Paul Dawalibi 1:01:54
Anyone surprised Metroid didn’t make the list was it was a side scroller. No,

Jimmy Mondal 1:02:00
it was coming. Yeah, exactly. They always coming in. It’s the first side scroller one in like 19 years or something. And so for that reason alone, I was thinking, Okay, maybe dread will be on the list. But Hogwarts like my friends. So I think that tells you enough.

William Collis 1:02:14
I think Metroid wasn’t public, because this is a pre survey thing. Right? Yeah, I think that was E3 drops. So probably part of this is like, because my whole thesis is you’re basically seeing a brand or Bret brand rank order power index. And I think Metroid would have done better. So if it was known, it kind of disproves my thesis. So

Paul Dawalibi 1:02:32
Christian says, excited for Halo as MMO competitor. I mean, I think everyone’s there’s there’s a lot of expectations riding on this halo. They cannot mess this one up. This is like this is do or die time.

Jimmy Mondal 1:02:49
already deleted so much too.

Paul Dawalibi 1:02:52
We’re in cyberpunk territory with Halo here. Josh says 100% agree with William on battlefield and Dying Light.

Jimmy Mondal 1:03:01
Sorry, dude, sorry, Paul.

Paul Dawalibi 1:03:06
I say I look I love Call of Duty. Don’t get me wrong, but it’s not battlefield, you remember,

William Collis 1:03:10
jump out of an airplane and then mount in another airplane midair. And like Battlefield two. That was

Jimmy Mondal 1:03:16
they said they had that in the trailer for 2042, where you jump out of a rocket launch and get back in. That’s right.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:22
That’s right.

Jimmy Mondal 1:03:24
There’s actually a video out there of the creator of that jump of reacting to seeing seeing it for the first time in the trailer, which is great if you want to go consume some additional content.

Paul Dawalibi 1:03:34
Guys, I just want to wrap this up just again, quick word, go check out EU. gov for all this kind of data and reports like this. And I know they had a bunch of stuff around d3. So go take a look at their website, eu gov.com slash gaming dash eSports show them some love from business of Esports and from the live stream.