This is my post-E3 blog post. I thought about breaking it into smaller post
As Pre-E3 press-conferences go, this year's most jam-packed with games. So here are the summary of all of the conferences, on-stage and off-stage.
MICROSOFT
Microsoft lived up to their promises and delivered games, games and more games. The things that caught most gamers' eye for the 2014 season were:
Halo : The Master Chief Collection (Halo 1 to 4) on a single-package
Assassins Creed Unity
Sunset Overdrive
DLC content to be XBOX first : Call of Duty, EVOLVE, Dragon Age Inquisition
2015 and beyond were:
Halo 5, Rise of The Tomb Raider, The Division, Scalebound, Crackdown
Indie: Playdead Studios' Inside and Moon Studios' Ori and the Blind Forest
EA
With a new CEO on-board, EA changed things up a little, opting to talk about games/concept early in their development cycle. Among the pressers, I find EA's strayed way too far from what these conferences are about. Traditionally E3 is to inform the retail partners and industry about the games about to be released for holiday 2014 and 2015.
A lot of EA's conferences material while offers interesting insight into their development plans, are way too early in the dev cycle. These include: new Mass Effect, un-named IP, Criterion-developed extreme-action game, Starwars Battlefront, Mirrors Edge 2.
Their saving grace is a list of well-known franchises to be released in 2014 that includes: Dragon Age, SIMS, UFC, NHL15, Madden NFL15, FIFA 15 and Battlefield Hardline(arguably is Battlefield 4 with a Payday2 skin).
UBISOFT
As usual, UBISOFT's conference is always the most entertaining, the source of awkward moments and exciting demos of 'E3 target builds'. The latter being a version of a game that somehow looks inferior when it gets released a year or two later. Perhaps the most exciting content that came out of UBISOFT's presser is the return of Rainbow Six : Siege, a 3v3 tactical operations shooter.
SONY
Sony had a lot going into the conference. Expectations were high when they decided to book cinemas around US cities to livestream the conference. It was nearly 2 hours of great game content, sprinkled with some smaller indie magic titles and monotonous middle section (Shawn's and Powers announcements).
2014 looked like a lean year for Sony first party, with the delayed Driveclub the only first party content. Sony XDEV bridged the game somewhat with the inclusion of Little Big Planet 3 (by Sumo Digital).
So, the strategy is for Sony to lean-on their third party multiplatforms with the promise of being the better place to play.
Some of the highlights of Sony presser for me were:
Destiny, The Order 1886, Bloodborn, Diablo III, Far Cry 4, Grim Fandango Remastered
No Man's Sky, ABZU, Batman Arkham Knight and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
NINTENDO
Nintendo did not do a live press conference, opting for a digital broadcast of their 'conference' on Day 1 of E3 and a steady stream of announcements during E3 days from their Nintendo treehouse at their E3 showfloor. I think for Nintendo did a great job with their E3 event, bringing all the games their fans would like to play. Some of the highlights were: Super Smash Brothers, Zelda and Splatoon.
SUMMARY
I love E3. It happens at a particularly slow time in the year in terms of game releases. It shines a bright light into the future as a beacon for all gamers to jump onto the hype train for the holiday season with a promise of great gaming experiences.
I do notice a worrying trend though. It seems that the industry is focusing on developing shared experiences, 4-player co-op seems to be this seasons' black. with the likes of Assassins Creed Unity, EVOVLE, Little Big Planet 3, Rainbow Six Siege, The Division, etc. Will the single player experience suffer because of this focus? I sure hope not. Fingers crossed.
