Comment from Zac

Hi Alien,

I can explain and I hope you respect the absolute honesty and transparency in my answer.

The first thing I think it is important to note is that press and community are both very important. We all know community are important for all the reasons and more that you've mentioned. They create the most amazing content and they bring the game to life. Without the community the game is lifeless.

But press are important too. Without new people hearing about the game, we don't get new Commanders joining the awesome community. There are loads of other ways that we communicate to new, existing and old players too (not just press and community). It's all part of making sure that the community is as thriving, healthy and as active as it can be. Ultimately we all want the same thing.

One example of how we always keep our community in mind is E3. Rather than just showing content at E3 in press interviews alone, like many games do, we thought it would be better to have a community goal to incorporate a fun way to reveal the content in lore, try somethig new and then have that content out to the community at the very first opportunity. You may not always see it but we really do always try and make sure that the community are kept in the loop as early as possible. Ask any of the guys that came to visit the studio the other week.

As for the video. I understand that it can be frustrating not to be seeing one piece of content straight away but the truth is that having something exclusive to those interviews means that there's more reason for the press to write about the news, news that we all have a part of creating. E3 has a lot of games news so it's important to have that little extra sometimes. It's happens with all forms of communications and there's always balance to be had with however you get that content out to people.

E3 saw the community getting almost all of the E3 news first, with all the videos and content going live on our channels before the interviews were starting. This video was an extra exclusive to support those interviews as a way to.set the tone of what's to come.

I hope that answers your question. Please don't for a second think that the community isn't well loved or respected, they really are. I can hand on heart say (and I will at lavecon) that the company truly appreciates and values the support of the community and that shows in so many ways. I could list the countless ways community are put at the very front of events, updates, content and consideration and how this culture starts from the top and runs down the entire studio but it's late, i've spent too long on this reply lol and I'm heading to bed. Grab me at the lavecon if you want to discuss the details further. I'd be happy to explain in more detail.

All the best

Zac

P.S - Will the community see this video? Never say never.