E3 Approaches

By Shamus Posted Thursday May 31, 2018

Filed under: Industry Events 129 comments

It looks like a couple of companies are trying to get a jump on E3. On Tuesday, Bethesda promised they had a special Fallout-related announcement. They started a livestream that was nothing but a plastic Fallout Boy. And they streamed that for 24 hours. At the end of the wait, Todd Howard came out and gave everyone a teaser trailer for Fallout 76:


Link (YouTube)

As publicity stunts go, I found this to be more annoying than intriguing. But that livestream maintained between 50k and 150k viewers for those 24 hours, so I guess it was making somebody happy.

According to lore, Vault 76 is a vault that was intended to open just 20 years after the bombs fell. On one hand, I think rewinding the timeline is a very good idea. On the other hand, this trailer gave us not a clue as to the nature of the game. Mobile game? Another shooter? A sim? It’s a bit early for them to be talking about a sequel to Fallout 4. The rumor is that this is going to be an online game. Some are guessing it’s a late-to-the-party DayZ clone. I suppose for a company habitually incapable of writing, designing, animating, and scripting NPCs, the idea of just crowdsourcing the entire mess by letting players populate the world must be pretty appealing. Still, it sounds like something I’ll be avoiding.

The more interesting news is that Intellivision is making a new console and no that’s not a set-up for a joke that’s a real thing that’s happening in the real world, really.

Oof. Those controllers. In 1979 they apparently hadn't invented ergonomics yet.
Oof. Those controllers. In 1979 they apparently hadn't invented ergonomics yet.

For context, the original Intellivision came out in 1979, and I get the sense that it’s faded into obscurity over the decades. My wife was a huge fan of the machine back in the day, but I’ve barely interacted with it. I was more of an Atari kid. (Or was, until I got my first programmable computer.)

There’s no news on the machine, the games, the specs, or even what it’ll be called. The sales pitch claims they’re positioning the machine as “simple, affordable, family and fun”. That sounds like they’re trying to crash Nintendo’s party, which would be suicidal. But their spokesperson goes on to say, “I see a huge gaping hole in the market now with families in the home. We will be focused. We will not try to compete with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. That would be insane, and we would need $1 billion.”

Okay, now I’m genuinely curious what the plan is.

I think the idea that there’s an under-served market is plausible. There’s a lot of room between $5 phone games and the $300 Switch. I don’t know if it adds up to a “huge gaping hole in the market”, but I imagine there’s a lot of interesting things you can accomplish with sub-$100 hardware these days. You’re not going to get Overwatch or Doom 2016 running on that sort of machine, but if you’re looking to do family / party based games like LittleBigPlanet, Mario Kart, Super Mario 3D World, or retro arcade titles, then you can probably make that happen. (Particularly if you’re willing to dial back the visuals to 2008 and make up the difference with art style.)

Then again, that would sort of be muscling in on Nintendo’s turf. Except, Intellivision doesn’t have the vast storehouse of weaponized nostalgia properties to draw from. They don’t have a Mario, a Samus, a Link, or even a Kirby. Maybe they’re aiming for something else entirely.

In any case, I’m really looking forward to E3 now. This is promising to be a very interesting year.

And because I’m really curious: Whether you follow gaming news or not, what you you hoping to see / hear about this year?

 


From The Archives:
 

129 thoughts on “E3 Approaches

  1. Ebalosus says:

    Honestly, there’s not much at this year’s E3 to really interest me…as far as I know. I’m open to being surprised, obviously, but nothing I’ve heard so far really stands out to me. The games I follow have either already had a new content drop (Cities Skylines: Parklife for example), or aren’t expected to make a showing at E3 (Elite Dangerous Beyond chapter 2 for example).

    1. GoStu says:

      I can’t imagine Frontier Developments having anything Elite-related for E3; they just don’t have anything super hype-worthy in the pipeline at the right time for an E3 trailer.

      I think the next big thing there isn’t set until Q4; perfectly wrong timing for E3.

  2. John says:

    Way back at the dawn of history, I knew a family with an Intellivision. I can’t recall whether the graphics were better or worse than those on the Atari 2600. I do remember that the controller took some getting used to. As the picture suggests, it was a fair bit more complicated than the joystick or dial controllers commonly used with the 2600. My favorite game for the system and, if I’m being honest, the only one I still remember was a baseball game. I don’t think it was great, bit it was good enough that it was better than not playing video games.

    1. Hal says:

      Couldn’t tell you. I remember my uncle having one. I remember playing it. I don’t remember anything about playing it.

    2. Steve C says:

      The Intellivision had better graphics than the Atari 2600.

    3. Joe Informatico says:

      The number pads on the controllers gave Intellivision games a lot more options: games came with an overlay that showed the button mapping, which came in handy especially in slower, more strategic games like Baseball (multiple pitch options) or Utopia (a very early, possibly even the first god-game, where you build public works and military forces for your island nation). But despite this potential complexity and having better graphics than the 2600, most of the games felt like duller ripoffs of more iconic Atari or arcade titles. When I was abour 7, I once played a game of Astrosmash (i.e. what if Asteroids and Space Invaders had a colourful baby?) for three hours, because the game wasn’t really possible to lose. That was insane for a game from the quarter-munching era. Atari 2600 titles like Pitfall and River Raid are still occasionally remembered as important milestones in the history of video games, but practically no Intellivision title is.

      Utopia was the big exception–a primitive precursor to Civilization or SimCity, there was nothing like it on contemporary consoles and IIRC not any personal computer of the time either. My friend pulled his Intellivision out of mothballs back in high school solely so we could play this game.

    4. Drathnoxis says:

      I bought an Intellivision a couple years ago. It’s pretty cool, and Major League Baseball is fun in a way that other consoles just couldn’t pull off. The keypad and overlay allow instant switching between players with a degree of control that just would not be otherwise possible. Definitely one of the best games on the system.

  3. Nick Powell says:

    I’m hoping for CD Projekt to give us even the tiniest bit of information about Cyberpunk 2077

    But then there are also a few other companies that have teased/leaked stuff but not really shared any information about their games:

    * From Software’s new thing
    * Bethesda’s ‘Starfield’, whatever that is
    * The two planned AC Origins sequels
    * The Surge 2
    * Rage 2
    * Just Cause 4?
    * Uh…
    * I feel like there’s more… but I can’t think of anything just now

    1. Redrock says:

      Some new Sony exclusives to drive everyone crazy? Or maybe just another horrible Last of Us 2 trailer.

    2. Christopher says:

      Right, Just Cause 4 leaked. That should be fun.

    3. Lars says:

      I’m definitely locking for information on Cyberpunk 2077.
      Also interisting:
      * Biomutant
      * Vampyr
      * Beyond Good & Evil 2
      * Darksiders 3
      * System Shock 3
      * Shenmue 3
      * Valkyria Chronicle 4

      Ok. 5 Sequels, 3 First timers. Not the best Ratio

      1. ccesarano says:

        Vampyr I think will already be released by E3 (June 5th according to my records) so I’m not sure that’ll have much presence. THQ Nordic has also stated they’re skipping E3, meaning you’ll likely not get new Darksiders 3 info until Gamescom later in the summer. Which is a shame because that’s a game I’m looking forward to as well.

      2. Redrock says:

        Anyone know whether you need to play Valkyria Chronicles 2 and 3 to get the story of 4?

        1. Zerbin says:

          I imagine that it won’t be necessary, seeing as how 2 was only for the PSP and 3 never got a Western release, despite being well received, both critically and commercially (I’m not still grumpy about that, why do you ask?).

          1. Redrock says:

            I expect that if 4 does well, 2 and 3 might come out on the Ps4 as remasters. Or even steam. Stranger things have happened when it comes to big JRPG franchises. Just look at Ys and the Trails series.

  4. Dreadjaws says:

    I think the fact that Atari is making a new console is even crazier. Yes, they have a more renown brand, but that’s all they have these days. Every one of Atari’s latest undertakings have been underwhelming, uninteresting and even borderline fraudulent. The fact that people still have faith in this company speaks volumes of the value of the name.

    Now their new console has, as of this writing, a shocking 2050% of their goal achieved. It looks like even they are surprised about how popular this campaign has been.

    I, for one, remain extremely skeptical. Maybe this will turn out to be a success story like the OUYA wanted but spectacularly failed (that one also had a successful campaign, but the aftermath quickly killed it), but I’m not going to bet a dime on it.

    1. Echo Tango says:

      I think both Atari’s and Intellivision’s new consoles will have limited success, if any. Just like the Ouya, they’re trying to make people purchase yet another expensive lump of plastic, which will be obsolete in a few years. The Atari video in particular, makes me question the business-sense of these companies. It’s going to be common hardware, running some flavour of Linux. Okay…why didn’t they just make their Linux distro run on a Raspberry Pi? Seriously, why spend time, effort, and money designing and manufacturing a custom low-power computer, when there’s already several makes and models[1], all competing for low cost and good specs, and which are already available in stores, ready for purchase? They could still sell their games as normal; This is what Steam does – sell games for play on commodity hardware. Instead of doing the smart thing like Valve, and selling games for hardware people already own, they’re trying to make people invest in something that they don’t need, and which they’ll see as a risk.

      [1] Plus different companies altogether. Not just for manufacuring Pis with/without the trademark, but there’s also different low-power computers, that have Intel chips (they could actually run Steam, if I’m not mistaken), or other ones that have been designed by different companies. The low-power computer market-space is fairly saturated already, Atari…

    2. DaveMc says:

      Yes, this baffles me as well. It’s already quite cheap (under $20, I think?) to buy a classic Atari-style joystick that comes with dozens or hundreds of classic games built right in — so where’s the appeal in buying a $300+ Atari console? People would *really* need to want the new HD capabilities, but that doesn’t fit with the nostalgia appeal that seems to underlie the whole premise of this system. It’s for people who want to … what, play high-def versions of old Atari games, I guess? Apparently enough such people exist to fund them substantially — but it doesn’t seem like it’s for me, at least.

    3. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Wait,atari?Didnt they go bankrupt some years back?Why would anyone give them money after that?

      1. John says:

        Wow. I figured that Infogrames had sold the rights to the Atari name when they went bankrupt in 2013. I guess not. If I believed in curses, I might think that the Atari name was cursed. Anyway, here’s a brief history of the Atari brand.

        – In 1976, Nolan Bushnell, the founder, sold Atari, Inc. to Warner Communications.

        – In 1984, Warner Communications sold the home computing and game console division (as opposed to the arcade division) of Atari Inc. to the founder of Commodore. The re-named Atari Corporation sold various home computers and later game consoles, including the somewhat infamous Lynx and Jaguar.

        – In 1996, Atari merged with JTS Corporation and effectively died as an actual company. From this point forward, it’s just a name and some IP.

        – In 1998 JTS sold the Atari name and IP to Hasbro.

        – In 2001, Hasbro sold the Atari name and IP to Infogrames.

        – In 2003, Infogrames started calling itself Atari, which it is apparently still doing.

        I have omitted the history of Atari’s arcade division from this summary in order to spare your and my sanity and on the grounds that it is mostly irrelevant.

  5. Redrock says:

    Fallout 76 being an online survival game makes sense, I’m afraid. A lot of people seemed to enjoy the base building in Fallout 4, and from what I understand, the base building was a major source of the game’s longevity. And with Rage 2 on the way, releasing a traditional Fallout sequel would make little sense, as they would cannibalise each other. Bethesda seems very content with what’s going on with TES Online, where the latest expansions are positively received by critics as almost worthy replacements for single-player TES sequels. Making Fallout 76 an online survival game reduces expectations drastically, which would allow for a constant source of positive publicity. “Look, it was meh at launch, but they are constantly fixing and improving it”, yada-yada-yada. It sucks and I most certainly won’t be playing that one. But it does make sense.

    1. KarmaTheAlligator says:

      I’d say the base building in Fallout 4 was time consuming because it was clunky, not because it was any fun (it was extremely limited in what you could build, very fidgety as to where you could build, and trekking all over the place because you were missing one ingredient wasn’t great either), but maybe that’s just me.

      1. Redrock says:

        I was extremely annoyed by the base building too, but seeing all the crazy bases posted online makes me think that many players actually dig it. Good for them, not so much for me.

      2. Daemian Lucifer says:

        It’s not just you. The first thing I thought when I tried it was “Wow, this is worse thsn giant :citizen labuto, and that game is over a decade old”.

    2. Echo Tango says:

      It’s also worth noting that Destiny was also fairly popular, so that’s another bullet-point in favour of online shooter for a Fallout game. It seems like every year, Fallout gets farther and farther from the type of game I want to play. (And Wasteland 2 was pretty disappointing in various ways for me, so…) :S

      1. Redrock says:

        Same here. Although I must say that this whole situation gave me the idea that maybe Fallout needs to go away for a while. Maybe we’ve run out of decent stories to tell in this setting. Personally, Fallout’s particular style of grim-but-quirky post-apocalypse is wearing a bit thin for me. Either make a drastic departure (say, let society actually take noticeable steps towards rebuilding civilization) or let it rest dor a bit.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          society actually take noticeable steps towards rebuilding civilization

          You mean just like they did in fallout 2. Yeah, the reason it’s stagnant now is Bethesda, not the setting itself.

          1. Redrock says:

            Pretty much, yeah. What I meant is that with the direction Fallout is heading I’d prefer that it took some time off. They are running it into the ground, despite it not being an annual franchise.

          2. Mr. Wolf says:

            Or even Fallout 1 for that matter.

            That’s the thing I think Bethesda missed when they made Fallout 3. Fallout isn’t post-apocalyptic, it’s post-post-apocalyptic. Which is to say it’s not about the disaster or the aftermath of the disaster, it’s about the rebuilding phase.

            1. Daemian Lucifer says:

              True.But the rebuilding phase is much more noticeable in 2,what with actual cities,money and government forming.

      2. BlueHorus says:

        Sigh. Same old story: successful IP gets run into the ground by endless sequels. Yet somehow just showing the mascot on a livestream gets people excited?

        I (somewhat naively, possibly) have a bit of hope for Wasteland 3. A ‘well-meaning but hapless do-gooders in a crazy apocalypse setting’ game would suit me fairly well.

        They just need to address the weapon balance. And the flawed skills system. Maybe make the combat a bit more fun & less repetitive.
        Get rid of all the references to the first game, just tell a new, simpler story. Get rid of all the ‘LOLs so random’ locations on the map that were nothing but in-jokes for backers…

        …Okay, yeah. ‘Naive’ is probably the exact word.

        1. Redrock says:

          Hell, I’ll still play it. I played through Wasteland 2 and loved it despite hating most of its systems with a passion. Pretty much what happened with Final Fantasy xv, come to think of it.

  6. GargamelLeNoir says:

    I’m waiting to hear from CD Projekt Red, everything else is secondary.
    About Fallout 76 the subreddit is basically full of people very angry at the idea of a new Elder’s Scroll Online, so if that’s really what they prepared it’ll be hilarious!

    1. BlueBlazeSpear says:

      I like to think of myself as a pretty typical Bethesda Game Studios fan. I’ve learned to roll with their janky writing and buggy open worlds: I’ve even reached a point where I find a bit of charm in it. But I’ve only ever asked one thing of them: To stick to making fun single-player games. And they did a fair bit of chest-puffing a few months ago that suggested that this was their mandate – to be the banner carriers of the single-player game. Meanwhile, they were working on Fallout 76.

      To be fair, it’s still unclear on exactly how much the online component will be the thrust of the game, but the fact that there’s one there at all is… troubling. I still want to reserve judgement, but what we’ve heard of this game isn’t exactly inspiring.

  7. Redrock says:

    As for my expectations, apart from Cyberpunk 2077, I’m really looking forward to Sony’s presentation. I recently bit the bullet and finally got me a PS4 Pro, so I desperately need something to stave off buyer’s remorse. Something solid on Death Stranding would be nice.

    A new AC would be nice, and I really want to see an AC-Watch Dogs crossover. That’s basically where I see the two franchises going. That being said, I didn’t manage to finish either WD2 or Origins, so my love for AC is mostly platonic these days.

    1. Shoeboxjeddy says:

      You need to stave off buyer’s remorse on a Ps4? Have you already tried Uncharted 4, Uncharted Lost Legacy, God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, Horizon Zero Dawn, Until Dawn, and Nier Automata? Or are none of those in your preferred genre? I bought PS4 well after my main console this gen, but there is an embarrassment of solid single player titles for it, so I’ve been quite happy without even dipping into PSN.

      1. Redrock says:

        Finished GoW and Uncharted 4, playing through Horizon now. Bought the console for GoW, basically. Played Nier ages ago on the PC, not interested in Until Dawn. Have great expectations for Yakuza 0 though. Didn’t like Uncharted 4 much, the game felt slower and more annoying then the older ones. I’m not saying I’m not having fun right now. I’m worried it will start collecting dust in a couple of months, which is what happened to my Switch. I mean, I love my Switch. But I don’t really play on it. I don’t think the same will happen to the Ps4. But I’m not sure at this point.

        1. Chuk says:

          I got my PS4 pretty late, too (bought it from a friend who had 2 (and I think has since bought a Pro)) and it’s been great. I don’t game every day though, for example I’m not done Horizon Zero Dawn yet.

        2. Shoeboxjeddy says:

          If you haven’t played an earlier version, I would also recommend Last of Us Definitive Edition. I feel like there should be a steady stream of good games if you like big budget action and shooter stuff though. Spider-Man and Last of Us 2 are incoming and a Horizon and God of War sequel each is a certainty.

          1. Geebs says:

            Bloodborne is the main reason I bought a PS4, and it’s fantastic.

            Also the PSVR is a pretty good option for poor people with no living space who would like to dip their toe in VR stuff.

            1. Redrock says:

              Not a Souls fan, unfortunately. Have been trying to get into Souls games forever, bought every Souls game including Demons’, also bought Salt and Sanctuary. Never played more than a few hours of either. So I promised myself not to spend money on Bloodborne until I beat at least one of the Souls-like games I already own. Don’t see that happening, though. They are great games, well designed. Just not for me, I’m afraid.

          2. Redrock says:

            I should have clarified that I’m a long time Sony fan. So I absolutely played Last of Us back on the PS3. Have mixed feelings about it, really. Still, I am pretty sure I’ll spend way more time with the Ps4 than with the Switch. Perhaps the reason I’m underwhelmed with Uncharted 4 and not all that impressed with Horizon is because I jumped to them straight after God of War. And while Horizon holds its own, Uncharted 4 just doesn’t work all that well as a game. I don’t think it has anything in terms of level design and setpieces to match Uncharted 2.

  8. Profugo Barbatus says:

    I’m cautiously optimistic about Bethesda this year. If Fallout 76 is indeed a sort of basebuilder survival game with player hosted servers, I would actually play it, with a little core group of friends. That could be genuinely fun, but more because of fallout friends and less because of anything Bethesda could do, to be honest.

    I’m also hoping to see a starfield reveal. A Bethesda Sci-Fi project could be garbage or amazing, and I’d like to know one way or another sooner than later.

    Otherwise, I’m looking forward to any Cyberpunk 2077(I think?), and I really don’t know what to expect otherwise. I can’t think of anything else out there that’s around the corner except maybe Days Gone and Metro Exodus. Anything they announce now for a few years out, I could care less about.

    1. BlueBlazeSpear says:

      I’m right there with you with Starfield. Right now, it’s nothing more than a wide gulf of potential with “modern classic” on one side and “smoking crater” on the other and it would be nice to get enough of a look at it to know where I should even set my excitement gauge.

  9. Zekiel says:

    I’m genuinely apathetic about just about everything likely to be covered, even though I now finally have (sort-of) current-gen machine (i.e. the basic PS4) so I can actually play new releases instead of looking wistfully at them and thinking “maybe in a few years”.

    Even though the Witcher 3 was amazing, I’m just totally underwhelmed by the idea of Cyberpunk, probably cos it lacks brand recognition and I don’t have any particular love for the cyberpunk genre.

    1. Redrock says:

      I don’t think The Witcher had brand recognition in the West before the CDPR games.

  10. PPX14 says:

    Gosh, I can’t actually think of any specific games I’m hoping to see.

    From what you’ve said of Prey, then I’d like to see a follow up. But from what you’ve said of its sales figures I can’t imagine that would happen.

    I’d have loved to see more Beyond Good and Evil 2, but last year’s reveal showed a tone that I found very annoying, juvenile and out of sync with the original, even if the world itself looked gorgeous.

    I’d be interested in more Mirror’s Edge, even if again Catalyst was somewhat diluted feeling compared with the original.

    Maybe a new Prince of Persia? I’d love them to go back to the 2008 version.

    I’ve given up hope for Star Wars games, not that I would want to play them given that they would follow the new lore.

    It mostly feels largely academic given the backlog of games from the last 20 years I have to play, though as with ME Catalyst, some things get bumped up the list of course!

    Cyberpunk 2077 – I don’t like the tone of what I’ve seen in the Witcher, and this looks much the same with what I feel is an over-sensationalistic seedy feel. Nevertheless, I want to see what it looks like, what else is there?!

    Again, I’d like to see what Shadow of the Tomb Raider looks like but the 2013 game’s story and acting made me hate the game, so I’m put off the sequels, inclusion of tombs notwithstanding.

    1. Redrock says:

      A new Prince of Persia would be very cool. I kinda doubt they’ll muster up the courage to make one, though. Strictly linear action-adventure in this day and age? Very unlikely. And you can’t make an open-world PoP game, either – they are, at heart, linear platformers and live and die by their level design.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Just remember that the original PoP was a 2d platformer. So you definitely CAN make an open world prince that is good. But I won’t hold my breath for it.

        1. Redrock says:

          Don’t see your point. 2d or 3d platformer share the fact that they have tightly and deliberately designed levels. You can’t have a platformer of the kind that Prince of Persia aims to be in an open-world setting. The Prince’s moveset wouldn’t work in a collect-a-thon open-world platformer like Super Mario Odyssey or Jak and Daxter. Speaking of, a new Jak would be AMAZING. Screw Last of Us Part 2.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            My point was that the games were completely different.Sands of time was not just a 3d platformer,it also was way more focused on combat,and it had the time reversal mechanic.And you can design a bunch of dungeons with empty space populated by critters in between them if you really must turn it into an open world game(similar to tom braider).Thats the easiest,laziest way to do it that still has a chance to be somewhat good.Having a new prince now would not be that crazy,and having it be a good game would not be that impossible.

            1. Redrock says:

              The difference is in the gameplay loop. Whether it’s 2d or 3d, the gameplay loop is navigating a series of carefully designed obstacles. You can’t have that in an open-world game. Unless the open-world is just an empty space you traverse while moving from dungeon to dungeon. And if so, why have an open world at all?

              I imagine you could have a smaller hub-world in between linear levels. Something like GoW or, indeed, Warrior Within had. But I don’t see Ubisoft doing something like that.

              1. PPX14 says:

                This Tomb Raider-esque / hub world description is what the 2008 game was like (and as you say, Warrior Within to an extent), while also being a collect-a-thon. It gave the feeling of open world with a few branching/multiple paths, making it feel almost like Shadow of the Colossus, because the environments were well presented. And all coming back to the main Temple from which you had to choose from 4 main paths, and could do them in any order and could unlock specific powers to allow you to progress further in the various branching avenues which required them, by collecting light seeds scattered liberally through the environments, and requiring platforming to obtain, sometime in localised non-linear environments (much like Odyssey I believe).

                But like you say, the basis is in linear platforming, though they did manage to provide some branching and looping paths and exploration.

                Perhaps an expansion of this concept could indeed be applied to a larger more open map, with a network of platforming – in fact yes, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst manages this to some extent. The changes between original Mirror’s Edge to Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst is exactly that transformation – though I did prefer the original.

                Also yes, screw The Last of Us Part 2

      2. evilmrhenry says:

        Endless runner mobile game?

      3. PPX14 says:

        I suppose PoP 2008 was a bit open-worldy, even if it was just a disguise. Such a shame, I don’t imagine there will be another one either.

        Haha evilmrhenry probably has it dead on.

        Edit: Actually no, if a sequel does appear, we will see the Prince sporting a larger beard, a heavier brow, walking through interactive cutscenes, and a son to teach… and learn from. Bah!

    2. BlueHorus says:

      Maybe a new Prince of Persia? I’d love them to go back to the 2008 version.

      Sadly, like Redrock I think a Prince of Persia game made now would be almost exactly like whatever Assassin’s Creed game is currently under development.
      What, make it play like a game from 10 years ago? Publishers would run away in terror at the suggestion, clutching their wallets to their chest.

      I’d have loved to see more Beyond Good and Evil 2, but last year’s reveal showed a tone that I found very annoying, juvenile and out of sync with the original

      So I barely played the original, but the tone of the BG&E2 trailer just screamed ‘committee of corporate suits trying to appeal to the youth’ with all the success of lizard-people wearing human skin.
      But then again, we are talking about Ubisoft, so that’s probably not far off the truth…

      1. PPX14 says:

        What, make it play like a game from 10 years ago? Publishers would run away in terror at the suggestion, clutching their wallets to their chest.

        Haha, I suppose that the Forgotten Sands did do (almost) that in 2010! Guess they’ll have learnt from that in an unfortunate way.

        Yes, gosh, that trailer, I’m surprised the words “wack” “yolo” and “bae” didn’t feature somehow. Maybe they could be inferred from the hairstyles.

  11. Christopher says:

    Hideaki Itsuno has been working on one game since like 2012 and still hasn’t been able to say what it is, just posting apology tweets every new year’s. That guy has made Dragon’s Dogma and Devil May Cry 3 and 4, so I’m hoping he’s bringing either those or an entirely new action franchise to the now longer so new-generation. Finally.

    Apart from that, I’m most excited to see FromSoftware reveal what that Shadows Die Twice teaser trailer was really about. Rumors have been going around about it being the first Tenchu game since 2009, a Bloodborne sequel or just a new IP, and at this point I have confidence in From’s ability to make something I love as long as they’re not just putting out Dark Souls sequels.

    Vanillaware are hopefully getting close to done with their mecha game, so I expect to see some more of that. I’ve been hearing it might not be an action title this time around though, instead being more of a point & click adventure title. If that’s the case I’d be very disappointed, ’cause Vanillaware’s action has gotten super good but their storytelling isn’t exactly the draw of their other games.

    There are a hundred other games both unrevealed and that got trailers at last year’s E3 that could theoretically be cool, but these are the ones I’m explicitly waiting for. I’m also excited to see Nintendo talk about the new Smash Bros. and Platinum showing some more stuff for Bayonetta 3, but since I still don’t own a Switch that’s a more measured excitement.

  12. BlueBlazeSpear says:

    It may be my imagination, but the last couple of E3s ended up being duds, though it could just be that nobody announced anything that I would personally be interested in.

    But this year, I feel like there are a couple of things that might at least be of interest. I’m curious about Bethesda the possibility of Starfield. And I’ll be curious to see how much multiplayer will figure into Fallout 76, but I’m definitely not getting my hopes up on that one. Some people seem to be hoping for some sort of announcement about a new Elder Scrolls, but that just seems more like wishful thinking than anything.

    CD Projekt Red could really deliver big with Cyberpunk 2077. I don’t know if it will be good or not, but the fact that they’re going to have an hour of actual gameplay for the media suggests to me that they’re feeling pretty confident about it. And even though that gameplay will happen behind closed doors, I have to think that we’ll get some gameplay footage at some point too. I’m curious how they’ll convert a pen-and-paper game into a world as big and breathing as the Witcher’s world, but I suspect that for them to do that successfully, they’ll have to borrow more inspiration from William Gibson than Mike Pondsmith.

    Bioware used to be pretty much the only reason I ever tuned in to E3s there for a good stretch of years, but I’m guessing the only thing they’ll have is Anthem, so who cares? RIP Bioware. I know some people are wanting any sort of Dragon Age news they can get, but that’s pure hopes and dreams as far as I can tell. I’m not even sure that another Dragon Age game will happen at this point if Anthem tanks.

    1. slipshod says:

      Bioware used to be pretty much the only reason I ever tuned in to E3s there for a good stretch of years, but I’m guessing the only thing they’ll have is Anthem, so who cares? RIP Bioware. I know some people are wanting any sort of Dragon Age news they can get, but that’s pure hopes and dreams as far as I can tell. I’m not even sure that another Dragon Age game will happen at this point if Anthem tanks.

      I was actually crushed they decided to not continue ME:A. An overwhelmingly incredible game it was obviously not, but the worlds looked stunning, and it still scratched that space pioneer itch for me. Not to mention the fact that the writers set up a bunch of things to be explored in future installments, and now we’ll never get to see those ideas fleshed out. That’s just sad.

      1. BlueBlazeSpear says:

        That’s my take-away from it too: It’s not a particularly-good Mass Effect game, but it’s a decent space-based RPG shooter and we’re not exactly swimming in those.

        Andromeda basically killed Mass Effect, but I worry that it also killed that niche genre. Unless Bethesda Game Studios performs a miracle with Starfield. Which I suspect won’t properly fill the void.

      2. GoStu says:

        If only Andromeda had actually played to the “pioneer” side of things. There would have been so much potentially-interesting conflict and struggle in actually settling a new frontier and so on… but the story they picked out of a hat fell back on “cosmic threat”.

        It just felt super out of place. It felt like they mixed up antagonists and conflicts with another project.

        1. Redrock says:

          To be fair, a lot of the side-stuff was about being a pioneer, gathering resources, etc. Which is why I think k it was one of the few RPGs where the fact that the main character is running around doing errands didn’t actually feel dissonant, like it did in DA:Inquisition, for example.

  13. Bloodsquirrel says:

    I don’t expect much out of E3 anymore. Most of the real news gets announced or leaked beforehand. Maybe we’ll get a trailer or two for a game we already knew was being made.

    It doesn’t help that there’s less and less in the AAA that interests me.

  14. Liessa says:

    In terms of AAA games at E3, about the only thing I’m looking forward to is Cyberpunk 2077. I have minimal interest in the new Fallout game, falling to zero if it turns out to be online-only. There are a couple of titles from smaller companies that look interesting, such as GreedFall.

    1. Redrock says:

      GreedFall is a Spiders game, right? They almost always look good. But usually…aren’t. Hurts every time.

      1. Liessa says:

        I haven’t actually played any of their previous games, but certainly the Steam reviews etc. are not that great. Let’s hope they step up their game with this one.

  15. SneakyBookshelf says:

    There were rummours going around a month ago about Bethesda announcing some Prey DLC at E3, that’s basically the only thing Im looking forward to. The Spiderman game looks interesting too, but we already know thats coming and I tend to avoid lengthy previews, so I’m not dying to see it, just dying to play it.

    1. Zekiel says:

      I just remembered Spider-man. That looks promising. Basically like Batman Arkham except with more of a sense of humour. At least, that’s the hope.

      1. Chuk says:

        If that’s how it turns out I will be very happy, especially if there’s a decent amount of Spider-Man content in it (which the Arkham games were pretty good about). (Like stuff from the comics and not just an all-new story.)

  16. KarmaTheAlligator says:

    The only thing I want to hear about is Kingdom Hearts 3 (dunno if it’s even going to be there, but I heard on the internet it will).

    1. ccesarano says:

      Square Enix has their own presentation at 1pm ET on Monday June 11th, which is where they’ll likely show it off.

      1. Thomas says:

        That’s actually the conference I’m most excited for. Kingdom Hearts, Tomb Raider and maybe even a new Final Fantasy

  17. ccesarano says:

    First I’ll start by answering your Diecast question, which is that I’d watch you cover a few streams like Bethesda and PC gaming showcase. I feel like those might interest you most. Something like EA would likely be a lot of cynicism and griping and that wouldn’t be fun to record, and other presentations likely wouldn’t get you as enthused.

    At this point I’m more excited for Nintendo’s presentation and Treehouse than anything else. The Western AAA gaming space is starting to bore me like super hero films have bored my brother. So while I have an interest in Sony’s conference line-up, it’s nothing compared to finding out what Nintendo’s got on offer.

    That said, I absolutely love E3 anyway. It’s a time of year that just gets me caught up in an absolute love for the medium despite the marketing gimmicks and business presentations. I even pay attention to companies I don’t care about, and I took the 11th through 13th off just to make sure I was uninterrupted by work when I watched the conference.

    To that end, I’m curious how EA is gonna dig themselves out of their current hole, but don’t expect much. About the only thing they could announce right now is a Dead Space Trilogy Remastered collection for PS4. What’s that? Why not Dead Space 4? Firstly, because the story is done and we don’t need a fourth. Second, because I don’t trust a game developed under EA’s leadership over the last few years. I’m curious to see what Microsoft manages to try and do to fix their marketshare position, but given they seem to have no concept of “New IP”… I think they’ll be in “trouble” for a bit. Ubisoft has my curiosity but little more. Bethesda I have no interest in as a developer, but I do appreciate their work as a publisher. They tend to work with developers better than themselves, and so I eagerly await news of a new DOOM and to find out if maybe I’ll care about RAGE 2 at all. Devolver Digital isn’t really my indie wheelhouse, but evidently their presentation last year was a blast so I’ll be checking it out this year.

    Square-Enix is finally doing their own presentation and that has me hyped. While they really are a bipolar publisher due to being a Japanese company whose Western presence was built around buying Eidos, I feel like the existence of a game like Murdered: Soul Suspect shows what that sort of unique partnership can create. I’ve been a fan of the recent run of Tomb Raider games, so Shadow of the Tomb Raider is definitely one of my few anticipated non-Nintendo games of the year. I’m not really interested in Kingdom Hearts 3 myself, which I expect to be the other big showcase for them. Even so, if any third party publisher is going to have announcements I care about, it’ll be Squenix.

    PC Gaming Show has been such a joke of hardware wanking and titles that either bore me or I’ve already seen advertised for consoles. I really don’t care about your 4K resomomutions and the fact that the whole BitCoin cryptocurrency block-chain fiasco is gonna push all these graphics cards to even higher prices than an Xbox One X just kills any temptation to become one with the tergigaflorps elite.

    Which leaves Sony and Nintendo as relevant first party presentations. Sony shall be interesting as they intend to do deep dives on four games rather than a standard presentation. I expect this is because everything else is still cooking and not ready for a reveal, but at least we don’t need to see Zombies of Anarchy again. I predict the Death Stranding deep dive is just going to be a 20-minute short film and have absolutely no gameplay because Kojima is just seeing how long he can hype people up for a game that doesn’t exist. Ghosts of Tsushima excites me merely because Sucker Punch made the inFamous games, which I really dig. Marvel’s Spider-man would excite me more if it had a more recognizable villain and fewer quick-time events. Last of Us Part 2 needs to have better gameplay than Last of Us.

    I’ve already blogged enough on your blog about my E3 excitement, so I’ll just settle with the fact that Nintendo has a lot I want to know about (SHOW ME THE NEW FIRE EMBLEM YOU JERKS), they’re bound to have surprises, don’t expect anything more than a trailer for Prime 4 and 2019 release date (if anything at all), and plenty of deep dives during their Treehouse showcase. That, I think, is the real shame of E3. Sony just has whatever stage presentation roll as a sizzle reel while really bad “hosts” ask really dumb questions from developers that don’t give any real substantial new info. Square Enix is a bit better, but Treehouse is perhaps the best as the developers join what is effectively Nintendo’s localization team, which means by default you have people in some way involved in a game’s development all talking about it. Yeah, there are things they cannot discuss, but you know you’re getting a real highlight of the game rather than just press fluff.

    So yeah. There is my overblown response to your question.

    1. BlueBlazeSpear says:

      As an XBone owner myself, I find it staggering that Microsoft hasn’t made it a priority to find their console exclusive “system seller” IP. Not only have they not seemed interested in the idea, but it seems like they actively are working against it. I thought they were going to make their push with Scalebound, but then cancelled it despite it seeming to be pretty far along in its production.

      Whereas Sony has pretty much anything created by Naughty Dog, and it’s got God of War, and Horizon: Zero Dawn. I feel like I could go on. And Nintendo essentially has a Scrooge McDuck vault full of gold because of their exclusive IP. Microsoft? I find myself playing mostly last-gen stuff on the XBone. That doesn’t feel like a very good business plan.

      I wonder if the Bitcoin-caused video card drought will affect video game prices, or at the very least change the conversation that publishers are trying to have about games costing more to make. If people start relying more and more on older hardware, there will be less of a push to have cutting-edge graphics and there won’t be as much money sunk into that particular area of innovation. Video game graphics may constantly be slightly behind the newest capabilities, but while the prices may not drop, the publishers can quit crying foul about how we’re forcing them to overspend on their budgets while still only paying on an older scale. Okay – I know I’m just pipe dreaming on that one.

      1. Thomas says:

        I really don’t understand what Microsoft is doing this generation. They’re so bad I’m wondering whether higher ups had doubts about continuing being in the gaming space and that’s impacted them.

        Nintendo have shown the benefits of investing in IP, but Sony have shown the benefits of investing in studios. The fact Horizon Zero Dawn came out of nowhere and God of War revived itself completely are a real testament in an industry where publishers more often run down their studios into mediocrity.

        1. ccesarano says:

          I think Sony learned the value of IP with the PlayStation, which had almost no long-lasting franchises to rely on out of the gate. Yeah, they were able to score a hit with the cinematic spectacle of Final Fantasy VII, but that’s also where that franchise’s awareness exploded into the mainstream. SEGA always had Sonic, their arcade franchises, and… hrm… they really relied a lot on Sonic, didn’t they? Whereas Nintendo had a ton of franchises that were beloved. Sony? They managed to score big with a bunch of brand new properties, and if you look at the PS2 days they didn’t slouch there either.

          They’re still following trends in a sense, but in some ways trends set by their own studios. Last of Us let everyone know that gamers are hungry for somber, cinema-aping creations and thus now we have God of War. They funded games like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus as well, indicating that Sony believes games are art right alongside of games as product (meanwhile, Nintendo perceives Games as Toys, for both good and ill (and I say this absolutely loving them as game designers)).

          Microsoft I think lost a lot of the team members that recognized games as art as much as product. Peter Moore himself clearly enjoy games. He himself clearly enjoyed playing them, to the point that he would risk tattooing his arm several times with game release dates. If you look at the closure of Lionhead and the cancellation of Scalebound, the picture you get to see being painted is a studio that wanted their games to have very specific trendy traits, and when the IP or teams weren’t fitting those ideas Microsoft gave up. Scalebound especially was going to be a clash of wills, with Hideki Kamiya having a bit of an auteur reputation (though he always gives a lot of credit to his team) and knowing what game he wants to make versus what Microsoft wants to dictate. I think it speaks volumes about the company culture that Kamiya and Platinum as a whole love working with Nintendo, but the lone experience of working with Microsoft was a bad one.

          What I think Sony and Nintendo understand is that you gotta be willing to let creators create, and Microsoft has, for a long time, wanted to dictate games as product. It’s why they set up studios to be Halo and Gears of War machines. They think they can now treat these properties like Adobe treats Photoshop and Illustrator and the rest of its suite (almost as badly as Activision has treated Call of Duty and it turns out Ubisoft is gonna continue beating Assassin’s Creed into a bloody annual pulp again as well).

          If I were to buy a mid-generation console it might be an Xbox One X due to the power, but I think I’d rather just stick with my early release PS4, even if it is destined to be “under-powered” until PS5 comes out.

          1. BlueBlazeSpear says:

            After I mentioned Scalebound, I went and did some reading about what’s actually known about its development and cancellation, and it doesn’t exactly paint a pretty picture for Microsoft.

            Platinum Studios survived the cancellation just fine – they went on to make Nier: Automata among other things. But Microsoft was left (in what turns out to be one of many times) with another console exclusive put to the grave before it ever saw the light of day.

            Something that surprised me in my reading was to find that Microsoft is a small studio killer that could almost give EA a run for its money when comparing studio corpse counts. They keep trying to find that console exclusive, but they seem to have a pattern of putting these games into motion, deciding that they’re not worth the effort, then putting their money elsewhere and leaving the studios in a lurch.

            If any of what I read about Scalebound is true, then they were essentially turning over the game’s design and development over to focus groups. Frelling focus groups. And depending on what came out of that, the game had multiple, significant re-designs. If the reality matches the stories, then it’s amazing that the game got as far into development as it did.

            1. ccesarano says:

              It should be Nier: Automata was near completion by time Scalebound was canceled, so it’s not so much that they survived to move on and make that game as much as it is they were able to survive the morale-loss due to Automata’s success. Platinum and Yoko Taro “saved each other” in a sense, because a lot of folks at Platinum were devastated with the experience of Scalebound. This is also following involvement with Star Fox Zero, where they were getting a lot of blame for the game’s design decisions (and I’m still fuzzy as to how much of that game was actually them. I’ve heard they only contributed to the game’s visuals, and even if they were in charge of some programming, they would have been shackled to Miyamoto’s latest stubborn design choice). Bayonetta 2 was the last thing they did that succeeded, and that followed on the heels of Wonderful 101 being a commercial failure.

              So with a lot of failures and exhausting work with Activision for the Korra, Transformers: Devastation and Ninja Turtles games… I mean, really, Bayonetta was the only commercial success, and joined only by Wonderful 101 in critical successes (sort of). Nier: Automata putting Platinum on a lot of people’s radars saved them in terms of team morale, but it also kept Yoko Taro from being delegated to mobile games the rest of his professional career.

              Now Platinum is going to try their hand being a small games publisher as well as developer, and I think a lot of that is informed by negative experiences with Microsoft and likely Activision as well. They’ve stated they have a lot of projects in the works, and I’m hoping these negative experiences can be used to build up to something new and wonderful.

  18. Jimmy says:

    The Bethesda Soft rumor I heard was if Fallout ’76 is an online game then unless it flops we’re unlikely to see another Fallout game for a long time. Similar to how we’re not getting another single player Elder scrolls game since ESO is doing well (despite how well Skyrim is still selling). Personally I’ve been pretty disappointed with Besthesda’s main studio output for a very long time so if true, this doesn’t really affect me.

    Actually what I kind of hope is that they make more single player stuff via their outside studios like Arcane since both Dishonored 2 and Prey were pretty good (flawed but good).

  19. King Marth says:

    What do you mean, not get Doom running on a machine? Doom is the reference example for being ported to unlikely machines! Printers, ATMs…

    1. Shamus says:

      Sorry, I meant Doom 2016. I’ll amend the post.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Accept Yahtzee’s nomenclature and start calling it dewm. That way no one will ever misinterpret you.

    2. Echo Tango says:

      I’m pretty sure Doom can run on a sock puppet. It definitely runs on potatoes.

    3. Hal says:

      Although I do enjoy the modern equivalent of porting Skyrim to toasters (and so forth).

  20. Ivan says:

    Regarding the potential $100ish console; that’s what the ooya (dunno how it’s spelled) tried to do, right? Far as I know, it didn’t go great.

    About the only thing I can think of being interested in seeing would be the new Bayonetta.

    1. Echo Tango says:

      Yup. The Ouya failed with a half-decent idea and games, and Atari and Intellivision have neither.

  21. Jabrwock says:

    Maybe Intellivision is trying to cash in on the “Classic NES” market? The sub-$100, “It comes with lots of games” market.

  22. Mattias42 says:

    Hoping on some The Surge 2 tidbits myself. That, and/or whatever From Soft’s Shadows Die Twice turns out to be.

    Although Salt & Sanctuary 2 would be amazing, I kinda doubt that one. Sure, smash hit… but it’s also from a two person studio, so probably going to take a few more years for that to happen.

    …Yeah, got a bit of an Souls-like itch. Won’t deny it.

  23. Chuk says:

    I had an Intellivision (later replaced with an Intellivison 2) — the graphics were considerably better than the Atari. (We bought one because even the standard ‘poker & blackjack’ game it came with looked way better than Atari’s ‘Defender’, which was great in the arcade.) It didn’t have much IP — I’d play Lock ‘n’ Chase or Triple Action again though. Still, you don’t need dedicated hardware for that. It could be an Android app and a Chromecast and a bluetooth controller.

    1. Echo Tango says:

      Yup. If they wanted to hit a really broad market, they could build the app/launcher for Android, iPhone, Windows, OSX, Linux… If your plan is to sell simple 2D games, there’s no reason to make your customers buy proprietary hardware. They could package/partner with specific companies to make an official “out of the box” version with a couple controllers, Chromecast/equivalent, etc, if they want customers to have an easy-to-purchase model. Forcing customers to buy yet more dedicated hardware in a saturated (with hardware/choice) market is a bad decision, I think.

    2. John says:

      Is that where Lock’n’Chase is from? I played that game in the Apple II.

  24. TouToTheHouYo says:

    Nintendo has my full attention this year. I love my Switch but I don’t presently have anything to do with it. I blew through Breath of the Wild on Wii U, thoroughly finished Super Mario Odyssey, beat Xenoblade 2 while waiting for the rest of the DLC, my brother finished Kirby, and now we have nothing of interest on the system that we don’t already have or can’t get elsewhere.

    Nintendo’s E3 conference could be damn near anything. There’ll be Smash Bros., of course, but unless it includes another decent single player mode like Brawl’s Subspace Emissary then we probably won’t much care. My brother and I still have Smash 4 (Wii U) to much about in.

    I’m genuinely interested in the “Octo Expansion” for Splatoon but I haven’t played either game, I’ve never been fond of competitive multiplayer, and this would require the base game plus DLC to get a presumably decent singleplayer experience. That’s tough to justify.

    I’m very much interested in seeing more of Octopath Traveler, Square Enix’s upcoming Switch-exclusive JRPG. The demo was fun, I love the aesthetic, am intrigued by the narrative conceit, and want to see how the game has changed over the past year.

    The new recent Pokemon announcements do nothing for me, but assuming the “Let’s Go!” games have an appearance at E3 they might do something to win me over. Probably not. I’m more intrigued by what form Generation 8 will take but we won’t be seeing anything on that until next year.

    There’s the possibility of Fire Emblem Switch being at the presentation, but it’s likely still to early for much on that. Like Pokemon, another franchise I’m not particularly invested in but still curious about.

    Then there’s Retro Studios. They’ve been working on something for years but no one knows what. Not even rumors. They’re off Donkey Kong and Metroid so the project is anyone’s guess. It’s about damn time they spoke up.

    My big thing is Metroid Prime 4, teased last year but not likely to appear this E3. I just want something, anything to show whoever’s working on it has at least some idea of what they’re doing. Samus Returns was great last year but I still dread another Other M situation.

    I’m also really hoping that Super Star Fox Kart, as rumored, isn’t actually a thing. That’s not the direction that beleaguered franchise needs to go in, especially not after Zero.

    1. ccesarano says:

      In regards to Splatoon 2, what I WILL say is that the single player campaign has a very “Mario Galaxy” sort of approach to its design. I find it to be one of the most inventive shooter campaigns because …well, it’s less a shooter and more a platformer, but with shooting mechanics. I also am not big on competitive play and much prefer PvE, but by golly I loves me some Splatoon. To toot my own horn, if you check the link in my name there’s a video on my channel explaining how Splatoon does a good job teaching its mechanics. Octo-expansion has Breath of the Wild designers on it, so expect more creative use of shooting mechanics for puzzle chambers.

      Otherwise, I wish I could help ya. I have plenty on my Switch I’ve been loving but some of those are third parties, as you mentioned. For me, it’s all about the portability so I opt to get stuff on the Switch by default.

    2. Redrock says:

      Why show Octopath on e3? It’s releasing soon anyway, they have been dropping trailers and video updates like crazy.

      1. ccesarano says:

        It won’t be a highlight but they’ll definitely want to keep it in people’s minds. Even if not during the conference/Direct, they’ll show it during their Treehouse segment.

  25. Agammamon says:

    I’m still interested in what Bethesda is putting out this year.

    I’m probably not going to *buy* it, but I’m still interested in what they’re doing.

  26. Daemian Lucifer says:

    even what it’ll be called

    Blast from the past.

    BftP for short.

  27. MadTinkerer says:

    That sounds like they’re trying to crash Nintendo’s party, which would be suicidal.

    Technically, Nintendo crashed Intellivision’s party. With Jack Tramiel delaying the 5800 (or was it 7800 at the time, I forget), and Sega’s Master System having great success in Europe but not much in the U.S., and Coleco abandoning the Colecovision, if Intellivision could have launched a second Intellivision console, they could have ruled the console wars for the next few generations. It’s just too bad that wasn’t Intellivision’s plan, but it turned out to be Nintendo’s plan and that was that.

    1. ccesarano says:

      Remember, though, that Nintendo had to convince retailers to carry the NES in an era when no one trusted game consoles. Hence R.O.B. the Robot, and thus it was packaged as a toy, not a video game console.

  28. slipshod says:

    If this is a mobile game or an online game, I might just die. We haven’t had a good Fallout since FONV, and my life is just not compatible with this reality.

    In other news, Many A True Nerd has some interesting speculations around how Vault 77 (of the Penny Arcade fame) might play into this game. Anyone else think that would be an awesome single player storyline?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5OqSV_zLrA

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Give underrail a try.Its not fallout,but it definitely is inspired by the old good ones.

  29. Preciousgollum says:

    Fallout 76 can already be pre-ordered from retailers, e.g in Game UK for £55, Amazon for £50 etc. despite the consumer being kept clueless by PR and teasers.

    This Dumb Industry…

    1. BlueHorus says:

      These Dumb Consumers, more like. Bethesda wouldn’t bother if it didn’t make money from pre-orders. They’d bother giving us more than a pretty cinematic and a plastic Vault Boy with if they had to….They just don’t have to.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Nice hijack of a gravatar.Are you keeping a record of the ones where you get a picture?

        1. BlueHorus says:

          Yeah, this guy has a particularly misleading email address, so I wanted to double-check if I was right.

          I’m not keeping a record, especially of other people’s emails. Thought I could keep a record of the randomly-generated geometric faces, match them to the emotion of the post I’m doing at any given time…

          …but that sounds like work.

          1. Preciousgollum says:

            Which ‘guy’ do you mean?

            1. BlueHorus says:

              Whoever it is has the blue shirt & white baseball cap in their Gravatar profile picture above.

              I usually write whatever comes into my head in the ’email’ field when commenting, in order to get a random gravatar assigned. Occasionally I stumble upon someone’s actual email address and get the picture they’ve assigned…which I’ve done here.

  30. Christopher says:

    I forgot to say what I’m looking forward to the most: Spending some days watching an hour or two of trailers every night with my gaming friends, followed by tons of videos with interviews and stuff, like Giant Bomb’s E3 coach hangouts. E3 kinda feels like a festival.

  31. Supah Ewok says:

    I think the idea that there’s an under-served market is plausible. There’s a lot of room between $5 phone games and the $300 Switch. I don’t know if it adds up to a “huge gaping hole in the market”, but I imagine there’s a lot of interesting things you can accomplish with sub-$100 hardware these days. You’re not going to get Overwatch or Doom 2016 running on that sort of machine, but if you’re looking to do family / party based games like LittleBigPlanet, Mario Kart, Super Mario 3D World, or retro arcade titles, then you can probably make that happen. (Particularly if you’re willing to dial back the visuals to 2008 and make up the difference with art style.)

    That sounds exactly like what the Ouya was supposed to be, and that flopped so hard I had to look up the name Ouya.

  32. Sleeping Dragon says:

    Thinking about this question made me realise just how much I don’t care about future games news. This is fairly likely because of the combination of excessively bloated wishlist, evergrowing backlog and limited financial means, alltogether resulting in me generally not buying games until a couple years after release (with some exceptions but those are few and generally among indies that do not get a lot of coverage in advance anyway).

    Now don’t get me wrong, there are titles I’m interested in, like CP2077 or Vampyr, but I am really only vaguely aware of their state and it would hardly occur to me to look for or follow the news on them unless they were shoved in my face, like when Shamus covered the Bioshock remake problems. Pretty much all the hype that people experience for pre-release news has shifted for me into post-release news, which I think might be kind of healthier for me since for example I don’t stress over release date delays and perhaps most importantly I get invested in the game almost exclusively when I actually hear it’s good.

  33. mopey bloke says:

    What I expect from this upcoming E3 is for SEGA to announce the surprise launch of their new console.

  34. ElementalAlchemist says:

    I assume Intellivision’s idea is to make something like what Nintendo has done with its NES/SNES mini things. Basically a glorified Raspberry Pi in an injection moulded case running an emulator with a handful of games retailing for ~$50. The question is, does anyone want to play the sort of stuff that was originally on an Intellivision?

  35. bigben01985 says:

    What I’m looking for at E3 this year?

    I really hope we get any news about CDPR’s Cyberpunk 2077. Apart from that maybe Bethesda will tell us what the heck Starfield is. I’m interested in what Nintendo will offer, since I bought a switch in January.

    Other than that I will just wait and see.

  36. PPX14 says:

    Apparently Remedy has a “P7” project which might be revealed. I would rather like a (proper) sequel to Alan Wake, but I doubt that will be it.

  37. 10d6 says:

    Animal Crossing for Switch?

  38. Steve C says:

    Stuff like showing a plastic doll for 24hrs is why I have zero interest in E3 as it happens. That is so bad I find it offensive. I might might watch some of the highlighted parts after. Bullshit like Watch Dogs, No Man’s Sky etc is too common to give any E3 announcement any credibility.

  39. Harold says:

    Disappointed that no one’s mentioned that the current Intellivision is being headed by Tommy Tallarico (who is president of the current company).

  40. Preciousgollum says:

    I was actually looking forward to E3… until it became clear that publishers were competing with eachother in who dares to jump the starting pistol.

    Having a deluge of opinionated fluff-pieces by media, (most of which will either turn out to be wrong, or will have no impact on game development), is getting tiring, as ‘fake news’ and unnecessary fan fiction, plus ridiculously optimistic speculation becomes the standard of mainstream video games journalism; some articles are needless, and remind me of the ‘nuh uh, my dad’s well connected with a friend who works for Nintendo’ type of arguments among 14 year olds.

    Journalists – just wait to E3 then show me the games!
    Your audience will thank you for exercising some restraint.

    Does anybody else feel the same way?

    1. Redrock says:

      As an ex-journalist, I do. The thing is, a lot of people click on clickbait. So media outlets feel the pressure to produce clickable non-content to stay afloat, even as they themselves encourage the audience’s habit of consuming those junk non-news. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle, unfortunately. What we need is a completely new approach to consuming news, which isn’t possible unless, well, everyone agrees on a reset. Not happening. People can at some point refuse to buy lootboxes and thus send a signal. But they can’t refuse to click on bullshit for free.

      1. Preciousgollum says:

        At least when it comes to lootboxes and other forms of pernicious ‘in game monetisation’ it is possible that Governments might intervene, although I cannot imaging this happening in the USA on any level higher than single states. Europe, on the other hand…

        But it will become trade wars. It already has. The GDPR regulations over data collection has caused some (mostly unimportant) US companies to, at least temporarily, stop offering services in Europe.

        Thank you for your response. At least we aren’t completely isolated in ennui over the video games industry.

        Eventually, I’m going to need some new blue jeans, and Canada is going to want its Steel, and Trump is gonna want that maple syrup for his breakfast pancakes.

        Good luck to you before America invades Canada in 2077, and the Thermo-nuclear bombs start dropping.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          So all we have to do is for ea to screw up again and offer something in preorder that is so bad that the governments will simply have to ban the practice.So 5-10 years at most.

          1. Preciousgollum says:

            The problem is that EA screw-up and sort themselves out in equal measure… as their mistakes and successes spiral around each other, and consumers act as the strands between that bridge and hold the strucure together…

            … so you could say that EA’s corporate identity and strategy IS its DNA.

      2. BlueHorus says:

        Have you seen the RedletterMedia review of Solo: A Star Wars Story? That comes with a pretty good example of how effective shallow hype can be – even (possibly) unintentionally.

        Short story even shorter: A fairly offhand remark during an interview about Lando Calrissian being ‘pan-sexual’ became a massive deal, because it generates double the clicks. First the ‘OMG Star Wars is being inclusive! Isn’t it great?’ brigade can write a load of articles and comments about it.
        Then the ‘Goddammit these liberals are ruining everything with their PC bullshit!’ brigade can ALSO write articles and comments.
        And then the two groups can argue with each other for even MORE comments.

        And the best bit? Lando’s sexuality isn’t even that relevant to the plot of the movie! A complete nontroversy, but hey, free publicity is free…

        1. Preciousgollum says:

          Yes. I’ve seen the RLM Review

          It managed to articulate this ‘feeling of unease’ or skepticism over the way the media has been used, more than I could, because it was both brave enough and non-chalant in its handling of the issue.

          The public have to pretend that they don’t know what is going on, otherwise some are labled as conspiracy theorists, even though the media environment is a breeding ground for that very behaviour.

          If you create the conditions, you get the result.

          1. Preciousgollum says:

            Long story short – people get uppity if you suggest that deeply held beliefs can lead toward the sale of Product. Who knew, eh? ?

            That exec in Robocop knew what he was talking about lol.

  41. Roofstone says:

    Short of getting a new Elder Scrolls announcement or perhaps finally a release date on Bannerlord, I am not really that excited for anything this time around. Who knows, maybe I’ll be surprised. I hope so.

  42. Preciousgollum says:

    OK, how much of E3 do you think will be internally ‘political-baiting’ in publisher PR speak & official hashtags, versus how much will be left to unofficial (journalistic) media. After Battlefield V AND Star Wars, will it be the theme?

    Wondering if “I see what you did there…” could be the new E3 Drinking game, and how dangerous to health that could be…

    Also, wow, amazing how many media outlets are part-owned by Disney.

  43. GoStu says:

    I think Atari’s plan is near suicide. I can’t see it paying off. What exactly do they have going for them?

    It’s not a back catalog of recognizable games. (Nintendo has them outdone)
    It’s not a valuable brand – the Intellivision name died with the crash of ’83.
    It’s not a reputation as a company – their latest stuff has been hot trash on a muggy day.

    Contrary to their opinion, I don’t think there IS a big hole in the games market today. I’ll concede that it’s possible to build a cheaper console than the PS4/XBOne but the price of said things is the smallest part of gaming expenses long-term.

    The ‘gap’ they’d hope to exploit seems like it’d be very narrow (if it exists at all) with mobile games hemming it in from below and the larger consoles/PC games hemming in from above. Indie games fill out some of that space between $60.00 and $10.00 pretty well, as well as ports/reboots of nostalgia property.

    If they have the budget to develop hardware, they should spend it elsewhere. How many indie projects are languishing in crowdfunding hell when a sort of “angel investor” might be able to snap them up for a good price, turn them around, and get them out the door to reap a fraction of the profits? Unlike many other groups that might try that stunt, I’ll at least credit Atari with having some knowledge of the games industry and its history.

Thanks for joining the discussion. Be nice, don't post angry, and enjoy yourself. This is supposed to be fun. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked*

You can enclose spoilers in <strike> tags like so:
<strike>Darth Vader is Luke's father!</strike>

You can make things italics like this:
Can you imagine having Darth Vader as your <i>father</i>?

You can make things bold like this:
I'm <b>very</b> glad Darth Vader isn't my father.

You can make links like this:
I'm reading about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darth_Vader">Darth Vader</a> on Wikipedia!

You can quote someone like this:
Darth Vader said <blockquote>Luke, I am your father.</blockquote>

Leave a Reply to Redrock Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.