E3 2014

[Yoshi]

EA is the first to announce its (pre) E3 conference schedule. I'll keep this post up-to-date as others announce so we know when to join the TNL chat room.

Publisher	Day	Time (CotUDT)
Microsoft	Monday, June 9	12:30pm
EA	Monday, June 9	3pm
Ubisoft	Monday, June 9	6pm
Sony	Monday, June 9	9pm
Nintendo*	Tuesday, June 10	12pm

*Not an actual E3 press conference

[kingoffighters]

One company does not belong Nintendo

[Diff-chan]

Seriously, are they even gonna be in business by then?

[gamevet]

One company does not belong Nintendo

They'll offer that stupid Nintendo-club conference thingamajig (Nintendo Direct! LOL!) they did last year.

Seriously, are they even gonna be in business by then?

Long enough to hold an E3 auction for the Seattle Mariners.

[Timber]

Seriously, are they even gonna be in business by then?

They have the money banked to stay in business for 15+ years of failure. Stop trying to act like they're gonna be gone in less than 5.

[Space Pirate Roberts]

Yeah, but they could still sell off or kill the games division if it can't get its ship righted. The new boss is at least saying the right things so far, but talk as they say is cheap.

...What? You guys were talking about MS, right?

[Will]

Some of my thoughts going into E3 2014:

Nintendo: Most reasonable people want for Nintendo to get their heads out of their asses and delve into their other great franchises for Wii U with new iterations of Waverace, Pilotwings, F-Zero, Golden Sun, Fire Emblem, Metroid, Starfox, Custom Robo, Sin & Punishment, Earthbound, Advance Wars, Pokemon, Punch Out, and so on. However their ultra reserved and slow moving development of their Wii U games comes off as them being stretched too thin internally to work on multiple games so they should push the 3rd party partnerships for their games more aggressively.

The Wii U is building a more respectable library now but the momentum is still too stop and go so I really do hope Nintendo steps it up at this E3. I'm guessing we'll see new trailers for Zelda and "X" with playable demos of Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2, Sonic Boom, Smash Brothers Wii U, Shovel Knight, and a few other 3DS items.

Sony: They has a LOT of stuff in play so I don't really have any concerns about them showing off a good showcase of games but I'm very interested in seeing Uncharted 4 footage, unveiling of the Guerilla new IP, Sony Santa Monica's game (hopefully not another Kratos GoW), a Last Guardian trailer, and crossing my fingers for some IP revivals like Syphon Filter or Omega Boost. Playable games I can see being The Order, Drive Club, The Witness, Rime, Guilty Gear Xrd Sign, Helldivers, and Hohokum again.

Microsoft: I think we know what to mostly expect of the announced and leaked games.

Playable demos of Quantum Break, Sunset Overdrive, Fable Legends, Halo 2: Anniversary, Below, Super Time Force, with video trailers for Forza Horizon 2, Halo 5, Killer Instinct Season 2, and maybe some teasers for Black Tusk's Gears and Crackdown 3. I'm hoping for some rabbit out of hat announcements though like new Banjo or Perfect Dark or a mix of announcing older IP revivals and newer ones. I REALLY wanted to see Black Tusk's new IP though so it was a huge bummer to see that shelved for another Gears.

Konami: I can't think of too much stuff for them here aside from another further along build of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and a trailer for Metal Gear Rising Revengeance 2 with the FOX engine. If they bust out a Contra or Z.O.E. sequel I would be ecstatic but I'm not holding my breath.

EA: I want to see more Mirror's Edge redo, Stars Wars Battlefront, and Dragon Age inquisition. Will be interesting to see the next Mass Effect as well.

Capcom: Ultra Street Fighter 4 is a given but they've been pretty quiet as of late outside of Strider and few odds and ends. I'm hoping for DmC 2 or Devil May Cry period, a promising new Resident Evil, and maybe some surprising but well loved fighting games brought back like Rival Schools/Project Justice, Powerstone, or Capcom vs SNK 3.

Bethesda: There's a VERY good chance the Dishonored sequel is going to be announced here, besides this I'm sure Fallout 4 will be teased somehow but I'm more looking forward to Dishonored 2.

[Josh]

I would pop nine boners for another Revengence game. if it comes out on ps3 or 360

[Will]

I would pop nine boners for another Revengence game. if it comes out on ps3 or 360

I would too, given that the FOX engine works so well across the last and current gen platforms.

I wouldn't be surprised if they made it for all of them, plus Revengeance was from what I surmised was a nice hit for Konami to continue the partnership with Platinum.

[Yoshi]

I like Will's thoughts and largely agree with them.

Nintendo almost has to be dealing with a lack of resources. They likely launched the 3DS with a balanced attack plan of making a few games for it while holding back resources to start on Wii U games. Then its sales sputtered out of the gate, and the balanced plan went out the window. That refocus on the 3DS led to a slow launch for the Wii U, and now it seems as though both platforms are suffering a bit. From a business strategy standpoint, courting third parties makes sense, but from a selfish gamer standpoint, I hope they are unsuccessful, unless someone comes up with some really compelling use for the Gamepad. On the 3DS side, I just want to see the newest Sega 3D Classics confirmed for the west. A date for Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright would be icing. Interestingly enough, as the console incumbent in my house, a particularly strong showing from Nintendo could further delay my need for a PS4. The longer I wait, the easier it tends to get.

Sony has had the luxury of not having to show their cards because of the brisk sales of the PS4. At some point, the system is going to need some killer apps though, and I think it needs to be in 2014. If we reach Christmas without having a must play title, I suspect I will be looking for excuses not to buy one in 2015. As I said, the longer I wait, the easier it tends to get. And there is now some risk with Uncharted 4 after seemingly key departures from Naughty Dog.

The longer Microsoft spends talking about the Halo TV show and multimedia bullshit like Quantum Break, the happier I'll be. Couple that with remake likely being their attempt at a killer app this year, and there is blood all over the water. Compounding their problem is the possibility that an official price drop this soon might actually be seen as admission of failure by potential customers, so they really have to be careful strategy wise. It seems their only realistic option is to drop the mandatory Kinect, but that seemingly is counter to their larger strategy. Having the weakest first and second party developers and the less powerful specs between the current gen consoles is really not a winning combination.

I don't understand how Konami is even viewed as relevant enough to be on IGN's list anymore. They've outsourced every IP they have except for Metal Gear, and either they won't let Kojima work on anything else, or he doesn't want to. MGSV, an annual update to PES, and a few social games does not an E3 conference make. Last year's was bad, and I expect this year to be worse. In roughly 25 years, they've gone from the best publisher in the business to arguably the worst of the major ones, if they even still deserve to be included at all.

These 90 minutes or so will be EA's last best chance to convince me that Origin's content can be so compelling that a "service" that brings nothing else to the table should be considered. If they can't sell me Star Wars games on new hardware by some of their best teams, it'll finally be time to put a personal fork in them entirely.

I have zero expectations for Ubisoft. Watch_Dogs will already be out. The Crew's 30fps performance as an arcade racer has killed my already small interest in it. Their Tom Clancy line is in shambles. Maybe they'll blow everyone away with something new, but they seemed to do that with Watch_Dogs before failing to hit their trailer's quality, seemingly even with the PC version.

In terms of those who don't traditionally have either conferences or streaming events, Bethesda is clearly the most interesting. Announcements of Dishonored 2 and Fallout 4 coupled with more of The Evil Within could easily upstage the platform holders. Others are more simple. Capcom can give me Dino Crisis, and Take Two can give me the long overdue PC version of GTAV, or they can both piss off. The implosion of Irrational really left the latter in a shitty spot in terms of development talent, something the former knows all about as they watch Mikami and Inafune peddle their new games elsewhere. Sega has what should be a slam dunk in Alien: Isolation, barring a Gearbox-style sabotage job. Couple that with the aforementioned 3D Classics, and anything else would be a bonus for me. As always, Square Enix's success to me will be determined by their former Eidos showings. I almost completely forgot about Activision. I'm sure people will get excited about Destiny while lying to themselves that it's something other than an MMO.

edit: I just realized I didn't mention the Vita once in this TLDR. That illustrates pretty well the problem Sony has to solve. What games can highlight the strengths on the Vita without people wishing they were on a console instead?