Bethesda's E3 conference followed Microsoft's on Sunday, and just as I predicted, Microsoft's blow-out of a show proved to be a tough act to follow. Apparently Bethesda's presentation this year was an improvement over last year's, but they are only one studio; Microsoft, by comparison, as the platform holder, owns multiple first-party studios of their own, and multiple third-party developers whose games they could also add to their hype event. Realistically, Microsoft should be able to put on a more impressive press conference; it wouldn't be reasonable to demand that Bethesda equal Microsoft's presentation.
That said, though, it's equally unreasonable to assert that Bethesda somehow surpassed Microsoft to put on the "best conference of E3 so far," just because they teased something that you were hoping they teased, on their way to talking about the ten or so projects that they felt like showing off this year. Of those, only Elder Scrolls Legends, Elder Scrolls Blades, Fallout 76, and Prey: Mooncrash will be releasing this year. Rage 2, Wolfenstein: Young Blood, and DOOM: Eternal are due sometime next year, while Starfield and Elder Scrolls IV are essentially nothing but logos at this point.
Oh, and VR. Bethesda are still all-in on VR, with Prey being added to their VR lineup, and a Wolfenstein VR hacking/puzzle game coming... sometime.
The presentation was often awkward, with long breaks for talking (bad) and very little actual gameplay footage (also bad). None of the developers were particularly strong presenters, apart from Todd Howard, who is merely okay. The Skyrim: Very Special Edition joke was a nice touch; it's good that they can have a sense of humour about Skyrim's ridiculous litany of ports. Even if Skyrim will be running on actual refrigerators in the not-too-distant future.
But it feels like hypocrisy to me, to slam Microsoft for showcasing a ton of 2019 games, and then laud Bethesda for teasing Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6. It feels like hypocrisy to me, to slam Microsoft for not having enough exclusives, and then laud Bethesda for joking about how many platforms they've put Skyrim on. It feels like hypocrisy to slam EA for their C&C mobile game, and then give Bethesda a pass for wasting time on Elder Scrolls: Blades, or
Overall, I'd describe Bethesda's PR effort as competent. It was clearly better than EA's outing, but it wasn't as well put-together or as well executed as the XBox conference that preceded it. I was actually excited by the end of Microsoft's show, though, and I wasn't after watching Bethesda's.
Final Grade: B.
Incidentally, if you're wondering, I am implementing a "heat map" system for colour-coding the letter grades that I give things: from F (red = coolest), to D, C, B, and finally A (blue = hottest). I just decided that now.