E3 2015: What to expect from the biggest video game show on the planet?.
Media, game industry and investor types pile in for Microsoft’s conference at E3 2014. Besides the usual laundry list of sequels and new titles coming to gaming consoles, next week’s annual interactive extravaganza will also play host to exhibitors from around the world pushing augmented and virtual reality systems, video streaming services, as well as games specifically created for PCs and mobile devices. “We have a tradition of being open to new technologies, new game companies and new approaches,” said Michael Gallagher, president of the Electronic Software Association, which organises the industry trade show. “We have more than 270 exhibitors at E3 this year showing over 1,600 products, including 100 of them that haven’t even been teased.It’s E3 2015 next week, so the subject for this weekend’s Inbox was a pretty obvious one, although actually narrowing down choices to the reasonable and plausible was less easy.
Photo: Entertainment Software Association Over the past 20 years, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, which takes over the Los Angeles Convention Centre on Monday (US time), has solidified itself as an attention-seeking extravaganza for the video game industry. And we’ll learn more about eagerly awaited independent titles like “No Man’s Sky.” But, unlike previous E3 shows, we’ll see more attention directed at virtual reality. The obvious choices like Fallout 4 and Uncharted 4 were amongst the most popular, but there was also a lot of interest in Nintendo’s line-up (including demands for more New 3DS exclusives) and a surprising number of calls for Dead Space 4, even though the developer is currently making a new Star Wars game.
Hundreds of game publishers and developers will hype forthcoming software and hardware through Thursday by employing everything from star-studded parties to scantily clad models. Microsoft might similarly use its presence at E3 to hype HoloLens, the augmented reality headset it unveiled earlier this year with a rendition of “Minecraft” set amid the real world.
I was looking forward to hearing more about Halo 5 but a load of info has been released anyway that makes the game sound fantastic (returning character and Blue Team has me very happy) but I think it is getting to the stage where too much will be revealed that will spoil the game for me so I will avoid all Halo 5 news from now on until release. Facebook’s Oculus has teamed with Microsoft’s Xbox group to bring games to the Rift headset, which goes on sale in the first quarter of next year. (We should be getting hands-on time with the new headset at the show.) Sony is moving forward with Project Morpheus, the headset it’s developing for the PlayStation 4.
While gaming heavyweights such as Microsoft, Sony, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft have annually held such stage presentations during E3, a few middleweights are also entering this year’s ring — and expanding it to Hollywood and the internet. After being teased at last year’s E3, many developers are planning to provide further details on updated versions of popular series due in just a few months, including 343 Industries’ “Halo 5: Guardians,” Konami’s “Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain” and Crystal Dynamics’ “Rise of the Tomb Raider.” While the E3 show floor is always littered with the latest editions of long-running series, a few entries anticipated at this year’s show haven’t been seen in at least five years. “Doom,” “Fallout,” “Mirror’s Edge,” “Just Cause,” “Guitar Hero” and “Star Wars: Battlefront” are among the franchises being dusted off for this year’s E3. I’m also hoping for more DLC for Mario Kart 8 and more Smash Bros. information (mainly the tourney mode that was announced last year.) The main thing I’m hoping for though is for more exclusives to be announced for the New 3DS, because at the minute I feel it’s not worth buying as there’s only one exclusive so far.
Bethesda Softworks, publisher of the long-running Fallout, Doom and Elder’s Scroll series, held its first-ever E3 showcase Sunday at the Dolby Theatre, a venue better known for hosting the Oscars than video game blowouts. “We thought that because we’re at the point where all of our studios, except one, have shipped a game with us, we’ve got enough to talk about, and a showcase would be a good way to do that,” said Pete Hines, Bethesda’s vice president of marketing and public relations. “We wanted to do it in a way that would include not only all of the industry in attendance at E3 but also people who can’t be in the theater.” With the rise of streaming video, publishers now regularly bypass jaded journalists, analysts and other attendees in audiences to solicit eager online viewers with their upcoming wares. Curiously, HTC and Valve, who have been collaborating on the Vive virtual reality headset built for PC gaming, aren’t showing off their VR push with a booth or press event at E3. In fact, for the past two years, Nintendo has entirely done away with a live event to instead stream game-related announcements in pre-recorded videos. I know some are against remakes but it’s good for people like myself who didn’t own a PlayStation 3 and as such missed out on quite a few exclusives. After forgoing press briefings for several years, Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider publisher Square Enix is back organising its own E3 event for Tuesday morning (US time) to detail such upcoming titles as Just Cause 3 and Deus Ex: Mankind. “There’s so much written about E3, but this is a chance for fans to tune in live and see a 90-minute show from Square Enix where we talk about our future and our pipeline,” said Phil Rogers, Square Enix’s chief executive officer for Europe and the Americas. “They can also watch it later.
When it comes to VR, don’t count out gaming-PC juggernaut Razer, which is evangelizing an open-source VR approach that could bring together many smaller providers of hardware and software. It’s the best chance for us to connect directly with our fans.” Despite the push to broadcast more of the festivities online, E3 organisers have actually invited more than 4000 hardcore fans — or “prosumers,” as they call them — to attend this year’s expo in person. Star Fox, Master Chief and Lara Croft are making their way onto the latest generation of consoles, but what about the Prince of Persia, Marcus Fenix or Samus Aran?
It is still a goliath —last year saw an eight year attendance high of 48,900 to see 200 exhibitors— so any shift for its sheer mass is going to take some time. If history is any indication, it’s likely a few publishers will use E3 as an opportunity to publicly announce the resurrection of such long-gone protagonists. Since it overlays imagery on the visible world around you, it’s not virtual reality, but augmented reality—aka “mixed reality.” We’ve seen HoloLens shown off at Microsoft press events and developer conferences, and we’ve heard executives promise that, among uses such as productivity and communication, it could be used for gaming. Nintendo were probably the first to move, boiling down their traditional press conference to a timed video release of their E3 ‘Nintendo Direct’ and streaming events from across the week in their ‘Nintendo Treehouse’.
As always, E3 will be used to update us on the blockbuster franchises of the gaming world—familiar brands that have each reaped billions in revenue over the years. The Japanese company perhaps realised first that the press attention usually lavished on console manufacturers has spread just as much to third-party publishers so decided to transmit directly to fans.
It will effectively kick-start E3 2015 with its press conference on Sunday 15 June at 6:30pm (2:30am UK time) and, much like Nintendo, will be broadcasting live interviews and gameplay demonstrations throughout the week. The first game was the complete opposite of the stodgy ‘do what we say exactly or we’ll give you big red crosses’ mission design of so many other games these days. So franchises such as the Indiana Jones-style Uncharted and the interplanetary shooter Halo are some of the most important differentiation points for Sony and Microsoft. An update on Hideki Kamiya’s Scalebound and the new Crackdown would be welcome, but Remedy’s Quantum Break is reportedly waiting until Gamescom to show its hand.
From a hardware perspective, Microsoft has already revealed a 1TB Xbox One model, which is perhaps not the sexiest news for a lavish press conference. I have high hopes that Capcom will have grown a pair since Homogeneous Game 6 and have created a proper Resi title again, focused on horror, exploration and a sense of vulnerability. It’s such a sales disappointment that the gaming industry is already wondering if Nintendo’s next console, currently known as the NX, will have what it takes to recapture gamers. Also expect a big deal to be made of Gran Turismo 7 and Hello Games’ supremely ambitious space exploration sim No Man’s Sky, which Sony has snagged as a PS4 exclusive. Back to reality, I’m all about the fours: Fallout 4, Doom 4, Mass Effect 4, and er… hearing vague rumours of Sony releasing PlayStation 4 games at some point this gen.
And one of the more interesting chatter around the game industry campfire is that, against all odds, this is the year that Team Ico’s much delayed adventure The Last Guardian will re-emerge. PlayStation has a tremendous stable of developers under its wing that have yet to show their PS4 hand: Media Molecule, Quantic Dream, Guerrilla Games.
At the time it was released the graphics were amazing (if a little grey) and the cover-based shooting was tremendous fun and the best the genre had seen. Building a rapport with team-mates; discussing the benefits of rotund women; having my sexuality questioned by children – all things the Gears Of War multiplayer allowed me to experience for the first time. As for surprises, hopefully we will hear what Rockstar are doing next, even if it’s just more single-player stuff for Grand Theft Auto V, but hopefully Red Dead 3 or *fingers crossed* Bully 2.
While Nintendo has confirmed a new concept is on the way, they are unlikely to want to arrest the Wii U’s modest but significant resurgence by revealing their next hand too early. As for new titles, rumours are circulating that Plants v Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 will appear and even though DICE are rather busy with Star Wars and Mirror’s Edge, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the announcement of a new Battlefield. Ubi’s tendency to keep one big announcement in the can for their conference finale has won them plenty of attention in recent years, you wouldn’t expect that to change. I’ve never played any of those games but two things stand out 1) Lucas being released as DLC and 2) Nintendo have mentioned the 20th anniversary quite a bit.
Not every big publisher will hold its own press conference, though you can expect their games to be scattered throughout the Xbox and PlayStation conferences. Warner Bros. will give Batman: Arkham Knight one last E3 outing before its release the following week, but expect it to focus more on Mad Max and Lego Dimensions. Namco Bandai are set to unveil Dark Souls III, while Konami will be pushing Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 and Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. 2K Games will be showing off XCOM 2 and Gearbox’s Battleborn, though expect the publisher to have something to announce during the show.
Capcom will be focussing on Street Fighter V but a new Resident Evil isn’t out of the question, while the Indie Cade will be bustling with games such as Mike Bithell’s Volume and Jonathan Blow’s The Witness likely to get the most attention. All the instruments in there are well loved, battered into submission by the music game boom of the mid-2000s, starting with Guitar Hero and culminating in the frankly glorious Rock Band 3. Having played their game with the benefit of a few years hindsight, the developers say that their main takeaway was simply how fun the game that they made was.
Gone is the ‘Pro’ mode which valiantly attempted to teach players how to noodle on a real guitar (a market covered perfectly well by Ubisoft’s Rocksmith) and open up more technicalities in drum play. The complex tangle of RB3’s campaign and challenges has been turned into a more ‘gamey’ type of role-play, tasking you with building fans and renown across the world, choosing between corporate shows for cash and underground gigs for credo. Talented vocalists now have the chance to riff on their favourite songs without having to exactly match pitch and lyrics, as long as your warble is in tune you will still rack up the points. More collectively, Harmonix are looking to keep players playing, rather than spending ten minutes between songs scrolling through the setlist and arguing over whether to play Blondie or Pearl Jam next.
It might be a individual song or artist, or it might offer something a little more randomised, like songs with a female vocalist or tracks from a certain genre. Upcoming rival Guitar Hero Live is taking an admirable gamble with its Spotify style streaming, reactive live-action crowd and redesigned guitar, but Rock Band, at its core, is very much the same game it has always been. The grand idea is that Harmonix will only be releasing this one game for this console generation, and will continue to add to Rock Band 4 via software updates and downloadable content.