VIDEO Gaming on a Sunday Afternoon: E3 2018

♪ ♫ I go off to Sony on a Monday evening
Tuesday I go off to Nintendo
I'll be back for Microsoft before it's time for sunny-down
I'll be gaming on a Sunday afternoon ♫ ♪

So, in one week, the events that are ever-creeping their way further forward into the preceding weekend begin: E3.

Here's the schedule for the bigger events:

Saturday the 9th
11:00am PT / 2:00pm EST: EA Play

Sunday the 10th
1:00pm PT / 4:00pm EST: Microsoft
6:30pm PT / 9:30pm EST: Bethesda.
8:00pm PT / 11:00pm EST: Devolver Digital

Monday the 11th
10:00am PT / 1:00pm EST: Square Enix
1:00pm PT / 4:00pm EST: Ubisoft
3:00pm PT / 6:00pm EST: PC Gaming Show
3:30pm / 6:30pm EST: Nintendo Splatoon 2 World Championship opening rounds.
6:00pm PT / 9:00pm EST: Sony.

Tuesday the 12th
9am PT/12pm EST: Nintendo video presentation
1:00pm PT/4:00pm EST: Nintendo Splatoon 2 World Championship finals
Following the Above: Nintendo Smash Bros Invitational 2018
Between / During All of the Above: Nintendo Treehouse Live

Wednesday the 13th -Thursday the 14th
All Day: Nintendo Treehouse Live

And possibly of related note, Apple's WWDC runs before E3 from the 4th to the 8th, so there might be some gaming-related news coming out of there as well.

 

I agree.

Also, 9 PM on a Monday, seriously. Ugh.

 

They seem to be streamlining further- Sony's conference is said to be primarily focused on only 4 games: Death Stranding, The Last of Us 2, Spider-Man & Ghost of Tsushima.

Meanwhile, on the Nintendo front, leaks suggest Assassins Creed, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Overcooked 2, a new title called Killer Queen Black, Paladins, FIFA 19, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, Mario Tennis Aces & Fortnite will be hitting Switch. As well as the previously announced Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee.

 

They'll also probably have Tomb Raider. Might be too early but it's possible they might be able to announce Tokyo RPG Factory's next project too. They haven't had a conference in 3 years so that would seem like a plausible announcement to fill out a full conference.

 

Yeah, they paid for the conference, they're going to push big fall titles for sure.

 

Oh, well, yeah- but then most of an E3 conference is about games that aren't new reveals since they're trying to hype up sales for stuff hitting this year.

 

On the WWDC side this week, Apple was showing off a multi-user AR setup that interacts with physical LEGO sets:



With the VR hype train not taking center stage at conventions this year, I'm curious if we'll get more of an AR push instead. Seems like something Nintendo and Microsoft are equipped to utilize (if Hololens ever becomes anything except an experiment, at least). And with the tech being more accessible in general, it seems like it can get more momentum while VR still tries to figure itself out.

 

I think AR being able to be implemented on existing smart devices gives it a head start in the accessibility and mobility aspects. And since it's mostly just an extension of existing mobile platform interactions, the language for using AR is already established and integrated into society (unlike VR, which is still experimenting with what it's language of interaction will be) so it's really more a matter of getting software out there that really starts to take advantage of AR in ways other than simple AR sticker tricks.

Non-gaming-related AR apps would probably be best positioned for that initially, though- and then game developers can expand those uses into game-related content.

Nintendo did some things in this regard with the 3DS and Wii U but never went all-in on a really solid app- it was mostly secondary demo-type apps included on the 3DS, etc.