E3 2021, the Summer Game Fest, and all of the mid-June gaming events have come and gone. Major releases like Halo Infinite, Starfield, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 may have garnered the most attention, but underlying blockbuster announcements was a wave of games unlike the others. A study coming out of E3 2021 reveals that 33 percent of games shown this year fit the description of "non-violent."
The study by GamesIndustry.biz tracked the total number of games featured across all of the past weeks' events, including games showcases from Nintendo, Xbox, Devolver, and the Summer Game Fest Kickoff Live event. It also included smaller indie showcases, too, like the Wholesome Direct Showcase, the Guerilla Collective, and the Future Games Show. Overall, the study counted 349 games across 15 events. Of those games, 115 non-violent games were tracked.
A similar study was done following E3 2019, and the numbers show that E3 2021 has proven to be an outlier for non-violent games. The number of non-violent games shown in 2019 totaled 41 of 239 games overall, making up just 17 percent of those featured. Total games at E3 increased by 110 overall, with 74 of them considered non-violent. That means that there aren't fewer violent games, nor are violent games being replaced by non-violent ones. Rather, non-violent games are just creating their own opportunities to be showcased.
As further evidence of non-violent games creating their own platform, 63 of 2021's 117 non-violent games, over 50 percent, were shown during the Wholesome Direct 2021 Showcase. A further 21 were featured during the Future Games Show, making up a total of 72 percent of non-violent games between just two events. Neither the Wholesome Direct Showcase nor the Future Games Show existed in 2019, and 2021 featured both shows' second-annual event.
Outside of those two events, no other event featured more than seven non-violent games during their show, or more than 20 percent of the games they showed. Three of Devolver Digital's eight games were nonviolent, as were six of Nintendo's 27. Shows that didn't feature a single non-violent game include Square Enix, Capcom, Koch, and Gearbox.
One notable detail is that 2019's top non-violent game showcase was Electronic Arts, which didn't have an event this year. EA will instead be showcasing its typical E3 line-up at the end of July. EA's unlikely to match the output of Wholesome Direct or Future, but it could have raised the overall percentage of non-violent releases with all of its sports games. Non-violent games including platformers, sports games, racing games, and many more genres seem likely to only grow in presence at E3 going forward.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz