With the annual corporate extravaganza that is E3 beginning this weekend, time to work out what’s coming up. Lets get going with our E3 Predictions for 2019. The conference is likely to be comparatively weak this year, as we still wait for news of the new console generation to break properly. There are a few fun reveals planned, but it’s always worth remembering that all of this is just fun marketing. Everything we see should be treated with healthy scepticism and an understanding that what we see is not what we will necessarily get.
Sony
E3 Predictions for 2019 for Sony? Well….
Following the launch of their state of play series, as well as the fact that they have a big PlayStation branded event to hold later this year, Sony have decided to skip E3 altogether. It’s almost like they’ve announced a new console already and we’re just waiting for the full reveal. Can’t imagine why they might not want to share the spotlight on that after what they did to Microsoft last time.
That and their big name games seem to be undergoing some delays.
Nintendo
We have a pretty good idea of what we can expect from Nintendo in terms of E3 Predictions for 2019.
They’ve already said that they won’t be showing any games from 2020. So Fire Emblem Three Houses, launching in June, will probably get a bit more airtime.
I’d expect to see something about Platinum’s Astral Chain ahead of it’s August release. (We probably won’t see Bayo news accordingly).
Animal Crossing has been rumoured to have a (October) release due to leaks, I’d expect to see gameplay here.
No Metroid Prime 4 following the restructuring and handling of the project to Retro, but the rumoured Prime Collection on switch would be a worthwhile placeholder.
Following their reveals earlier, I’d expect to see Luigi’s Mansion 3, guaranteed. The game is playable on the show floor. In addition, the remaster of Links Awakening is also guaranteed to be on show.
Plus maybe more Daemon X Machina footage following the beta test in spring.
Pokemon Sword and Shield have already had their own special Nintendo Direct, as is tradition at this point, so that will free up some space for the rest of the year to be covered.
There are rumours of a Pikmin 3 remaster for the Switch, one of the few games still trapped on the WiiU.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance has been a big get for Nintendo, and it’s releasing in July, so expect more footage on show here.
Similarly, I’d expect to see more Town, the new RPG from Game Freak if the release hasn’t been delayed.
There are also rumours based on some Chinese language leaks and a very knowing article from Digital Foundry that The Witcher 3 is coming to switch. The switch is capable of more than some people think, but I’m not willing to put this down fully yet. Similarly, rumours of Destiny 2 on Switch have sprung up in the days before E3.
As we’ve just had Joker, a new Smash Pass DLC Character seems likely. Whether it’s the rumoured Dragon Quest character or even Minecraft’s Steve we will have to wait and see.
What do we hope to see?
Animal Crossing Gameplay, News on Smash Characters. The Pikmin 4 that Miyamoto has personally been hiding from me.
Microsoft
E3 is Microsoft’s for the taking.
They had a truly superlative show last year, eschewing exclusivity on their console for the bragging rights of getting to show off some highly anticipated titles including DMCV and the follow-up to Dying Light. They will be the main place to see all of the potential multiplatform titles, but let’s focus on Xbox themselves. With a total of 13 studios now under the Xbox banner directly, they’ve made a real commitment to funding game development.
We’ve been promised 14 titles from Xbox Games Studios alone. So let’s start with those in terms of E3 Predictions for 2019:
343 Industries: Halo Infinite is likely to be a cornerstone of the event. We know it will be running on a PC as part of Microsofts Xbox Ecosystem expansion, but exactly how much gameplay are we seeing? Are we going to be waiting on the Scarlett for launch?
And as for Master Chief Collection on PC, hopefully we will get a release date for Reach.
The Coalition: Gears Of War 5 seems to be another lynchpin of the show. We got a cutscene (and the announcement of a bunch of spinoffs including Funko Pops and as strategy game) last year. This year I expect a full gameplay reveal and a release date.
Playground Games: It’s been rumoured and leaked, by many sources, but Playground is supposedly making Fable 4. A timeskip, studio change and setting change means the open world RPG will probably look pretty different. We know Playground Games can make gorgeous open worlds. Can they make a fun RPG game to put inside it?
Ninja Theory: Well, leaks abound and so we’re getting a 4v4 online melee combat game. Anarchy reigns. Bleeding Edge appears to be a hero based brawler that looks to be in the overwatch milieu, this should be interesting.
Compulsion Games: Well with We Happy Few now out in the world, it’s time for Compulsion to announce what’s the follow up. Personally, I’ve always liked their first title, Contrast, as it hit a lovely blend of indie puzzle platformer. Will they return to their roots, or stick with survival games? The only thing that seems likely is that they hold to their slightly sharp takes on society.
Mojang: Considering we’ve just had the announcement of Minecraft AR, I’ve no idea what the Swedish studio is bringing to the table this year.
Rare: People keep saying the words Banjo Kazooie to me. I don’t believe them. I’m sure it would be nice. But I’ll believe it when I see it. Otherwise, Sea of Thieves has been a consistent success for Microsoft, anchoring their Gamepass offerings. We should find out what the next year of the game looks like here.
Oh. And also I imagine we’ll see more of Battletoads.
Inexile Entertainment: I think it would be interesting if we had a big money back Western RPG from Inexile, to go with the resurgence of the genre in the AAA due to Larian Studios. Hopefully they’re allowed to play to their strengths. Especially considering Microsoft wants the PC Market to like them.
Obsidian Entertainment: While The Outer Worlds began development before the Microsoft deal, I would expect it to get more time here ahead of the launch later this year.
Can we expect something new as well? Maybe a tease or announcement, but I’d hold off on expecting another release in 2019 or even 2020.
Turn 10 Studios: This is a Microsoft show. There will be Forza. Expect to see a car on stage that you will never ever afford.
Undead Labs: Maybe we’ll get State of Decay 3. It’ll be a version of the first game with some new mechanics and a functional framerate. We can only dream.
Otherwise, Microsoft have already planned to talk in depth about Xcloud as a Stadia competitor. This is their big shot at convincing a specialist audience to get on board.
And it’s important to remember. This is likely where we’re going to get the first information of worth on the Xbox “Scarlett”. Xbox has had a tougher time of things this gen, and they’ll be looking to start the next generation of consoles with a bang. We won’t be talking detail, but we will get some feature announcements, including Backwards Compatability
Ubisoft
So thanks to Ubisoft producing a preview video we know (mostly) what’s coming.
From the top:
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint was announced in a fairly comprehensive show earlier in the year. While they will probably follow up here, I wouldn’t expect a lot of time to be devoted to it.
Rainbow Six: Siege has just announced it’s new operators, so I wouldn’t expect much. That game mostly ticks along at it’s own pace at this point, so E3 isn’t as important to it. But Ubisoft have said it will be appearing, so maybe we’ll get another tease of the year ahead.
Comparatively, For Honor may see some news following the game getting a whole new faction (China) last year. Though again it’s very much just continuing under it’s own steam now.
The Division 2 has just seen it’s first Raid launch, to mixed reaction, but we should definitely expect more information on the year ahead for the game.
Skull and Bones has been further delayed according to Ubisoft financial reports, so that has certainly slipped to next year.
We know that, also much rumoured, Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok is not going to be at the show this year. They’re taking a year off and letting Odyssey finish their DLC season.
Speaking of, we can probably expect another trailer for that storyline to be displayed considering their Hades DLC is launching.
I’d absolutely be expecting a follow up to Mario and Rabbids to be hinted at if not announced, that game is one of the best selling third party games on switch, and has been a critical darling as well. Starlink and the fox connection, I would expect less of a follow up. Especially the toys to life aspect as this had a noted lack of success.
Roller Champions has been leaked to Eurogamer, and seems to be Ubisoft’s take on the small scale action sports genre, a la Rocket League. Will this soar to the same heights as Rocket League, Siege and For Honor? Maybe. Ubisoft tend to have good post launch support and I’m sure there’s an audience for this.
There’s a potential new announcement that could be in the works. Similar to EA Access Premium and Xbox’s Gamepass, Ubisoft appears to have leaked the presence of Ubisoft Pass Premium.
This is likely to be a pass that allows access to a backlog on Uplay, or to new games as they release.
All of this is blatant speculation, but Ubisoft really do have an incredibly strong library in the Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy and Far Cry games alone. Add their various indies and the presence of Rayman and the Rabbids and that could be a genuinely great deal.
What’s the big game for this year? Well, according to the financial reports, we should be seeing “four AAA titles, including Ghost Recon® Breakpoint and
three other titles that will be revealed later and released in the fourth fiscal quarter”.
Hopefully one of these is Watch Dogs Legion. It’s been long leaked, but a move to a London Setting and a much greater focus on hacking as opposed to gunplay to match that setting would be perfect. The second game had a genuinely interesting story and fun gameplay, so further refinement here could be stellar.
Expect any announcements about a game featuring criminals and knives and minorities in post Brexit London to get top billing the next week in the Daily Mail.
As for the other two? Well Splinter Cell has been teased a lot in Wildlands and in Far Cry New Dawn.
Could the last game be Far Cry itself? Maybe something releasing next spring? It’s possible. New Dawn was technically a side game in the series, so seeing a theoretical Far Cry 6 is not out of the question.
Maybe we’ll even see something new?
According to Kotaku’s Serial Leak source, Jason Schrier, we’re going to be seeing some sort of co op sci fi shooter from the R6 engine (that siege is built with), as well as some sort of new action adventure IP in the aesthetic style of Breath of the Wild, titled Orpheus.
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts have not had the best year in terms of reception. I’m having a blast with Battlefield V but I acknowledge there have been issues since launch. Apex Legends launched to critical acclaim, but an absurdly hungry audience and lack of immediate follow up content has led to some players feeling shortchanged (by this free game). Also Anthem came out. Meanwhile, EA Sports and the Sims have continued to make their respective audiences happy with what they do.
So for E3 2019 we have a full schedule of what’s to come:
The big news here, and launching the show in full, will be Respawn’s Jedi Fallen Order. Respawn are flavour of the year after Apex Legends launched to great acclaim. That game will be having it’s season two detailed, but Star Wars is where it’s at.
We’ve been told to expect Gameplay. Maybe it will actually have a chance to be received well if people can stop pretending Star Wars action games achieved perfection in 1998 with Jedi Knight.
Apex Legends is next up. Season two has promised a better season pass progression system, changes to the King’s Canyon map and a promise of a new character. I’m intrigued to see what the second half of the year seems to be offering for Respawn’s other game of the year contender.
Battlefield V promises a stack of new maps in the next three months, plus some new game mode choices and changes to their Firestorm Battle Royale Mode. The big question about this showcase though:
Who’ll wake the giant that napped in America?
EA will, probably. Many many teases and datamined assets tell us that Battlefield V is going to the Pacific by the end of the year. The game has had a rocky first year without a secondary studio (like Dice LA) backing up the main team at Dice in Sweden. Hopefully their production schedule has now been able to catch up to the (sometimes egregious) expectations of the fans.
We have EA Sports FIFA next. Neymar Jr is supposedly the cover star this year. Considering the heightened pressure around the monetisation model, will we be seeing less focus on Ultimate Team in this presser for 2019’s game?
EA Madden NFL will also be there! That’s it. That’s all I know about Madden.
Finally, the EA play conferences will be ending with The Sims 4. Following a story based sci-fi expansion early in the year, is this something we’ll be seeing more of? Narrative based Sims expansions to vary up the ongoing furniture and content packs.
Square Enix
Square Enix have a reasonably full plate ahead of them. Tomb Raider did fairly well last year, and they’ve had a great success with their various Final Fantasy ports and offerings. As for our E3 predictions for 2019? Well. Let’s start with a little game you might have forgotten about.
The Avengers
Announced several years ago now, we’re finally seeing the other big game that Disney and Square Enix have been working on. A quickly deleted E3 brief tells us this will be a
Seemingly in the Anthem/Destiny model, will this be the massive cultural hit that Square Enix will be hoping for?
Square Enix are now the publisher for Dying Light 2, so we will be seeing this here instead of the Microsoft conference this year. We actually got a pretty decent look at the world and an extended Gameplay sequence. As such, I’d be expecting a concrete release date for this year.
We’ve had a twitter account teasing a new Sci Fi Game Outsiders for several weeks now. I’m intrigued to see what sort of game Square Enix thinks is worth this marketing push. And what genre actually.
Platinum Games will hopefully get a chance to show off their work on Babylon’s Fall. Announced last year with an atmospheric trailer, I’m interested to see what another relationship between Square Enix and Platinum can bring. Especially since last time we got Nier Automata.
Just Cause 4 exists and I suspect it’s a little too soon to see the fifth game in the series. But if Square Enix does want to remind everyone that there’s a movie on the way being written by the creator of John Wick, now’s the time.
Tomb Raider will likely not be at the show this year, as Crystal Dynamics have been busy with Avengers work. Maybe we’ll finally see the Tomb Raider remaster or the top down GO games get a wider release?
Final Fantasy XIV just had their big update stream, so we’ll probably just get a general trailer here, as apparently numbers for that game have been going UP since that dropped.
Of course, the other jewel in Square Enix’s crown is the remake of Final Fantasy VII. Can the hype possibly match up to the literal years of anticipation?
If it doesn’t, well the resulting crime sprees will be fun to watch at least.
And of course, we are all holding our breaths in anticipation for whatever the hell can possibly follow The Quiet Man from last year.
Bethesda
Bethesda had a fascinating year in 2018.
They’ve got a fairly decent hit in Rage 2 on their hands, Doom Eternal doesn’t seem too likely to fail this summer.
On the other hand, Fallout 76 launched rockily. The game has a roadmap that’s probably going to be expanded upon here up till christmas I’d assume.
Considering that Fallout 76 was at the forefront of their experimental game push, all eyes are now on Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Wolfenstein: CyberPilot. Will a co-op first person shooter from Machine Games and Arkane Studios be able to capture enough of an audience? Who knows at this point. Did you even remember that CyberPilot was coming out?
What we do know is that Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 will not be at the show itself. If we see anything, it’ll be a further teaser for Starfield.
In terms of other Elder Scrolls properties, Legends continues to exist and that’s about all that is worth reporting on. Blades on mobile has come under a lot of flack for microtransaction egregiousness since it’s initial beta but maybe we’ll see more discussion of the game here. Elder Scrolls Online again literally just launched their Elseweyr expansion, so other than reaffirming that that exists, not much to talk about.
And please god, can we not have incredibly awkward Live Musical Sequences this year?
What we expect:
Heavy focus on Doom Eternal, Rage 2 continuing content talk, Wolfenstein Youngblood and VR info.
PC Gaming Show
Sponsored not only by the Epic Games Store, but actually by several developers, the PC gaming show should hopefully continue to be broadly positive.
We know a whole bunch about what’s coming thanks to PC Gamer’s marketing for the event. As such, our E3 Predictions for 2019 are more like guarantees
We’ll be seeing more than 30 games at the show according to the organisers, so let’s run the list.
Rebellion to show off Evil Genius 2 and an unnannounced game. Some people will be incredibly excited by the idea of a Dungeon Keeper esque game that sticks to what made the original games of the genre so fun.
Last Oasis, a Nomadic Survival MMO with a fascinating scrap behemoth aesthetic and interesting style, will be getting more gameplay shown. Judging by the Steam pages release date of Early Access coming in Spring 2019, I’d expect an announcement on that too.
Tripwire Interactive will be following up on their tease for Maneater last year. Because who hasn’t wanted a Shark Based RPG?
Gearbox will be on stage answering questions about the launch of Borderlands 3. Hopefully someone has locked Randy Pitchford behind the stage, without his phone.
Since we’ve all of the playable Clans revealed for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, we should hopefully get our first gameplay here. Similarly, Paradox Interactive will be showing more of Age of Wonders: Planetfall. They’re saving their new Grand Strategy announcement for their own conference later this year.
Digital Extremes will make their yearly pilgrimage to the PC Gaming Show to show off new things in the world of Warframe ahead of Tennocon. What genre will they have added to the game this year? (It’s cooperative space combat for 2019)
The followup to Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo, will be being shown off by Frontier and if the newer game can inspire the same level of interest from those fans desperate for a new Zoo Tycoon game, i’m sure the in game footage will be well received.
It wouldn’t be the PC Gaming Show without a dip into the hardware scene. This year we know Samsung have something “groundbreaking” to show us.
Fatshark Games showing off something new in the Vermintide Universe, not tied to Winds of Magic expansion.
Devolver Digital
I don’t even know where to begin with Devolver’s E3 Predictions for 2019. Go watch the last two years of their conferences again.
My Friend Pedro is releasing June 20th.
I’m sure SCUM will get more news.
Metal Wolf Chaos will probably get a proper release date.
It’s Devolver. I’m not Nostradamus. Who knows what unfortunate sights we’ll see as Nina Returns once more.