I haven’t seen Ubisoft, Sony, or Nintendo’s E3 press offerings but it doesn’t matter. Nothing the other three do will compare to what Devolver Digital pulled off in their Twitch live-stream conference. It was a freaking masterpiece and highlighted pretty much everything wrong with AAA gaming.

Sadly the video live-stream only took place on Twitch, but it was glorious. It was like someone purposefully switching the train tracks so that there would be a two trains the size of the Chrysler building colliding into each other in slow motion while someone threw bottles of nitroglycerine on top of the wreck.

4game did a YouTube video offering commentary over the Twitch stream, but you can check it out below to watch the important bits, especially involving the mock press conference involving the machine that lets you throw money at the computer screen and the instantaneous feedback from poorly constructed internet fan feedback. Check it out below. It starts at the 44 minute mark.

The one part that really stood out was the Earlier Early Access, where gamers could buy into the game on the conceptual stage. It’s played for laughs but it reminded me of when we used to joke about companies selling true endings as DLC… and lo and behold it came to pass.

As sad as that is and as funny as it is, I would be willing to bet that a few years from now either EA, Activision or Sony will allow you to buy into Earlier Early Access. I don’t think Microsoft would do that because Phil Spencer is actually smart enough to understand how the community works and he actually seems to work hard to avoid pissing people off.

But yeah, given that a lot of games have pre-orders and pre-purchases made available nearly eight months out from a game’s release, I honestly wouldn’t doubt that we could be seeing that become a reality soon enough. It’s just kind of sad because in the future most people will forget that Devolver Digital parodied the concept before it became standard.

Anyway, before the whole thing devolved into that live-stream skit with the crew playing that awful frog game and Hotline Miami, the mock stage conference that ended with the head explosion was brilliant.

Well played, Devolver… well played.