Strategy in short supply at E3

This news post at Gamesutra shows that very few exhibitors at E3 have strategy games in their top ten titles on display. A paltry five per cent of the titles listed were considered strategy games by the exhibitors, a number completely dwarfed by the action/adventure, roleplaying and sports/racing genres. Considering the wide range of games that can be considered strategy titles and the enduring popularity of this type of game, the number of titles in production is pretty small, it appears.

With no previous numbers to judge by, it's not clear if this marks a significant drop or if it is par for the course. The number seems small, but it bears mentioning that strategy games have yet to make a huge splash on the console scene; there are a few out there, but no one seems to be pushing the strategy envelope in that arena.

There will be some huge strategy games at E3. Few other genres can compete with the combined star power of Civ 4 and Age of Empires 3. But beyond these two, I am hard pressed to think of another title that has me on the edge of my seat. There are certainly no original strategy games that have me excited.

The genre is too popular and cost effective to be doomed. There have been a lot of cookie cutter RTS games in the last year or two, and there is probably some hesitancy on the part of publishers to invest in another failing RTS in an already saturated market. But they are still investing in MMOs and I can't figure out how many new players there are in that field.