Why Everyone Won E3 2014

Mere hours after the last press conference hosted by Sony, the Web is literally buzzing with articles, forum threads, tweets and posts of all kinds trying to determine who “won” the E3, in terms of appeal and impact, with their announcements.

However, it occurs to me that everyone actually won yesterday, and not just companies. Let me explain why.

Microsoft continued on the same positive way traced by Phil Spencer since his arrival, with a conference that was all about games. Release dates for Forza Horizon 2 and Sunset Overdrive were announced (September 30th and October 28th, respectively) and they both look very good in their genres, with gamers already positively inclined to get them.

The long rumored Halo: The Master Collection is coming out on November 11th, with over 4K Achievements score and around 100 maps. All of the Halo games will be available in 1080P/6oFPS, with Halo 2 Anniversary getting a nice visuals overhaul as well; another interesting perk of this bundile is the Halo 5: Guardians beta, which will begin in December.

This is easily paired with Fable Legends’ beta, which will be available this Fall (you can signup here). The game is an interesting departure from the main series, with a strong focus on online multiplayer and a nice twist: while four players will be fighting monsters together in dungeons, another player will be able to play the villain, or Dungeon Master if you will. Either way, Halo and Fable are two iconic Xbox franchises and both will be playable this year, even though in beta.

 

Microsoft also showed some very nice indie games, which is somewhat of a change from their usual tradition. Ori and Inside both looked great, with the first one coming out on PC, Xbox One and Xbox 360, while the second will make its debut on Xbox One.

Then it was time to announce some exclusives for the future, and we learned that the third party Xbox One exclusive is called Scalebound, an action game directed by Hideki Kamiya and centered on dragons. Two trailers announced the revival of cult hit Phantom Dust, which will be reimagined with “all new gameplay and graphics”, and Crackdown, another beloved Xbox exclusive coming back with the original creator leading the charge.

While the Xbox One has sold less than PlayStation 4 so far, sales have been still very good overall and it’s hard not to imagine that they will continue, with a solid lineup and the new Kinectless, cheaper version of the console (available now in stores).

Electronic Arts had arguably the weakest conference, since they didn’t really show much of their most anticipated projects; both Star Wars: Battlefront and Mirror’s Edge 2 only appeared briefly with some “prototype” footage. That said, I don’t really think that anyone is going to be any less hyped for these games when they actually come out just because very little has been shown at E3 2014. The strength of EA is in its extremely diverse portfolio of games, and they will still largely own the huge market of sports games with FIFA 15 (unless Konami comes up with a miracle for PES 2015), NHL 15 and NFL 15.

 

Perhaps the biggest “news” that we can extract from this conference is that EA seems to be finally willing to let their developers experiment and even delay their games if needed; another example of this could be the next Criterion game, which once again has been shown only as a prototype. It seems like it could be crazy fun, with all sorts of vehicles racing against each other from jet ski to helicopters, wing suits and snowboards, but clearly it’s still very much a work in progress - not even a name was given.

RPG fans should be delighted with Dragon Age: Inquisition, which looks great so far, blending Dragon Age 1&2. The game will be released on October 7th. Also, a particularly delicious treat was the announcement of the Battlefield Hardline beta, immediately available for PC & PS4 - gamers love this kind of surprises.

Ubisoft stole the show in the last two E3 press conferences bouts, thanks to Watch Dogs (E3 2012) and The Division (E3 2013). Well, they did it again with Rainbow Six Siege, showing a six minute long footage of a pre-alpha multiplayer match; the tactical shooter genre has been limping for a while, and its king has come back to take the crown, after the unfortunate turn of the events with Patriots; Yves Guillemot said that the focus has been on online multiplayer and 60FPS gameplay.

Of course, there are many more interesting titles coming from Ubisoft. Assassin’s Creed Unity will have co-op for the first time ever, just as Far Cry 4, and both look amazing graphically, although not as good as The Division, which had another demonstration. Sadly, we didn’t learn a lot of new stuff about the game in development at Massive.

The Crew, the MMO racing game by Reflections, will launch on November 11th, while a trailer for Valiant Hearts: The Great War (releasing in a couple of weeks) confirmed that Ubisoft is committed not only to AAA productions but also to quality indie-like games, such as Child of Light.

 

Finally, Sony‘s conference was packed with announcements, although not all of them brought forth PlayStation exclusives. The biggest by far is Grand Theft Auto V for PC, PS4 and Xbox One, releasing this autumn with a significant graphical upgrade; Dead Island 2 and Magicka 2 were also announced.

In terms of exclusives, Littlebigplanet 3 was unexpected; we knew about that already thanks to a source, but a Gamescom reveal seemed more likely. Littlebigplanet 3 is being developed by Sumo Digital and will see the introduction of three new friends for Sackboy; all of the levels created for Littlebigplanet 1&2 will be playable in this third entry when it releases in November.

Of course, there was From Software’s Project Beast, whose official title is Bloodborne. We didn’t learn much at all about it, other than it’s coming some time in 2015, but Dark Souls fans are already salivating at the idea.

The real surprise was probably Let It Die, a  grim looking PS4 exclusive by Suda51.

We also learned that No Man’s Sky will debut on PlayStation 4, and Infamous: Second Son will get a DLC called First Light in August. A short demo of The Order: 1886 was shown as well, with the release confirmed for February 20th; surprisingly, Driveclub was a no show on stage, but it’s still pinned for October 7th.

Of course, PlayStation fans were waiting for something from Naughty Dog, Sony’s top in-house developer. As always, they didn’t disappoint, announcing that The Last of Us Remastered will be available on 29th July and then showing the first in-engine trailer of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which looked absolutely fantastic.

 

With tons of games coming out on the platform, including free-to-play titles like Kingdom Under Fire II, Planetside 2 and Loadout, it is really hard not to imagine Sony keeping their impressive momentum with sales. However, there are at least two more parties who can be easily considered winners: developers and gamers.

Developers won because they are finally getting their well deserved credit. Bigger studios have managed to convince publishers that rushing a game to the market is more damaging than it is beneficial in the long run, which is why we’ve seen most games dated for a generic “2015” release; indie studios, on the other hand, have been at long last accepted on the stage by all major players in the industry.

 

Gamers won because, quite simply, the release schedule for the next year and half is nothing short of breathtaking. While it is true that many big games have been delayed to 2015, they will also be better thanks to the additional polish. Moreover, it’s not like there is nothing to play in the meantime - we have titles like Alien: Isolation, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Lords of the Fallen, Evolve, The Evil Within, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Far Cry 4, Littlebigplanet 3, Driveclub, Forza Horizon 2, Project CARS, The Crew, Assassin’s Creed Unity, Sunset Overdrive, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Destiny, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, Battlefield Hardline, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and more, including Kickstarter funded Wasteland 2, Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey, Carmaggedon: Reincarnation, Massive Chalice, Elite: Dangerous, Planetary Annihilation, 7 Days To Die, Dead State and hopefully Pillars of Eternity.

Then there’s PC exclusives such as Civilization: Beyond Earth, World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, The Sims 4, Fortnite and Stronghold Crusader 2.

Then there’s the remasters/ports/remakes: Grand Theft Auto V, The Last of Us: Remastered, Metro Redux, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Oddworld New N’Tasty, Fable Anniversary. And of course, the sports games. It should be more than enough to tide us over for the remaining half of 2014, with the promise of an explosive 2015 calendar: The Order: 1886, The Witcher 3, Dying Light, Batman: Arkham Knight, Bloodborne, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Dead Island 2, Halo 5: Guardians, Quantum Break, Homefront: The Revolution, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Mad Max, Mortal Kombat X, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Star Wars: Battlefront, Tom Clancy’s The Division, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade and surely many others to be announced in the coming months.

 

And that doesn’t even count Nintendo games…Yes, it’s a memorable time to a gamer, and E3 2014 proved it once more.