At E3 2018, too many companies ruined their own shots at the spotlight

For decades, a game theory called the “prisoner’s dilemma” has explained why people who work together do better overall than those who scheme against one another. The theory shows that if the prisoners cooperate with each other, they each receive a light punishment. But if they don’t cooperate, either one or both wind up in jail for years. Each prisoner selfishly wants to escape punishment, but more likely than not, working alone will lead to worse consequences.

The prisoner’s dilemma explains why the 2018 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) took such a weird turn this week. Every year, this important trade show features major announcements and surprises from the industry’s top players. But this year, many companies decided to spoil what would have been their biggest E3 announcements by individually revealing their news (sometimes weeks) before the show. And rather than filling their E3 week press briefings with new surprises, they just … didn’t.