VIDEO It's the End of the Show as We Know It: E3 2016

Schedule: (All times PST)
Most sites' live coverage begins at least 1 hour prior to the first conference. Some notable exceptions include YouTube, which kicks off at 9 AM on both Sunday and Monday.
Sunday, June 12:

• 1 PM - EA Play. EA is no longer part of E3 proper, but is hosting a semi-concurrent independent event. Their press conference from said event will air at this time.


• 7 PM - Bethesda.

Monday, June 13:

• 9:30 AM - Microsoft. Note the unusual start time.


• 12 PM - PC Gaming. Depending on length (last year was infamous), could potentially overlap with...


• 1 PM - Ubisoft.


• 6 PM - Sony.

Tuesday, June 14:

• 9 AM - Nintendo Tree House Live. Contra previous years, not a press conference or Nintendo Direct proper, but NoA president Reggie Fils Aime will be there for the kickoff of Nintendo's on-site streaming.


• 12 PM - Show Floor Opens. Most sites will transition to booth and demo coverage at this time.

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Right about this time last year, the E3 2015 thread was started. But this year the picture for the show itself is a bit bleaker - EA and Activision pulled out (the former in favor of their own dedicated presentation slotted in for the Sunday of the week of), and now Disney Interactive and Wargaming have followed suit. Big announcements are being made outside of the context of the main show by both MS and Sony. Nintendo continues to issue Directs without giving a damn.

Conversely, the Bethesda conference seems to have become a permanent fixture, again aiming for Sunday evening, and they're claiming we'll see some new projects traditionally thought of as being outside of their traditional wheelhouse. Ubisoft (assuming they don't get bought by Vivendi) are full speed ahead on presenting again despite not having an Assassin's Creed game for the first time in years. Nintendo is probably going to be talking about the NX, which I can only assume is some kind of mystical Yoshi box. The people who organized the disastrous PC conference are threatening to host one again. The future looks... strange.

In any case, conferences will live, conferences will die, and E3 will never be the same! Some thoughts for discussion:

• Will EA having their own show make their presentation more tolerable? (No.)


• What does Bethesda have up its sleeve?


• Will MS continue to push Hololens even though we haven't seen much of it since last year?


• Will Sony talk about anything other than VR? What will the PSVR retail for?


• Will we see the NX? Will it bring us food, and water, and smite our enemies?


• Will Square Enix be back with another conference? Does anyone want them back?

 

In all fairness to E3, it would take some fairly tacky antics to top this:

 

I feel awkward on behalf of the girl.

 

I can't wait to see what sports games are unveiled this year.

 

I feel awkward for the game developers because they are almost literally stealing money from intellectually handicapped children.

 

I didn't watch E3 live, but that video of the four hosts covering the FFVII remake revelation went viral within about an hour and a half of its airtime. It certainly echoed my reaction.

 

Eh, the point of that sort of stream is to react, they're reacting, let him who is without baseless enthusiasm for some project cast the first stone.

If Pele comes out to talk for like ten+ minutes again some audience members may actually begin screaming and that'd be entertaining.

 

Oh, i'm sure of that but, at the same time, i still think it's a fitting image to sum up why 2015's E3 was so lacklustre. Remember, the highlights of E3 2015 were a remake for an older game, a Kickstarter for the remake of an older game, and an X-Box Live Arcade release. Keeping in mind i'm only talking about E3 itself because there were some good games during the year but largely teaks to word of mouth.

 

Depends, are they going to cattle prod a now soul-deprived husk of Unravel-Man up onto the stage? Because that'll be worth a watch.


I hope you like Fallout 4, because you're going to be seeing lots of DLC reveals after the season pass price went up! Gotta justify those shady business tactics!


I'll be laughing if we see a peripheral that retails for more than the console, because then we can see another fad die before it's even unleashed upon the world.


The more interesting question is; Will we see anything about the Wii U this year or is Nintendo eager to just sweep it under the rug?

As long as they have Nier 2 in their clutches they are going to have my undivided attention.

 

Maybe Square-Enix will announce a Final Fantasy VIII remake next? Yeah, not likely, most people only cared about FFVII, which is why it became a major cash-cow franchise. Well, either that or something VI related. Though IX remains my favorite (and already bought the iphone port of that).

I think SE will announce a release date for FFXV before E3 though, right? There was something about an announcement of the announcement of a release date, this month I think? You know how game media is these days. Though assuming XV will actually release this year, I expect another trailer at E3, either from SE or as part of the Sony or Microsoft conferences. Maybe another Kingdom Hearts 2.9 trailer, to remind us KH3 will be done... someday. Maybe then they'll try something like 2.94382 to stall until then. Or a PS4 KH1/2 port (FFX already went that route).

I would be surprised if Sony even mentions the Vita during their conference, that thing is nearly dead (even the 3DS is not doing as great as it once was). At best maybe a Vita game will be seen as part of the background, or as part of a montage or big list of first-party games.

Uncharted 4 should be out by then (barring any more delays), so I wonder if Naughty Dog's next project will be announced. There's always speculation for The Last of Us 2, something like that, or some sort of Uncharted prequel or interquel (with Uncharted 4 supposed to be the final chronological game at least). Or even something brand new.

My biggest hope is for more news about Persona 5 as well. Sony might include a trailer, and I hope we finally get a release date for that, P5's been delayed at least once already. I love P4, but we've already had enough games with that group (though I will miss them). P3 and P4 had many similar aspects, it'll be very interesting what Atlus does with a new Persona game.

I don't really follow much Microsoft franchises. Its too early for Halo 6 (probably not until next year holiday at least). They'll probably announce more backwards compatible 360 games (maybe ME2 and ME3 by now). And Mass Effect Andromeda has already been pushed back to 2017, and who knows if there will be more delays. Speaking of Bioware, it would probably be too much to hope for another SWTOR Knights of the Fallen Empire cinematic trailer, though EA's presentation will probably mention SWTOR once. Battlefront will probably still be the highest profile Star Wars game.

I'm quite excited about Pokemon Sun and Moon, and Nintendo's Direct will devote at least a few minutes to those games. I'm expecting the Pokemon release date will have its own Direct though post-E3, closer to the holidays. And I'm hoping they'll announce that SNES New 3DS XL will come to America, I've been waiting on a New 3DS until now. Who knows if they'll have NX news at E3, or if they'll have their own NX Direct before or after E3 without competing for people's attentions. Probably more mobile game news. It would be nice if Nintendo's new club was up and running by then.

Maybe they'll announce another Zelda HD port (probably not Ocarina of Time again, maybe Skyward Sword) until the Wii U Zelda game is completed. A name for that new Zelda game would be appreciated. Unless it ends up like Twilight Princess and the new Zelda game is ported to the NX and is released on both consoles at once.

Still don't care about the big VR push.

 

March 31 is apparently when the FFXV release date is announced.

Yes - a release date for a release date.

 

I love the symbiotic relationship between video game marketing and movie marketing - vidya learns from movies to make announcements about forthcoming announcements, movies learn from vidya to offer retailer exclusive extras.

Wait, no, sorry, I loathe that.

If P5 finally manages to stay on-track it's coming out "this summer," so it'd be an easy exclusive for Sony to namedrop if that turns out to be some time after E3. If it somehow comes out before E3 I don't see much point in mentioning it.

I still can't believe we're getting Nier 2 and it's made by ****ing Platinum. It's like they peeked at my list of impossible dream games.

 

I do. As far as I'm concerned, gaming has stagnated. Developers have been making the same game over and over again with slightly better graphics (and even with that, the difference is getting more and more minute over time). This VR push marks the first time in a while that I feel like gaming is going somewhere new. There's just so much potential in that technology, both gaming and non-gaming-wise.

 

Like motion sickness and damaged retinas!

 

VR sounds nice... but it also sounds expensive. Several projects have been in development for years (Oculus and Playstation's version, forget if they bought it from someone or not) but its not like I'm going to be interested in buying a helmet or a special TV or some new superpowerful computer that can run VR graphics. For that much money I might as well just buy another console or computer or something.

A few years back, 3D gaming was being pushed as a big thing too, but that required a special TV too (and glasses), and even 3D movies have somewhat died down again. There's still the 3DS, but not like many games actually use 3D that much except for a bit of extra flash (and that's Nintendo doing its own thing again). Just like how motion controls have died out again.

If 3D takes off, and the prices are somewhat reasonable, great for them. But I think games are doing fine as long as they focus on gameplay, story, and have decent graphics (and don't crash of course). There have been quite a few high profile indie games, and its not like those had super graphics or gimmicks.

As long as nothing ends up like the Virtual Boy disaster, that's the worst case scenario. Never actually played one, but I remember seeing that huge helmet. Motion controls, 3D, virtual reality, these ideas have been around for decades, and have come and gone occasionally. It would be nice to see one of them make it eventually, but we'll see.

If P5 keeps to summer, I'm hoping for July or August. With no news of a release date (or even any hints), I doubt they would just suddenly announce it for May or even June. I don't think they're going for a worldwide release, are they? FFXV would be big enough, but Atlus probably isn't big enough to try for that. So Japan will get it first and then hopefully it'll be in English less than six months later. It would be nice to get a release date before E3, but I'm almost hoping a little E3 screen time will help raise its profile.

 

They said way back with their first release frame that they were, actually. I think that's possibly part of the reason behind the delay. Well, that and having to port from the PS3's nightmare hellscape architecture to the PS4's more conventional one.

 

I'm most interested in Take-Two's presence. I know Rockstar doesn't bother with E3 (every morning I wake up wondering if this will be the day a new Red Dead is announced), but could we finally get a glimpse of Borderlands 3?

 

The main thing I watch E3 for is the new Star Wars content. However, there are different franchises that I pay attention to like Halo, Battlefield and COD.

Any hint as to what's in store for us Star Wars lovers at E3 this year?

 

Well if you get technical: nothing. There will be no new Star Wars content at E3, because EA is doing their own show at roughly the same time.

That said they might have some news at their conference on Sunday, but I haven't seen anything in the press about possible projects.

 

Those are problems that can be fixed as the technology progresses.

 

I can't get excited for VR. I don't understand the regard for it as a revolutionary new step in game design. It's just an added level of immersion into the game world, which is certainly nice and appealing, but I doubt it will change the games themselves in any significant way. Am i missing something here?

 

So EA is having their own show apart from E3 at the same time? Why not just converge the two?

 

Everyone starts to drop out of E3 then put's there own show around the time E3 is happening. Why not just stay at E3? Even though EA won't be present I bet the games will still be playable on the show floor.

 

Yeah, seems stupid have your own show when it will most likely be overshadowed by E3

 

It will be hard for E3 to overshadow anything if all the big publishers leave and do their own things. Eventually, it will turn into a showcase for indie games, if this trend continues.