The Round-up E3 2018: 11/06/2018
We’ve been following E3 this year and it has been absolutely jam-packed with content! Today we’re focusing on the first three industry giants: EA, Xbox, and Bethesda. In-between major announcements, from the reveal of HALO Infinite to Elder Scrolls galore, Microsoft announced some major publisher acquisitions and Bethesda had some fun with a brilliant trailer for ‘Skyrim: Very Special Edition’ - featuring your home companion Amazon Alexa and comedian Keegan-Michael!
EA Conference:
Battlefield V follows the Battle Royale trend and addresses controversiesRelease date: October 19th, Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, & PCBattlefield V is set to expand your WW2 Journey with ‘untold stories’ from the Battlefield. Developers EA DICE showcased a new trailer, multiplayer gameplay, and touched on the single-player campaign: "War Stories”.Following the Fortnite trend, DICE have announced that Battlefield V will have a "Battle Royale" mode. They were also heavily applauded for expressing that there will be no microtransactions or loot boxes. This is something that EA came heavily under fire for last November, following the launch of Star Wars Battlefront II.Star Wars Battlefront IIAlready released - showcase for additional content releasing June 12th.Currently in Han Solo Season, the additional content is set to bring players into the Clone Wars. There was a strong emphasis on moving forward from previous controversies, which led to an overhaul of the progression system to combat negative press and consumer backlash. Respawn Entertainment also announced an upcoming Star Wars game called, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.Unravel twoThe sequel to the popular platformer ‘Unravel’ was announced and launched at the EA conference! Available now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC for £15.99. This has been used as a tactic to drive sales and is something that’s been coming into effect more and more, following last year’s E3.Command and Conquer Rivals: Mobile TitleThis has received a high level of negativity on social media, most notably for ‘reducing the decades old franchise to a mobile title announcement’, with no new PC RTS (Real TIme Strategy Game) in sight. The reveal trailer currently has 36k downvotes (and counting) on YouTube, versus a meagre 1.5k upvotes.AnthemRelease date: February 22nd 2019 on PS4, PC, and Xbox One.BioWare’s highly anticipated new title Anthem had its time to shine and was the EA conference headliner. Abilities and gameplay centred around ‘Javelins’, the exo-suits worn by the players, was detailed for the shared-world RPG.Origin Access Premier:EA is launching Origin Access Premier, a new premium subscription tier for Origin Access, which will be £14.99 per month. In the base version of Origin Access you have access to the ‘vault’ and can play a selection of older games from EA and other publishers as much as you like. On top of this, Premier will grant you unlimited play for all of EA’s new releases from five days prior to launch. With more and more of these services emerging for consumers, this could eventually remove the need to pay for games individually.
Microsoft/Xbox Conference:
The conference was set to impress from the start, as it began with an announcement for HALO Infinite (Xbox exclusive). This was followed by a statement from Phil Spencer, Executive President of Gaming at Microsoft, stating that there was to be 50 games, 18 exclusives, and 15 world premieres showcased.Notable fresh announcements include: Forza Horizon 4 (Xbox exclusive), Just Cause 4, Devil May Cry 5, Ori: Will of the Wisps, Sekiro : Shadows Die Twice, and Bandai Namco’s Jump Force. We also saw more from Crackdown 3 (featuring Terry Crews), METRO Exodus, and Disney’s Frozen was showcased as a new area in the hugely popular upcoming title Kingdom Hearts III.
Gears of War and Funko POP!Xbox also announced a conglomeration of titles for one of the console’s most popular exclusives, Gears of War. Including: Gears Tactics for PC, the highly anticipated next instalment in the series: Gears of War 5, oh, and a collaboration with Funko POP! for a mobile title - Gears POP!.
Major First-party Acquisitions by Xbox:
- Ninja Theory (Known for: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice - critically acclaimed)
- Undead Labs (Known for: State of Decay)
- Playground Games (Known for: Forza Horizon)
- Compulsion (Known for: We Happy Few - a trailer for this was also shown ahead of August 10th release)
These are all steps forward in a movement to increase the number of desirable Xbox Exclusives, a race it has been losing to Sony during this generation.
Xbox Game PassFallout 4, Tom Clancy’s The Division, and The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited are now available ‘from today’ (June 10th) on Xbox Game Pass - all upcoming titles will be added to the catalogue on the same day as release.FastStart was also announced for Xbox Game Pass, an algorithm that analyses how you, as an individual, play various titles and prioritises which data to download first. This enables you to get into the catalogued games twice as fast as before.
Cyberpunk 2077The conference closed with the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 announcement trailer, from the studio behind the popular Witcher series - CD Projekt Red.
Bethesda Conference:
Listed on Metacritic as the #1 Publisher in the world, Bethesda kicked off its conference with a performance from Andrew W.K to announce Rage 2. It also announced a bunch of previously unannounced titles: DOOM Eternal, Wolfenstein Youngblood, and brand new IP Starfield.PR Highlight:A humorous, seemingly joke, announcement trailer for ‘Skyrim: Very Special Edition’ was screened during the conference. Keegan-Michael stars in the meme-filled trailer for an Amazon Alexa port of the hugely successful Skyrim. He attempts to navigate the aural text-adventure via scenarios presented by the device and by using voice - or, more appropriately, ‘shout’ commands! It turns out, you can actually try this out right now at home - don’t forget to ‘eat all of the cheese’! Fallout 76:Release date: November 14th, Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, & PC.Sitting as a prequel to the Fallout series and set in West Virginia, Fallout 76 was the headline act of the conference and is Bethesda’s first ever shared-world online survival title.Fallout: Shelter is out now on PS4 and Switch, following its success on iOS, Android, PC, and Xbox. It has been played by over 120,000,000 people - more people than every game Bethesda has made combined. This success led to the creation and announcement of The Elder Scrolls: Blades, a free to play mobile RPG. Todd Howard, Executive Producer at Bethesda, expressed that it’s, "A massive first person RPG with console quality graphics, but with a uniquely mobile experience." It will, however, make its way to VR and other platforms at a later date.The Elder Scrolls: Legends:Featured in ‘Mobile’s apps of 2017’, according to Apple, The Elder Scrolls: Legends is coming to PS4 and Xbox One this year. The Elder Scrolls VI:A major announcement, revealing the next instalment in the Elder Scrolls series. This received a standing ovation and is maintaining a strong social media presence.Starfield:The first, brand new, wholly original franchise announced by Bethesda in 25 years and is coming to next-gen. Todd Howard said this is one which they ‘feel uniquely positioned to pull off’. 
Notable hashtags:
#E32018#EAPlay#XboxE3#BE3#Fallout76#Cyberpunk2077Check back tomorrow for the next instalment!