E3 2019 Predictions & Wishes

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I don't usually do this until April, but there has already been a bit of news and speculation about E3 popping up.

Once more scheduling info is up I will update this post with dates and times. EA and Sony are both skipping big press conferences this year in favor of streaming stuff so it will be a bit less interesting than some previous years. I expect that to be a common issue with everyone as they are holding off on big new games for the next gen consoles everyone is expecting to launch in 2020.

Anyway hit us up with your predictions and wishes.

Press Conferences

Sunday, June 9th
Microsoft - 4:00PM Eastern / 1:00PM Pacific
Bethesda - 8:30PM Eastern / 5:30PM Pacific

Monday, June 10th
PC Gaming Show - 1:00PM Eastern / 10:00AM Pacific
Ubisoft - 4:00PM Eastern / 1:00PM Pacific
Square Enix - 9:00PM Eastern / 6:00PM Pacific
Devolver Digital - 11:00PM Eastern / 8:00PM Pacific

Other
EA - Series of live streams running June 7-9 (times unannounced).
Nintendo - Series of live streams running June 11-13 (times unannounced).

SO it sounds like it's not really even going to be a thing this year...

Oh heck yeah.

From last year's thread:

beanman101283 wrote:

As always, I'm hoping for a new Prince of Persia game. It's been 8 9 years since the last one!

I'm not expecting a PS5 announcement, but I am curious if there will be another PS4 revision. PS4 Pro Plus?

Regarding the latter, I wouldn't be surprised if Playstation Now was expanded somehow as an alternative to a new hardware announcement.

A Cyberpunk release date would be cool, but I'm not expecting it.

Other than that, I'm just waiting to see what happens.

Hard release date for FFVII Remake.

A guy can dream, can't he?

From the other thread:

The only thing at this point I know EA plans to ship is Respawn's new Star Wars game, and whatever EA means when they say a "premium" Titanfall experience (and given that it's EA, that could mean anything).

I just saw a reposting of the original Will Wright SPORE demo from way back when and it gave me chills how much EA gutted that game. The water stage was removed entirely. The creature stage and tribal stage were over simplified by removing what Wright called the verb system - a procedural system that would take basic actions and combine them to make new ones (bite + move = drag). A few of the stages removed nearly all of the progression: the tribal stage was supposed to have huts that you could upgrade to allow different tool crafting that would make your tribe do different things based on what they picked up. The list just goes on and on.
It makes me hopeful but worried about the new Respawn game.

fangblackbone wrote:

From the other thread:

The only thing at this point I know EA plans to ship is Respawn's new Star Wars game, and whatever EA means when they say a "premium" Titanfall experience (and given that it's EA, that could mean anything).

I just saw a reposting of the original Will Wright SPORE demo from way back when and it gave me chills how much EA gutted that game. The water stage was removed entirely. The creature stage and tribal stage were over simplified by removing what Wright called the verb system - a procedural system that would take basic actions and combine them to make new ones (bite + move = drag). A few of the stages removed nearly all of the progression: the tribal stage was supposed to have huts that you could upgrade to allow different tool crafting that would make your tribe do different things based on what they picked up. The list just goes on and on.
It makes me hopeful but worried about the new Respawn game.

The premium currency lootboxes will be top quality though, have no doubt.

I sorta thought this might be the last time we see an E3.. Feels like its run its course in favor of more specific events throughout the year.

So to first quote my post regarding EA:

ccesarano wrote:

Do we want to make a generic E3 2019 Catch-All? It's still quite a ways out, but EA has just announced their Play event will not be featuring a Press Conference. They will instead focus on streams featuring gameplay, much of which will be hosted by "content creators" (and given I don't follow any popular ones, I'm expecting the sorts of Let's Players that make my skin crawl).

Combined with Sony skipping E3 this year, this largely marks the two biggest failures and question-marks of 2018 skipping 2019. EA largely had nothing last year, and I can only assume that they don't really have many game releasing unrelated to their sports brands. Is Battlefield going annual? Or are they taking a break? The only thing at this point I know EA plans to ship is Respawn's new Star Wars game, and whatever EA means when they say a "premium" Titanfall experience (and given that it's EA, that could mean anything).

I'll give EA credit for streaming gameplay, though. Too many people haven't learned from Nintendo's Treehouse that it's far more interesting to stream people actually playing the game while they discuss it, rather than ask a bunch of standard bullet-point game journo questions while the trailer footage loops in the background.

Do we expect other companies to skip the press conference? I feel like Ubisoft is locked in. No bad press seems to stop them, and just like their games, they seem to have a very rigid template they follow every year.

In response:

thrawn82 wrote:

SO it sounds like it's not really even going to be a thing this year...

Eh, I have a feeling we're at the latest low-point cycle of E3, but once the new Xbox and PlayStation are out E3 will be rejuvenated. I don't think it's time for it to be quite done yet, but in time it really will be more of a fan expo than a trade show. With the different PAXes, Gamescom, EGX, SXSW, NY and San Diego Comic-Cons, Tokyo Game Show... it's clear that there's room for these physical game spaces for people to get their hands on 'em, but as a trade show? Don't really think so.

I think streaming presentations is going to become more common, though. Press conferences have offered too many opportunities to become a meme. Whether we'll see more stuff like Nintendo's Treehouse ought to be interesting, considering EA is doing that now this year. Square Enix does their Square Enix Presents, which... is a sort of mixture? Sometimes it's just looping trailer footage, other times it's actual live gameplay.

Ubisoft is going to have their big conference, and so are Microsoft – who is probably psyched to own the conversation with Sony absent. The question is whether we see Bethesda's press conference. Nintendo and Devolver Digital will stream as usual. I imagine Square Enix will as well.

As always, even though it's months ahead of time, I ready for the hype train.

I actually really like those years they did the mini-E3's. Often before those years the focus seemed to be on all the booth babes and stuff like that and since then they seem to be focused more on the games. One thing to remember though is that the main reason for E3 to originally exist was to get the games in front of distributors so they could places their orders for the upcoming Christmas shopping season. As we move away from brick and mortar stores mattering E3 has sort of lost its purpose for existing. The cost of a big E3 presence is probably better spent in other places for many of the publishers, especially in a year before the next big thing like this one.

I missed that ubisolf will be presenting. Thats exciting, I'm generally a fan of the stuff they manage. Division 2 (beta) is fun. Assassins Creed Japan announced this year maybe?

We know they're taking a year off of Assassin's Creed this year. I could see them doing another remaster of some kind, but don't see that being a big E3 announcement.

thrawn82 wrote:

I missed that ubisolf will be presenting. Thats exciting, I'm generally a fan of the stuff they manage. Division 2 (beta) is fun. Assassins Creed Japan announced this year maybe?

Keep in mind it's not confirmed. I just don't foresee them taking a year off like other companies. Even if Ubisoft stopped doing traditional press conferences, I imagine they'd be putting together a digital presentation like Nintendo and Square Enix have.

However, Ubisoft has also kind of become reliable for having these press conferences filled with ridiculous Just Dance openings, attempts at humor and irreverence in order to seem like a playful company, celebrity appearances, so on and so forth. Perhaps this will be the third year in a row Miyamoto comes out on stage? I don't see Ubisoft rocking the boat when people tend to look forward to their conference simply for the shenanigans.

While E3's origins as a trade show may be a lot less relevant in the modern age, I still think that seeing so many other expos indicates that E3 isn't necessarily dead as a concept. It just needs to update, and by opening up their doors to the public they kind of already have. It's just no longer the time to communicate your ideas to the investors, press, and retailers.

Then again, I guess part of me just hopes E3 will stick around because it feels more like a gaming holiday. Just as San Diego Comic-Con has effectively become one giant marketing event for summer blockbuster films, completely divorced from its origins, I'd love E3 to just be this big event where big announcements are held for no other reason than our collective identity crisis as consumers.

By which I mean "celebration of the medium", etc. etc.

I believe E3 will enter another transition, but nearly so drastic as the year it went small. If you recall, 2006 was a year where a lot of the big companies were already hurting in their transition to HD, but it was also when a lot of companies were hurting due to the greater visibility on broadband Internet machines. Now everyone at home could see the Killzone 2 demo and point out how fake it was. When E3 was big again in 2009, it embraced a different, more consumer aware tone, and while it has still had its embarrassments and problems – my favorite being Ubisoft's fake game chatter (and fake gameplay) – it is an otherwise better show.

I feel like it's time for XCOM3 to be announced with a release date this fall.

Whelp, Devolver Digital confirmed they're still doing a conference, so we can all look forward to that I suppose.

ya know what I'd really like to see: More meat from CDPR on Cyberpunk

Shameless wishlist, in my perceived order of plausibility, largely stolen from last years:

--Mass Effect 1-3 HD
--That Star Wars game that Respawn is doing to look cool
--That new Fire Emblem game to 1) be cool and 2) not make me feel like a perv if I play it
--A new Burnout Game, bonus points if it is Paradise 2
--A new Fable
--Sony to do something?
--A 2D Metroid Game, bonus points if it is called Metroid Dread
--That Avengers game to 1) show up and 2) look cool
--Dragon Age 4
--That Beyond Good and Evil 2 is a game and not a successful ploy to stave off corporate takeover
--That Rocksteady shows up with something cool (The developer, not the TMNT goon)
--A Switch remake of FFVI(IV)
--A new InFamous game
--A decent wrestling game
--Knights of the Old Republic III (ha)
--NCAA Football 2020 (ha ha)

billt721 wrote:

I feel like it's time for XCOM3 to be announced with a release date this fall.

I wouldn't be surprised if they did one more expansion.

If they do announce an XCOM3, I hope it's something that builds off of 2, more like an open warfare situation and less of the resistance theme.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

--Sony to do something?

Guaranteed not to be at E3 2019

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

--That Rocksteady shows up with something cool (The developer, not the TMNT goon)

I'm pretty ok with both, TBH

Budo wrote:
billt721 wrote:

I feel like it's time for XCOM3 to be announced with a release date this fall.

'
I wouldn't be surprised if they did one more expansion.

If they do announce an XCOM3, I hope it's something that builds off of 2, more like an open warfare situation and less of the resistance theme.

Mods significantly change that game. It seems like it’s got a hefty enough engine that it could support a UI / graphical update in addition to another strategic layer meta change.

The SwitchBox, a Nintendo-Microsoft hybrid.
A videogame based on the band Gwar.
Return of Ridge Racer.
Sega Ages comes to all consoles, and my virtual money disappears.

MaxShrek wrote:

The SwitchBox, a Nintendo-Microsoft hybrid.

The Xwitch.

I just really want dates for Biomutant, Desperados 3, and The Outer Worlds. Some more info, impressions, and dates for Cyberpunk would be great but I’m day one on it no matter what.

IMAGE(https://fourtokensarcade.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/streamcast.png?w=900)

I had to go look that up to see if it was real. Thanks for getting my hopes up

ruhk wrote:
MaxShrek wrote:

The SwitchBox, a Nintendo-Microsoft hybrid.

The Xwitch.

SeXwitch?

Chairman_Mao wrote:
ruhk wrote:
MaxShrek wrote:

The SwitchBox, a Nintendo-Microsoft hybrid.

The Xwitch.

SeXwitch?

I feel like that's a food product best represented by something like MeatCat. Strangely it'll still have a 20 minute stage show at E3

Here is a wish: Psyonix (Rocket League) announces a kart racing game with a battle mode and battle royale.

Bethesda confirms their E3 Showcase on Sunday, June 9th at 5:30pm PT/8:30pm ET. They will be highlighting DOOM Eternal, and... who knows what else. While I'm sure there are many that will forgive Bethesda for all transgressions, there are others I think are feeling too burned by Fallout 76. We'll see if RAGE 2 can get some of the lost goodwill back.

Personally, I like 'em better as a publisher anyway so, it's all about DOOM Eternal for me.

Looking forward to Doom Eternal & anything by Arkane but couldn't give a rat's ass about Starfield after the shambles of Fallout 76 & the continued use of that dated engine.

Whatever the hell Paradox is doing with Vampires/White Wolf. They're teasing a bunch of stuff now but I'd love to see at least a teaser if not a full blown demo.

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