What we’ll see at E3 this year
Happy E3 Day! Today, the biggest
gaming event of the year will begin, with EA and Bethesda’s shows going on at 4
PM and 10 PM EST respectively.
One of my favourite things to do
leading up to the show is come up with some predictions for what might be
there, so here’s what I think we’ll be seeing at E3 this year!
EA
Star Wars Battlefront 2: The Force
Awakens
Although I’m one of those people that really
didn’t like last year’s rushed Battlefront, I can’t deny the appeal of the
graphics and sound design. It really did feel like you were right in the middle
of a Star Wars movie. The marketing worked really well too, as it sold loads of
copies.
That’s why my first prediction for
this year is that we’re going to get a first look at the sequel to the new
Battlefront, this time set in the new Force Awakens timeline. I have a few
reasons for this: Firstly, there’s the fact that aside from the Battle of
Jakku, the original Battlefront has zero Force Awakens presence. This screams
“saving it for a sequel” to me, but I don’t know about anyone else. Secondly,
considering that Battlefront was released just in time for The Force Awakens, I
don’t think it’s out of the question to think we’ll be seeing a sequel in time
for Episode VIII next Christmas.
Sadly, this to me feels it’ll likely be rushed again to make
it in time for the launch of the next movie, but hopefully EA won’t go down
that route again after they had to apologize for last time.
Bethesda
Skyrim HD
It seems one of the biggest success
stories of last generation will join the ranks of Last of Us, Twilight
Princess, and the original 3 Uncharted games, and receive an upgrade for this
generation.
I can see why Bethesda would do this.
Aside from the massive success and playerbase Skyrim had that would be more
than happy to buy this, the original game is starting to show it’s age in more
ways than one. And with no sign of an Elder Scrolls VI anytime soon, as well as
Fallout 4 having come and gone, it seems like the perfect thing to fill the
void between games.
Plus, with some online retailers
accidentally confirming the game early, it’s basically just a matter of time at
this point.
Microsoft
Xbox One 2.0 and the HoloLens
The HoloLens, Microsoft’s foray into the wild, wild west of
VR, turned out to be their big star last year. With the Minecraft demo, they
impressed everybody with how cool it looked, and I feel it would be crazy of
them to not bring it back this year.
I’m sure that VR is going to have a
much bigger presence at E3 this year than last year, with the Vive and Oculus
now out and YouTubers getting their hands all over them, showing what they can
do. Oculus has even rented part of the showfloor this year for themselves. I
can see everybody wants a piece of that pie, and Microsoft will most likely
show off what a year’s time of work on the HoloLens has done to improve it.
Aside from VR, the other thing that’s
getting a lot of talk before E3 is the new consoles coming out of the Big 3
developers. However, Nintendo and Sony have both come out and said that their
new iterations will be absent from E3 this year.
This is the prime opportunity for
Microsoft to swoop in and bring a lot of attention to themselves. They’re the
only ones who haven’t confirmed the existence of a new version of console yet,
and with the rumoured name being Xbox One Scorpio, Microsoft can use this to
their advantage and be the only ones there with their new box. Will it happen?
Only time will tell.
Ubisoft
The Assassin’s Creed movie
As annoying as it is, Ubisoft’s
conferences in recent years have never been about the games. Instead, the focus
is instead shifted to the presenters for some reason I’ll never understand.
We’ve had big personalities like Aisha Tyler, the South Park creators, and the
ever-infamous Mr. Caffeine up on the show stage, sucking away precious time
that could be spent on the games with their lame jokes and awful attempts at
memes.
Now, what if I told you that the star
of the show this year was to be neither game nor presenter. Yes, for the first
time ever, an E3 conference will be all about…a movie.
With no Assassin’s Creed coming out
this year, and no one seeming to be excited about Watch Dogs 2, Ubisoft will
instead shift the focus to their new movie coming this November. Producers,
directors, and actors who clearly don’t want to be there will be brought out
onstage, and the focus will be entirely on the upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie
for at least half the conference.
I sure do hope I’m wrong on this one.
Sony
The Last of Us 2
The fact that Naughty Dog is making a
sequel to 2012’s smash hit has been one of gaming’s worst kept secrets. Voice
actors, developers, and others have been repeatedly saying that this game is in
development, and now with Naughty Dog finally finished Uncharted 4, now feels
like the best time to get our first look at their next project.
With Sony announcing that while the
new version of the PS4 is indeed real, it won’t be at E3, they’ll need to pull
out all the stops once again to beat their most bitter rivals at Microsoft.
Last year they accomplished this by hitting us with announcement after announcement,
including the likes of The Last Guardian, the Final Fantasy VII remake, and
Shenmue 3. Them announcing Last of Us 2 at E3 this year feels like the logical
next step for them.
Nintendo
The NX makes a surprise appearance
Nintendo has said several times that
this E3 they’re focusing on Zelda, and only Zelda. Then, they came out a few
weeks ago and said that Pokémon would also have a presence at their livestream.
Then, we also got confirmation we’d be seeing games like Monster Hunter and
Tokyo Mirage Sessions would be at the show as well. Something tells me that
we’ll be seeing something else too…
With the enigmatic new console set to
be released next March, I find it mindboggling that we haven’t even seen the Nintendo NX yet. We know
exactly zero things for sure about it, with only an onslaught of rumours some
people have been passing off as facts. Surely there’s no way this could
possibly come out in March!?
Well, we still have about 9 months to
go before launch, and if the console makes its first appearance now, that gives
Nintendo plenty of time to build hype around it. I’d say it might be a good
idea to stick around for the end of Nintendo’s livestream. You never know what
they’ll have in store.
So those are my predictions for 2016!
I hope you’re looking forward to E3 as much as I am. I’ll be livetweeting as
many conferences as I can over on my Twitter page at twitter.com/chibi_hyena,
so you can follow that if you wish! Next week, I’m going to look at all the
conferences in-depth and give my thoughts on them. Enjoy the show!
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