The 5 Things You Need to Know from E3 2018
It's hard to keep track of everything announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, so here's the crash course.
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It's the most magical time of year to be a gamer. E3 brings about absurd amounts of consumeristic hype as video game publishers lift back the curtain and reveal how the gaming landscape will be formed. With so many announcements over the past couple of days, it can be hard to keep every iota of gaming goodness straight. But there's no need to fret! Here are the five facts you need to get what E3 2018 was all about.
1. Microsoft, tired of playing second fiddle, finally brought the hotness.
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Photo courtesy The Verge
The Xbox One has had, by no means, an easy ride. Out of the gate in 2013, Microsoft faltered at almost every turn, giving Playstation a significant lead in the console market. Year after year, fans hoped the Redmond-based company would right the ship, to little respite.
Microsoft finally followed through in 2018. A reveal trailer for Halo: Infinite preceded the introduction, showing that Xbox meant business. Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox, outlined the itinerary for the presentation: 50 titles with 18 "exclusives," an ambiguous term when it comes to Microsoft, and 15 premieres of never before seen games.
They did not let down on that hefty promise. Highlights included three new Gears of War games (a mainline continuation, an XCOM-style RTS, and a Funko Pop! mobile game), the debut of Sekiro: Shadows Die, a new samurai-focused title from Dark Souls developer From Software, Cuphead DLC coming in 2019, and the reveal trailer for CD Projekt Red's CyberPunk 2077, the game with arguably the most buzz at E3 this year. Indies also got some time to shine on Xbox's stage with Zelda-like adventure game Tunic that features an adorable fox and .Sessions, a spiritual successor to the Skate series.
Spencer also showed that Xbox has an eye towards the future with the announcement of a new first-party studio, titled The Initiative, and the acquisition of four existing studios. The new studios included Undead Labs (State of Decay series), Playground Games (Forza Horizon series), Ninja Theory (Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice), and Compulsion Games (We Happy Few). But that wasn't the only announcement that expressed the future of Xbox...
2. We started to get an idea of what "next-gen" will mean.
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Image courtesy ComicBook.com
Prior to E3, there had only been a negligible amount of scuttlebutt regarding the next generation of gaming consoles. Specifically, a report stating the PlayStation 5 could potentially come out in 2020 and Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot's assertion that "there will be one more console generation," implying that the next consoles will be the last. The alternative, Guillemot claims, will be streaming services that all major publishers will be taking part in. Otherwise, there wasn't much to go off of.
E3 gave the opportunity for publishers to drop more tidbits of information that painted a marginally clearer, but still vague picture of gaming's future. Bethesda was the first to ambiguously unveil next-gen software with teases for (presumably) a space RPG called Starfield and a tease for the next mainline Elder Scrolls game.
Going back to Xbox, Spencer let loose the fact that the next Xbox is being worked on by Microsoft engineers, which is a bit of a hollow and unexciting announcement. Of course the next Xbox is being worked on; the high concept for the next machine was likely developed years ago.
More importantly, though, Spencer said of Microsoft, "our cloud engineers are building a game streaming network to unlock console-quality gaming on any device," echoing Guillemot's sentiments. EA discussed a similar streaming service, but in a much more finite way: it's called EA Origins Access Premier and it's looking to launch this summer at a price point of $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year.
Streaming services are nothing new, OnLive and Gaikai have been around since roughly 2010 and Sony has been running one, called PS Now, since early 2014. The major paradigm shift we are seeing in streaming services in 2018 is their viability. Before now, issues like latency, graphical sacrifices, and delayed controller inputs rendered game streaming unusable by gamers who were accustomed to tight and precise experiences. Those gripes, according to the publishers, are anachronistic in 2018, meaning that streaming is not only feasible but the best capitalistic option for publishers looking to cut costs. Streaming raises a lot of concerns, especially to gamers who want to feel a sense of ownership over their games and for those who don't want to manage a plethora of subscriptions. Only time will tell how the polarizing concept that is streaming services will pragmatically work, but it is an eventuality that the industry will need to prepare for.
3. The Mixed Bag That Was the Third-Party Conferences
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Image courtesy Joe Brichetto
Every year, the major third-party conferences fall on a spectrum from phenomenal to unnecessary and 2018 was no different. This year, mainstays EA, Ubisoft, and Bethesda held a press conference along with Square Enix, who elected to host a presentation for the first time since 2015. Long story short, none of them were perfect, but some were alright.
The most solid of the conferences by a decent margin was Ubisoft, who kept a consistent rhythm and delivered a pleasant breadth of titles. Ubisoft showed the next title in gaming's leakiest franchise, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which takes place during the Peloponnesian War in ancient Greece. The game overall appears just as stunning as 2017's AC Origins, but there is room for polish with some of the voice-overs and animations appearing a bit rough. Other notable events were the toys-to-life game Starlink, now featuring Fox McCloud from Nintendo's Star Fox series, a deeper look into Division 2 with the announcement of three free, post-launch DLC episodes, and a new partnership with Joseph Gordon-Levitt's "social and collaboration production company" HitRecord. The goal of the bonding is to make Beyond Good and Evil 2 the first ever crowd created. Overall, the conference had a solid tempo and no one title ever overstayed its welcome or had too poor a showing.
Right in the middle of the pack was Bethesda, who had good games and announcements throughout their presentation, but was hampered by cringy delivery throughout their entire first half. The conference kicked off with a musical number from Andrew W.K. to promote Rage 2, which fit the vibe of the game well but fell flat in the conference and over the stream. Other first-half shout outs go to Doom Eternal, a sequel to the 2016 reboot of Doom by id Software, and DLC for both Prey and Wolfenstein II. Todd Howard came out in the second half to not only deliver the heavy-hitters but to set an amicable tone for the rest of the show. Besides the aforementioned Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI teases, Howard went into further detail about Fallout 76, particularizing the online features of the November 2018 title.
Scrapping the bottom of the barrel were EA and Square Enix. EA performed at low-set expectations and focused on all of their upcoming titles, despite many of them not being targeted at a hardcore gaming audience. While it was a solid play to their investors, the conference failed to resonate with fans. Their one major title, Bioware's Anthem, also had a lackluster showing because it was missing a significant gameplay demo that would have put skeptics to bed. Square Enix, in a similar boat, was unwilling to take risks and only presented surefire titles, most of which had been shown or would later be shown at other conferences. Without any sort of unseen surprise, like their Avenger's game or an update on the Final Fantasy VII remake, fans were left to wonder why they opted to have a presentation at all.
4. Sony's focus on theatrics detracted from an otherwise solid conference.
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Image courtesy ComingSoon.net
Sony has been hitting their conferences out of the park for roughly the past three years, so it was no surprise that at some point, they wouldn't be able to match the hype; the bar was set too high. This was the year they couldn't clear the bar. Thankfully, Sony knew this ahead of time and set expectations early by announcing their press conference would focus on four marquee titles: The Last of Us Part II, Ghosts of Tsushima, Death Stranding, and Spider-man.
To Sony's credit, every one of those games had fantastic showings that any fan should seek out, even if I still have no idea what the fuck is going on in Death Stranding. The fact that Sony had other announcements, like the reveal of Nioh 2, Remedy's new game Contact, and the re-reveal of Resident Evil 2 Remake, accompanied by an impending release date, made those surprises all the more special.
But things went off the rails early on when Sony chose to begin the press conference in an ambient church setting meant to mimic a location from The Last of Us demo. While it could have been a nice touch, the reason for the unconventionality took too long to become apparent thanks to a lengthy introduction and banjo solo before the start of the gameplay segment. Afterward, Sony halted the conference to move the press into a traditional theater for the remainder of the show. This kicked at-home viewers to a slow and arduous interstitial that had a few announcements, but nothing nearly interesting enough to keep the pace up. Despite the strong proceeding showings, nothing could quite pull the conference out of the nose dive completely.
5. Nintendo bet big on 'Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,' but did it pay off?
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Image courtesy The Verge
Nintendo rounded out the conferences with their traditional, pre-recorded Nintendo Direct which focused over 50 percent of its duration on the new game in the Smash series, dubbed Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The former half had a plethora of interesting titles, like the shadow release of Fortnite on Switch and new entries into the Mario Party and Fire Emblem series, among a flurry of more.
The latter half was all Smash as series producer Masahiro Sakurai methodically built up to the announcement that every character who has ever appeared in the franchise would be returning in Ultimate. The next 15 minutes were spent hashing out the minute changes in the newest entry, from stages to move sets and Assist Trophies.
The heavy focus on Smash was a delight for hardcore Nintendo fans, but was it the right call for the House of Mario? As Gamesindusty.biz reports, Nintendo's stock fell six percent after their conference, likely due to the alienation of the mainstream market because of the large dedication to one title aimed at a core audience. Ultimately (ha), that drop isn't incredibly detrimental, because the title will still sell well, or even unprecedented, but it does stoke the fire of a growing concern in the industry over the slowing pace of the Switch. Regardless, Ultimate will be out this December.
And that's the way it is E3 2018. This year in a lot of ways felt like a holding period between the bombastic year that was 2017 and the inevitability of a new console generation on the horizon. Nevertheless, there were many games to be excited for and intrigued by, which all but proved that this is a wonderful time to be a gamer.
About the Creator
Joe Brichetto
An avid gamer from Bangor, Maine. He still has the GameBoy Advance that sucked him into gaming 15 years ago and maybe someday will complete a Nuzlocke of Pokemon Emerald.
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