Disney just released its Disney and Marvel Games Showcase, providing fans with information on games related to tons of different products under the company's umbrella, but its pacing was off, unlike longstanding game presentations like Nintendo Directs. The contents of the show had plenty of variety, ranging from new features coming to Disney Dreamlight Valley to brand-new titles including Tron: Identity and Disney Illusion Island. A few big titles like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 may not have been there, but it still had a fair bit to offer. Still, the Disney and Marvel Games Showcase suffered slightly from the way its information was presented.
The Disney and Marvel Games Showcase was only about 23 minutes long, but it packed lots of announcements, updates, and footage into that time. Disney fans may have appreciated seeing so much coverage in so little time, but ultimately it likely wasn't the best way to present so much content, since it didn't give all of Disney's video game projects time to shine; instead, only a handful of games got the chance to stand out. The next Disney and Marvel Games Showcase needs to imitate Nintendo Directs, State of Plays, and other frequent game presentations by giving every game room to breathe in one way or another.
Disney Needs Better-Paced Presentations
A few games like Marvel's Midnight Suns and Avatar: Reckoning got a reasonable amount of time at the presentation, spending a couple minutes unveiling footage or discussing features. Others, however, weren't so lucky. The presentation sometimes only spent a few seconds covering an announcement, such as the fleeting reveal that a classic Gargoyles video game was getting a remaster. Similarly, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora only got a brief overview before the show moved on to a LEGO Star Wars announcement well under a minute later. All in all, the showcase moved a little too fast for Disney fans to truly appreciate what the company had to offer.
The next Disney and Marvel teamup needs to study video game industry giants. While not every game in a Nintendo Direct or a PlayStation State of Play gets the same amount of time, these shows typically devote at least a couple minutes to all of the games showcased, revealing full trailers, providing gameplay breakdowns, and so on. Because these shows take their time, fans can get a better sense of the games being revealed and find more reasons to get attached to an upcoming project. Moving at a steady pace makes it easier to actually sell viewers on a game.
Ideally, the next Disney and Marvel Games Showcase will either reduce the number of games it covers or last longer overall so that it can take more time with each game. Either approach would allow Disney to point out more selling points for its projects, show off more gameplay, and generally give fans a clearer idea of what it's planning. Major titles like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora deserve more than a half-step into the spotlight, so Disney's next presentation needs to be built with a better pace in mind.
To its credit, Disney at least seemed to take one important lesson from Nintendo and PlayStation's work: it closed the show with a bang. Disney and Marvel's "one more thing" was Skydance's Marvel game, which has long been the subject of rumors and discussion. It's now confirmed that Skydance will tell a story about Black Panther, Captain America, Gabriel Jones, and Nanali in World War Two, which sounds like a great chance of pace for the current Marvel game cycle. As solid as this closer was, however, Disney should be sure to give Skydance's game the appropriate amount of display time in the next showcase. In order for fans to truly appreciate its work, Disney and Marvel's shows need room to breathe.