With E3 announcements being made public almost hourly now, as we approach the main show and press conferences, the internet is filled with prediction videos and blog posts on what we can expect to see unveiled this week. The team at Throwing Digital Sheep have even compiled our own article featuring what we think will happen at this year’s show. These predictions are mostly based on educated presumptions, based on our knowledge of what studios are working on, previous E3 shows, market trends and the current climate of the industry.
This week, I have decided to put aside reason and logic and simply sound off on what I would love to see announced at this year’s E3, whether the items in my wishlist are feasible or not. To heck with what we will likely see, the following is what I would personally like to see, despite the fact that I know the vast majority of these things are impossible. A guy can dream, right? Well, here are my rediculously idealistic hopes, with just a touch of cynicism for balance.
Bethesda’s Press Conference
Bethesda has already revealed their plans for Fallout 4, a week ahead of their first ever E3 press conference, so they aren’t relying on that to shock audiences now. Bethesda starts their conference with Fallout 4 gameplay but ends strong with a reveal for Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, fully remastered and packaged with all DLC for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. They show off a trailer for the game and tell the viewers that the game is on sale that very day! (Yes, I know that this won’t happen as they have just released Elder Scrolls Online but if you’tr over thinking it, you’re missing the point of this article).
Microsoft’s Press Conference
Head of Xbox and Microsoft Studios, Phil Spencer, opens the conference by telling us that Rare has been hard at work focussing on its old beloved IPs. We get a trailer teasing a sequel to Kameo: Elements of Power, showing off an open world adventure with four player co-op.
Instead of a boring Call of Duty demonstration, we get five minutes of gameplay from a brand new Viva Piñata title! That wraps up Rare’s portion of the conference and gets the audience excited.
Instead of displaying a series of graphs and sales figures, Microsoft takes this time to thank all of its supporters with three Xbox One games being available via Games With Gold each month from July onward, rather than two new games per month.
Phil Spencer then states that Microsoft is particularly thankful to the Day One supporters of the Xbox One and offers them a free game download of a price value of £50/$60 or less. That’s nice of them, given how poor the launch of the Xbox One was.
Back to the game reveals, after that crowd pleasing gesture. Phil Spencer aknowledges that Xbox’s main mascot is Master Chief from the Halo series but he is a little mature for younger audiences, so the company has decided to acquire another character who will represent the brand going forward – Croc from Croc: The Legend of the Gobbos, who will be making his debut on Xbox One in a reimagining of the original game. He’s green, the Xbox logo is green, perfect – it worked for Mario with Nintendo and Sonic with Sega, so why not?
Fable Legends doesn’t get any game demo time or even a trailer. It simply gets a thirty second speech in which it is revealed to be Free-To-Play and it’s availible for download as soon as the conference ends. The sooner that they get that underwhelming game out there, the less they have to keep mentioning it at conferences. They know interest in it is small, so they are literally giving it away!
After a short Halo 5: Guardians gameplay demonstration, 343 Industries announces that Halo 3: ODST isn’t the only remaster they have made this year, they have also remastered Halo: Reach and it will be free to anyone who owns The Master Chief Collection, so players can own every major Halo title on one console.
But wait, “What about Halo Wars?”, I hear you cry. Well, we get a teaser trailer that reveals that Halo Wars 2 is coming to Xbox One in Summer 2016, beta access will come with copies of Halo 5: Guardians and the game will also contain all of the original Halo Wars. And that is how Microsoft ends their press conference, with Halo 5: Guardians and three other Halo titles!
Electronic Arts’ Press Conference
After a lenghty on-stage demo of Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, EA shows off a trailer for an upcoming racing game, based on PvZ, in the style of Mario Kart or Crash Team Racing. It’s a bonanza of colour, chaos and cracking humour! This is literally the only thing I could want from EA Games.
Ubisoft’s Press Conference
After a short demo of Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Ubisoft tells the press that this will be their last anual Assassin’s Creed title. The studio is focussing its efforts on creating new IP. However, even though we won’t be getting a strictly Assassin’s Creed game every year, the studio will alternate between Assassin’s Creed games and… Pirate’s Creed; a spin-off from the Assassin series which focusses on gameplay elements most prominent in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. The game will be a pirate action adventure and will focus on fun gameplay and exploration.
Sony’s Press Conference
Sony starts their conference with a trailer for The Last Guardian, complete with a release date of early 2016 and it will be bundled with Ico and Shadow of the Colossus for PlayStation 4. Then we can finally stop the anual The Last Guardian speculative chatter as to whether the game is being made or not. Phew!
We get an on-stage demonstration of a new Wipeout game where members of the audience are invited to take part in a twenty player race! The whole thing lasts around ten minutes and it gets the audience enthused for Wipeout once more! Then Sony announces that the game is on sale as soon as the press conference finishes. The game is coming to PlayStation 4 only and it will also feature track building tools, to enable players to make and share their own tracks.
Activision comes on stage, not to talk about Destiny and its inevitably lackluster expansions but to talk about Call of Duty. Why is Activision talking about Call of Duty at the Sony press conference, when they always previously associated the game with Xbox? Well, because Call of Duty is now PlayStation exclusive! This means we won’t have to suffer the tiresome fifteen to twenty minute gameplay demonstrations at the Microsoft press conferences. Activision is so thankful for Sony’s support of Destiny that they have struck a deal to make Call of Duty a PlayStation franchise.
Sony ends its conference with a trailer showing a familiar face – Crash Bandicoot! He is running away from a boulder one second and then in a racing car the next, the trailer flitters between the two and then ends unveiling that Crash Bandicoot is back with both a platforming title and a remake of Crash Team Racing! Boom!
Nintendo’s Direct Video
Nintendo briefly mentions plans for a new Mario Kart game (what a year for the arcade racing genre) and then moves swiftly on to The Legend of Zelda for Wii U, despite saying that it wouldn’t show up – because Nintendo is Nintendo and it likes to mess with us. After a lengthy gameplay video and setting a realistic release date, the company moves away from its usual IP in favour of something… new!
They reveal a new lovable character and say that it is to be the next big Nintendo IP, that will be amongst the ranks of Mario, Zelda and Kirby. Rather than relying solely on its old and tired franchises, Nintendo has decided to do something different, a step in the right direction.
Square Enix’s Press Conference
The company literally spends its whole conference showing off Rise of the Tomb Raider and announcing that it is now no longer a timed exclusive on Microsoft platforms but is totally exclusive to Microsoft platforms. Tomb Raider becomes Microsoft’s new IP and finally has something to call its own which can rival Sony’s Uncharted series.
PC Gaming Show
EA reveals a brand new Command & Conquer RTS title, but not one filled with microtransactions, as was the case with the cancelled C&C game (which was due to be released last year). The game is a true successor to C&C: Generals and will also be coming to consoles at a later date.
Valve comes on stage and announces that they are scrapping their Steam Greenlight scheme as it is too open to poorly produced content. From now on, games will need to be in a playable and fully formed state in order to get money from consumers. This will vet all future releases on the platform, protecting the consumer and detering paper weight devlopers who want to make a quick buck from Unity asset filled software. As a way of making it up to the audience, they show Half Life 3 gameplay right then and there and put an end to the HL3 prediction memes.
Other Game Announcements
Activision reveals a brand new Spider-Man game that isn’t a movie tie-in and it isn’t being developed by Beenox but by another developer. The game has been in the works for three years now and promises to be the ultimate Spider-Man video game. Either that or they reveal that they have given the video game rights to Rocksteady Studios – Win/Win really.
With the great success of Hearthstone on PC, Android and iOS, Blizzard goes public with the announcement that the game will be coming to Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The controls have been designed for fast and intuitive control over the game and players will recieve special card backs depending on what console they play the game on. They will also get access to a new hero, also console exclusive.
A Red Dead Redemption follow-up trailer. What more needs to be said?
And finally, Sega announces that they will no longer be spending time and money on making Sonic The Hedgehog titles that underwhelm and underperform. They have decided to outsource the development of future Sonic titles to outside studios, starting with Criterion’s Sonic The Hedgehog: Burnout Chaos!
Sega will instead pool all resources in to helping Creative Assembly develop a sequel to Alien Isolation, which will bridge the gap between the Alien, Predator and Prometheus franchises in a way that also links the film franchises, through one cohesive experience.
So, as promised, my wishlist is completely unrealistic, utterly optimistic and has total disregard for how the industry currently operates. But do you know what? I sure would love to see at least one of those things appear at this year’s E3.
We will likely get a tidal wave of HD remakes, reimaginings, sequels, prequels and spin-offs, with new IP being seldomly seen but at least we will go in to each press conference expecting as much. It would really take something completely left field to catch us all off guard, and it would be welcome at this stage as we seem to know more about this year’s E3 going in than any year previous.
If the leaks and official reveals that have come already are anything to go by, this E3 is likely to be a somewhat predictable affair, but an entertaining one none the less.
What would you like to see in your ideal E3? What announcements would have you jumping for joy or sighing with discontent? Sound off in the comments below. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.