E3 2017: What Can We Expect From Microsoft, Sony & Nintendo?

It is nearly that time of the year for the biggest showcase in the video game industry – E3. For the first time in years, the event is open to the public and on paper this year’s event is set to really bring the house down. As we come off the back of another year of poor games, low sales and even more ridiculous DLC, this year the publishers really need to pull out all the stops in order to ensure that they keep people interested.

 

MICROSOFT

Microsoft will undoubtedly take centre stage as they blow the lid off Project Scorpio and reveal to us their brand new console. I genuinely believe that this system is just another version of the Xbox One on steroids, so I am not overly bothered with it, but they will want to show the world what their console can do so we can either expect a brand new Halo or even a new Gears of War.

Minecraft will have a slot on this show and we can all hope that this time it won’t be as cheesy or as scripted as it was last year, which made it laughable. We can also expect a new trailer for Crackdown 3, which seems to have gone quiet over the last few weeks and a brand new Forza. What I am looking forward to is more details on their upcoming third-party release, Sea of Thieves, which, so far, does look pretty amazing.

 

SONY

With no console to show off, Sony will have to rely on their arsenal of games that are coming out this year in order to try and knock Microsoft off its pedestal. We can almost certainly expect more from their VR software and a further catalogue of games being released for the system (because let’s face it, it looks pretty thin so far).

Some of the big games might include The Last of Us 2 and Days Gone. Both of these games have had numerous teaser trailers but no fixed release date, so it would be interesting to see where they go with this. Detroit: Become Human looks like a fantastic Heavy Rain-style game with multiple endings and then there is the heavily talked about Death Stranding. I am not expecting it to really drag in a huge amount of sales, but we can expect people to tune into Sony’s pitch just to see a bit more about this elusive game.

Finally, we have the Final Fantasy VII remake which has so far been bogged down with by it being both episode based and massively expensive. But after the release of Final Fantasy XV, it makes sense to plug this now whilst people are still interested.

 

NINTENDO

Many people who wanted the Switch have now managed to get their hands on it, but the number of games that are available for it are a little bit thin and so we can expect Nintendo to start showing off some big titles in the hopes to draw more people in.

We can expect to see more of Super Mario Odyssey and Splatoon 2, but many fans are hoping for a Metroid reveal. Nintendo need to try and avoid a disaster similar to the one they suffered with the Wii and due to the glaring lack of third-party games, they need to really come up with something big in the hopes to keep people interested.

 

ACTIVISION

Expect Activision to have a big role at E3 this year. With Call of Duty WWII making huge waves and looking awesome, we can expect a reveal date and also another trailer which will really show off the newest instalment in the series as well as a massive Destiny 2 trailer. Both games are starting to look like serious new releases for the next-gen systems, so it would make sense that Activision will plug these titles in till we are sick of seeing them.

 

WHAT ELSE CAN WE EXPECT?

With a lot of games already been confirmed for a 2017 release, I believe it will just be a case of advertising these titles in the hope to bring some sales in. With Star Wars Battlefront II promising people a single-player campaign, it would make sense that this is detailed further at E3, alongside the new Need for Speed if that’s your kind of thing. We can also accept the fact that we will have yet another FIFA this year.

One of the games I am most looking for to is Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the follow on to the brilliant Shadow of Mordor game that was released a few years back. I am hoping we get some new gameplay footage instead of another cinematic trailer but I will happily take both.

Bethesda will undoubtedly release yet more DLC for Elder Scrolls Online following the release of Morrowind later on this year, and also some new footage of Quake Champions, which has been quiet since E3 2016.

After Ubisoft took a break from the Assassin’s Creed franchise and their movie bombed in all sorts of ways possible, I have no doubts that they will showcase their newest instalment on the series which is rumoured to be called Assassin’s Creed Empire.

Finally, Square Enix will want to keep the momentum of the new Tomb Raider games going, so Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a certainty this year.

 

A WORD OF WARNING

I cannot stress to you guys enough that E3 is a showcase of what a publisher can do and it is designed to impress. If anything takes your fancy then don’t make the same mistakes I did with For Honor and allow yourself to be caught up in the hype train and remember that in some instances, the game may not be what you want it to be (think No Man’s Sky).