It’s that time of year again. From June 16th to June 18th E3 will be taking place at the LA convention center. The expo is essentially the biggest event on the gaming calendar, as every developer gets a chance to hype up what they’ve been working on, make announcements and show-off gameplay footage. Industry titans Sony, Ubisoft, EA, Nintendo and Microsoft traditionally hold their own showcases at the event as well. So as you can imagine it’s a pretty big deal.
One of the biggest talking points of this year is that Bethesda Softworks have announced that they too will be having a panel at the event. The Elder Scrolls developers don’t release titles anywhere near as regularly as EA or Ubisoft. Either they have a lot to show us or they are announcing something which they have plenty of confidence in. Either way it’s exciting and has sparked lots of conjecture. The most speculated theory is that they may finally have something Fallout 4 related to reveal but this is one of those things that’s suggested every year, with no luck so far. It’s more than likely however, that they will devote some of the time to their upcoming Doom reboot.
With Microsoft it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that we’re going to see some gameplay footage for Halo 5: Guardians, which whether you like it or not is the Xbox One’s ace in the hole at the moment. A Gears of War 4 teaser may likewise be on the cards. There’s also reportedly stuff in the works from developer Rare, an announcement which has prompted all kinds of discussion.
From Sony expect a final push on the Uncharted 4 front, probably in the form of some gameplay footage teasing one of the series’ signature set pieces. Sony also insisted that people will get to see more of Project Morpheus, their VR headset peripheral. One of the biggest draws though, is the elusive Kingdom Hearts 3 which may well make an appearance.
As for Nintendo, the as-of-yet untitled Legend of Zelda project is more or less guaranteed to pop up in some shape or form, along with perhaps a vague idea of a release date. Elsewhere fan favourite Star Fox (for the Wii U) will naturally get some focus, along with perhaps some updates on Super Smash Bros DLC.
Additionally, look out for Black Ops 3, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and Rock Band 4. Hopefully all of these sequels and reboots will be accompanied by some brand new and enticing IPs as well.
