E3 2015

It's almost May. Which means it's almost June. Which means it's almost time for E3!

The Players

Microsoft
I don't think any console (save for maybe the Saturn) has had a more blunderous start than the Xbox One, but Microsoft has done a very admirable job of attempting to right their wrongs and address customer concerns and feedback. Last year's E3 press conference was a great showing for them with a strong focus on games. Will they repeat that strategy this year?


Nintendo
Nintendo is such a puzzling and unpredictable company. On many fronts they're laughably behind the times, but every once in a while they bust something out so forward-thinking and so game-changing it's hard to reconcile that it came from the same company. When Nintendo announced last year that they weren't going be doing a press conference it came across as sad and submissive, but also worrisome given the terrible performance of the Wii U. The "livestream" (in quotes because the word doesn't really do it justice) they did instead was phenomenal and made press conferences seem instantly outdated and I fully expect the other hardware manufacturers to follow suit in the years ahead.

On the video game front, I'm unfortunately not expecting much. They confirmed Zelda is going to be a no-show. They're also only showing games releasing this year. Aside from Star Fox getting a proper first showing and possibly one of Miyamoto's new games making an appearance, I really don't see anything big happening. Or might they have some surprises up their sleeve?


Sony
The Playstation 4 is still a strong seller, and from a game perspective last year Sony had an alright press conference, but they fell into the trap of trying to bolt on too much non-game stuff to their show. Sony can't afford to waste time on crap like that this year because outside of Bloodborne, the Playstation 4's exclusive game lineup has been piss poor. They NEED to make some big game announcements, and they need to make several of them. Sony has barely anything announced for the rest of this year and they don't have a single big holiday game. Hopefully they'll have some cool stuff to show off. Can Sony redeem the faith that gamers placed in them at the outset of this generation or will they burn their audience?


The Third Parties


EA
EA will have their usual glut of sports games to show, however they also have some other stuff that might be of more interest to more people. For starters there's Battlefront, and there are two other Star Wars games they're working on as well. I'm not expecting them to give either of them a big showing, but it's possible there might be a tease for one of them. Then there's also Mass Effect. They already teased that last year, so I'm expecting a full reveal this time.


Ubisoft
I think Ubisoft's is the most predictable out of all the press conferences. Assassin's Creed. Weird French humor. Just Dance. Artsy small game. Tom Clancy. Repeat. Maybe some Rayman if you're lucky. Hopefully they've got something fresh this year.


The New Challengers


Square Enix
It's been a number of years since Square held a press conference at E3, but they're back this year and presumably with a lot to show. Final Fantasy, Deus Ex, Star Ocean, Tom Raider, and Dragon Quest are all pretty safe bets, but I wonder if they'll have anything new to announce.

Bethesda
For the first time ever Bethesda will have a press conference of their very own. No one knows for certain, but everyone is assuming this is the moment for Fallout 4 and Doom 4 to finally make a debut. Beyond that though, I have no clue what else there is for Bethesda to talk about and that's kind of exciting.


Schedule

Microsoft - ???
Nintendo - ???
Sony - ???
EA - ???
Ubisoft - ???
Bethesda - June 14, 7 PM PT
Square Enix - June 15, 9 AM PT


Do you have anything to add? What prognostications do you all have to share? What games are you most excited to see?




choo choo