A study in contrasts

So... Thursday happened. And with Thursday, came a couple of contrasting ARPG release events.

Now, I'm not sure how far in advance Blizzard and Grinding Gear Games had each scheduled their respective events. Marketing calendars are often largely set months in advance, so it could just be coincidence that the studios behind the two biggest ARPGs both scheduled events for the same day, literally back-to-back. The fact that GGG announced theirs first, and Blizzard only announced theirs a few days later, wasn't necessarily a case of Blizzard trying to pre-empt a rival game's marketing event. It might mean nothing.

That said, I did watch both events. I was working during the day, and couldn't watch them live, so I ended up watching the VODs back-to-back. And, oh boy, was the contrast ever funny.

First, here's Blizzard's reveal of the Spiritborn class, coming with Diablo IV's Vessel of Hatred expansion, including their pre-scripted, marketing-approved Q&A:

Now, compare and contrast with GGG's reveal of the Settlers of Kalguur league:

Followed by their Q&A:

Blizzard spent 90 minutes showing off a class that you can only access by spending at least $50 on their new expansion, and it really felt like they were stetching to fill time. GGG spent a packed 45 minutes showing off a free expansion to Path of Exile which is so stuffed with changes that their game director just said to read the patch notes (which dropped immediately afterwards), and then spent 90 minutes answering questions from Twitch viewers who'd just watched the stream, and felt like a constant stream of, "and one more thing."

Seriously, GGG's announcement just kept going... and going... and going... and going... and going. I have no idea how they managed to pull together so much content in just four months, and with a skeleton crew -- remember, most of GGG's development resources are going into Path of Exile II. Blizzard got to go first, and only die-hard Blizzard fans were still talking about the Spiritborn class by the end of the day. GGG drank their milkshake, apparently just because milkshake is delicious.

Seriously, Blizzard should be taking notes. This is how you do it.