My E3 2019 Predictions

It is that time again folks—E3 is just around the corner and it is time for predictions.

This year is surely a strange one for E3 as more companies pull away from the show. The biggest drop without a doubt was one of the big 3, Sony, announcing that not only would they not be showing anything this year at E3, but that they wouldn’t be announcing anything on the week of either. That means we likely won’t even see a State of Play the week of E3, similar to how Nintendo has a direct now during E3. Sony simply won’t have a presence this year, which pretty much gives the floor openly to their competitors.

Does it matter anymore? I really don’t think it does on a larger scale, because the way that companies can connect directly with press and consumers has changed so much in this to the minute news cycle we live in. Sony or Nintendo can drop a separate video like a Direct or State of Play on any random day of the week and insure that everyone’s attention is completely focused on them. Why then get bogged down on E3?

For me though E3 is always exciting. I love the hype and ridiculous measures that companies will go to show that they have the biggest and best games coming soon. I feel going into this that Microsoft has the possibility to have the strongest showing they’ve ever had, and I’m so excited I’m hosting a Superbowl-ish party at my house for their presser. I’m only going to be doing predictions for two big ones as the others would be a big question mark for me.

Without further preamble let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Microsoft

I think that Microsoft has a chance to absolutely own the pants off of Sony’s PlayStation this next generation if they play their cards right. They have made a lot of friendly consumer moves like Game Pass that offers unmatched value in the industry, and they have the more solid and stable network hands down. If they can come with the exclusives we could really see a turning of the tides, as it’ll only take a one or two Uncharted or God of War type big hitters to change the entire conversation. Going into the weeks before E3 Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, has told us they have 14 (!) Microsoft Game Studios games to show off.

• Fable 4: I don’t think this one is a large leap of logic to take. There have been rumors swirling since last year that it was really early in development through Playground Games, and we know they are working on something that isn’t Forza. In addition this is a IP big enough it would make for great headlines, and a fantasy open world RPG with some British comedy would play extremely well in the market. The time is right to bring back the warm fuzzies of gamers, and what better title to do it with than bringing back Fable?
• Halo Infinity: Ok, so it isn’t a stretch to say that Halo Infinity will finally be shown, because they’ve already announced it will be, but I think we will get some real, solid gameplay here. The teaser for Halo 5 kind of bit them in the ass when it finally launched, because that weird set piece of Master Chief in the cloak had nothing to do with the actual game. What you are going to see here is solid gameplay, and we will discover it is going to be a launch title of the next Xbox while also releasing for the Xbox One at a lower graphical fidelity and performance. I expect to see a free to play Battle Royale game or something of the like that is a separate SKU from the main game, because Halo is just so well suited for that and it would make them tons of money. As a really far out there prediction they announce it is launching this week.
• Gears of War 5: Duh, Gears is going to be there and this will be announced as their big fall game this year. We will get to see someone actually playing through a short piece of a mission on stage. It is going to look amazing, same as the trailer did last year.
• Gears of War Tactics: We are going to get to see a trailer showing off what this game actually is, rather than just an announce. I think it would be tone deaf if it wasn’t coming to the next Xbox, but as into PC as Xbox is pushing who knows.
• Ninja Theory Shows New Game: Most of the studio acquisitions just wouldn’t be ready to show something new at this time, but it has been a hot minute since we’ve gotten anything from Ninja Theory. I would say their newest game will be showed off at E3 as we have to show off the work of at least one of the developers.
• Crimson Skies 2 Announced: Ok, so this is me just trying to wish something into existence.

 

Nintendo

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a huge Nintendo fan, so obviously I’m excited to see what is going to go down this year. That being said I think it will be a fairly predictable Direct with a few smaller surprises and mostly just fleshing out games we already know exist.

• Luigi’s Mansion 3: We see a new gameplay chunk of Luigi’s Mansion 3 and get a release date. Safe bet, but certainly happening.
• Animal Crossing: Nintendo will drop a gameplay trailer showing us the new art style, giving us a game name, and announcing this game as their big fall release for this year.
• Metroid Trilogy: Since we won’t be seeing Metroid Prime 4 any time soon this is such an obvious and easy win I just can’t fathom it not happening. I mean, it has been rumored since the Switch has existed, but I think they are just waiting for the right time to announce. Now would be that time.
• Fire Emblem Three Houses: We already have a release date and will likely have a Direct closer to release that fleshes this out. This will be a brief teaser trailer with a detail or two we didn’t know before to remind us it is out this year.
• Pokemon Won’t Be Here: If we hadn’t gotten a press conference and didn’t know we were getting a Direct next week I would say this was insane, but I think that they were intentionally getting it out of the way ahead of time.
• Smash Brothers Character Reveal:  The long rumored, almost certainly true Dragon Quest hero is shown off as the newest character. As wishful thinking he is released today after the Direct as their “available now” play.
• NES Online Expands to Include SNES: I think this is an easy win and a no brainer as Nintendo quickly runs out of quality NES games to add to their online service. Furthermore, in the genius way that Tetris 99 was an exclusive game to Nintendo Online subscribers the first SNES game is available today and it is Mother 3 and Reggie comes back just to make that announcement since everyone always bugged him about it. Ok, maybe not, but a man can dream can’t he?
• Golden Sun Game Announced: Wishful thinking with absolutely no reason to believe it, but I’m living in my own fantasy land right now.

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So what did you think of my predictions? On the nose or absolute malarkey and shenanigans? Let me know in the comments below what your biggest predictions are.