E3 2018: 5 Games You Can Expect At The EA Play Event

The annual EA Play event will return to E3 this year. Emanating out of the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles while also being broadcast worldwide, the event will showcase the best and brightest of the upcoming EA catalogue via an opening presentation, before letting fans run wild with hands-on sessions.

Bunch of lucky bastards.

Of course, nothing has been set in stone about what’ll be present during the event, but we can make a couple of educated guesses. If anything, they’ll be more likely to happen than our left-field predictions. You should check that article out by the way, you’ll love it. With that said, here’s what you can expect from the EA Play event at E3.

 

1. Anthem

Arguably the crown jewel of EA’s gaming line-up for the next year, Anthem blew everyone away with a brilliant demo during last year’s E3. Being developed by Bioware, the creators of Dragon Age and Mass Effect, Anthem looks to fuse flying exosuits, giant monsters and co-op gameplay to create the next great shooter/RPG hybrid.

The creative director for the game, Brenon Holmes, confirmed in a reply on a Reddit post that Anthem will have huge presence during both E3 and the EA Play event, with a playable demo confirmed. Considering it’s been just under a year since the game was originally announced and the only bit of news since has been that the game has been delayed until 2019, it’s good to see that Anthem will be front and center this year. Let’s hope it lives up to the expectation.

 

2. Dragon Age 4

Speaking of Bioware, it seems like fans have been waiting a while to see a follow-up to Dragon Age: Inquisition. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect an announcement of some kind for Dragon Age 4, especially when you consider that different developers and writers have basically already confirmed the game anyway on Twitter.

Still, if DA 4 was announced, it’d be a while before it ever reached shop shelves and digital marketplaces, and there certainly wouldn’t be a playable demo available at the event. Expect a 30 second stinger trailer at the end of the conference at most, revealing next to nothing about the game yet stealing the show regardless.

 

3. Sportsball

“Do you hear that, Mr Anderson? That’s the sound of inevitability.” Whatever your feelings are on annual sports releases, the fact remains that they’re an important and profitable part of EA’s portfolio. They’re here to stay, and they’re going to be a big part of the event. Get used to it. Or don’t. I’m not your mum.

As sure as the sky is blue and the Sun rises and sets in the morning, you can expect new releases in the form of FIFA 19, Madden NFL 19, NHL 19 and maybe even a new NASCAR game too. Why not? It would be interesting to see more from EA’s expansive roster of sports games though, including boxing (Fight Night) and snowboarding (SSX), mainly because a 15 minute FIFA presentation is my idea of purgatory.

 

4.Battlefield V

We know it’s coming, and we also know there’s a reveal imminently, but it’s already been confirmed that Battlefield V will form an integral part of the EA Play line-up. The May 23rd reveal for the game will likely cover a broad range of what Battlefield V is all about, but EA Play, like 2016’s event will Battlefield 1, will be the first chance to showcase actual gameplay with the public.

Though it probably won’t take up much time during the conference, you should probably expect some kind of hour long after show with different celebrities getting their hands on the game. Maybe we’ll even see Snoop Dogg getting high again, like we did in 2016.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJwrZ4DmZqg

Geez, video game events are weird.

 

5. A New EA Originals Game

One of the better schemes by EA in recent memory has been the EA Originals program, which has been designed to put the promotional juggernaut that is EA behind some smaller indie titles. The eclectic line-up already includes Unravel, Fe and A Way Out, and we reckon next month we’ll see another addition to the list.

Mr “Fuck The Oscars” Josef Fares has already confirmed that he’s working on a new game, which could be revealed at EA Play. We’re also still waiting for another EA Originals game, Sea of Solitude, as details about that game have been scarce since 2016. However, we’d wager something entirely new will be debuted. No idea what that’ll be, but still.

And that’s what you can expect from next month’s EA Play event? Do you agree with this list? Are you expecting another announcement entirely? Sound off in the comments below, and take a look at what we’d like to see from Xbox and Microsoft.