Yup. It's time to start the schedule! Gonna be a light(er) one this year but I'm excited all the same.

Microsoft - June 9th 21:00 BST
Bethesda - June 10th 01:30 BST
Ubisoft - June 10th 21:00 BST
Square Enix - June 11th 02:00 BST
Nintendo Direct - June 11th 17:00 BST

Will it be light though? Like, Sony has said it won't be at E3, but that doesn't necessarily mean they won't announce anything during it.
EA not being there is... I mean, who cares? EA sucks.

Plus Nintendo is going to have to show *something* after basically doing nothing but Smash last year.

And I'm sure Square-Enix will have uh... some trailers. Maybe Konami makes its big return? Who knows.

Sony and EA were there last year and I also found it to be a light E3 so their absence this year will certainly leave a few gaps in the schedule.

There are quite a few indie games which I'm hopeful for so I'm hoping we see more of them soon! (Spelunky 2, indeed.)

I think it likely will be a light E3 this year in terms of content, but not necessarily because a lot of big names aren't holding stage shows. That's just the very belated shift away from those things being common finally coming to pass. Companies will still have booths at E3, and they will still announce stuff at the time of the show, but they're obviously finally starting to copy Nintendo by making pre-recorded announcement videos that are more scripted and controlled, and don't cost them loads of money to put on. This might be the beginning of the end for E3 in general. It's too early to say, but a shift is certainly starting to happen in a real way.

It's kind of amusing that Devolver is still doing their show this year. Their whole schtick was to parody these pompous stage shows, but now they're starting to go away. Maybe seeing Devolver make fun of them was part of what got the other companies to wake up and see how anachronistic they were being. Probably not, but it's funny to imagine. But with that being the way things are going, Devolver's joke is going to start losing relevance pretty quickly. Although you could argue doing it more than once was already stretching it a bit thin.

But the real reason I think it'll be light this year is simply because we've got new consoles around the corner again. The last year before a new generation is always a bit quiet. Not much new on the existing machines, as most devs are working on stuff for the new boxes. It seems likely that 2020 will be the big year for that, although there are rumours Microsoft will announce something this year. If they do, I don't expect it to be a full reveal. Just a tease of some sort. They don't want to fully announce a new console so far away from release, to avoid cutting in to sales of their current one.

When EA can spend a few million on twitch stream celebs to push a game and get great results, they’re not going to spend those same millions on an E3 event that comes off as cheesy and broken.

The days of the embarrassing live stage reveal are kinda done. And as someone who’s had to crunch hard to get builds ready for those in the past... thank fuck for that. (Comedy moment: one E3 we turned up and realised we were the only one doing an actual live demo of our game in the press event, everyone else was using prerecorded footage and pretending it was live. Boy did we feel dumb.)

I'm actually really looking forward to E3 this year, mainly to see what Xbox/Microsoft does.

We're not getting a full new console reveal, that'll be next year, but I think they'll be dropping some big bombs about the way they're heading with cloud based streaming systems and hints about what the next gen will hold.

I also wouldn't be that surprised to see a teaser akin to that first Xbox One X piece, where we didn't see the machine or get a name, but rather some excited talking heads chin-wagging about what the new hardware was going to bring to the party.

Their show should most importantly also be jam packed with games! I'm really keen to hear more about Halo Infinite and Gears 5, and I'm hopeful we may get a first glimpse of Playground's long rumoured Fable reboot as well. Also with Sony not attending the Xbox conference will be the biggest show in town, so all the third parties will be wanting a piece of the action to promote their latest and greatest, leading to what should be exciting event.

Throw the always-interesting Bethesda into the mix and the rogue elements of Ubisoft and Nintendo, and I think there'll be plenty of E3 hype and speculation to go around come June!

Honestly, I can't think of many potential E3 topics / announcements that would interest me at the moment.

I have zero interest in streaming or full-digital gaming systems, including Google's new thing. Microsoft seems to be headed that way as well, and the probability of me ever buying an Xbox One grows smaller and smaller by the minute.

Most of my beloved IPs are either dead, in development hell or have had fairly recent installments, so I'm not expecting too much in terms of known quantities. Ueda's been working on a new thing since 2016, but that's obviously a long shot considering the man's signature pace.

One AI: The Somnium Files trailer and soon-ish release window, please.

A new Death Stranding trailer would also be a possibility, but I feel like I've seen more than enough of the game at this point and I would prefer to abstain from watching any more footage until I can finally play the game.

Bethesda, EA... Pass. They don't need me and I don't need them. Unless it's a proper new Burnout made by Criterion with a full-fledged singleplayer campaign, old-school linear tracks, solid online multiplayer and zero microtransactions nonsense, of course. An owl can dream.

I would be curious to see a potential Switch hardware revision and I suppose now's as good a time as any to announce either a new F-Zero or a new Golden Sun, so those are basically the only foreseeable announcements from Nintendo I would be interested in. I would also love to be surprised by a completely new and promising property with a bombastic trailer, just to provide a nice change of pace from all the sequels and prequels and reboots. Something fresh, new, exciting and inspired with a solid vision behind it and a proper development budget could be exactly what I need.

KSubzero1000 wrote: ↑March 19th, 2019, 5:37 pm

Bethesda, EA... Pass. They don't need me and I don't need them. Unless it's a proper new Burnout made by Criterion with a full-fledged singleplayer campaign, old-school linear tracks, solid online multiplayer and zero microtransactions nonsense, of course. An owl can dream.

I hoping owl’s dreams come true! I would flipping love a new burnout.

I'm really disappointed two of gamings biggest names have pulled out of the conferences. I know stuff will still get announced, but to me, E3 is the conferences. That's what I get excited about, and look forward to. Its like your favorite uncle not coming round for Christmas.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Nintendo will base their stand around. An Animal Crossing Town would be cool.

I’ll watch as much as I can of all of it, with a few beers and some spicy nuts. Like always.

Now that I'm thinking about it, what all's on the docket for releases later this year? I know I want DOOM Eternal, Code Vein is a firm "maybe" and there are "AA" games like Man of Medan and The Sinking City I want to get at... but what else is happening this year? I feel like all the big companies have already released their big titles.

Updated with Ubisofts time

Updated with Microsofts time

Hope we see some more news about either Fallout 5 or Elder Scrolls 6. Either of those games on Switch, uncompromised, would be incredible. I'm sorely tempted to pick up Skyrim when I get a Switch. The thought of an entire world in my pocket still excites me so much. I thought we were nearly there when I bought Borderlands 2 for Vita, but unfortunately that game ran at about 10fps in most places and got barely playable at some points.

Updated with square enix time

Updated with Nintendo Direct date and time

Getting ever closer!

There are a few other events I'll be looking out for...

EA has multiple streams throughout its EA Play event (7th-9th June). At least that means I can cherry pick the Apex Legends and (maybe) Jedi: Fallen Order streams and ignore the rest. Quite glad they're not doing a press conference; there's only so much eye rolling I can do. Would also take a dream Burnout return, but I've accepted that it ain't going to happen in a way I'd like.

Right after Bethesda will be the Devolver presentation. If nothing else, it's always eventful! It's at 3am BST on Monday 10th June (7pm PT on Sunday 9th).

PC Gamer's PC Gaming show I really do feel has improved year-on-year. Still one I tend to pop on in the background rather than avidly watch, but I'm hoping for another improvement this year. It's on Monday 10th June at 6pm BST (10am PT), which is pretty much the old Microsoft slot.

On the smaller end, Limited Run Games are hosting an event at 8pm BST on Monday 10th June (12pm PT). No idea what to expect, beyond physical releases of digital games.

Lastly, Kinda Funny are doing another showcase, after the one in December that filled a little of the gap left by Sony's missing PlayStation Experience. It was an hour or so and had a bunch of indie game trailers, along with a few announcements. Highly recommended if giant AAA stage shows aren't your thing. It's pre-recorded, but goes live at 12.30am BST on Tuesday 11th June (4.30pm PT on Monday 10th).

I wasn't a fan of Sony's conference last year at all, so their absence doesn't dull my enthusiasm too much. Still get excited for E3, even if I expect MS and Ubisoft to follow Nintendo and Sony, and move towards something like Direct-style presentations before long.

I suspect I’m not actually going to bother watching any of them this year. I’ll just watch any interesting trailers afterwards.

I like e3 but im tempted to play along with TCGS this year