Preston’s View on the Ups and Downs of Each E3 2019 Press Conference

Another Gaming Christmas (a.k.a. E3) has come and gone, and a hefty number of new games and expansions were shown off to the numerous attendees. Out of all the companies that showed up to the party, only seven of the biggest publishers hosted press conferences to announce their lineups. Now that the convention has concluded, the time has come for me to tell you my opinion on the pros and cons of each individual conference. You are more than welcome to tell me your own views, whether they compare to or contrast with mine.

I’ve been a longtime fan of Electronic Arts’ catalog, but I found this to be a slightly underwhelming edition of EA Play. The star of the show, in my book, was the demonstration of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. So far, I really like the combat and parkour-like platforming. And from what I’ve seen in the cutscenes, the plot will not disappoint. EA is really trying to prove that you don’t need the Battlefront name just to be a good Star Wars game. The new editions of FIFA and Madden NFL were displayed, the former of which has a mode that is akin to FIFA Street. Everything else about EA Play was simply updates/expansions for Battlefield V, The Sims 4, and Apex Legends. It wasn’t a terrible conference by any means, but I feel like EA could’ve brought more things to the table, like the latest game in the Need for Speed franchise.

Microsoft’s press conference was well above average this year, with the star of their show being the Project Scarlett console. This mean piece of machinery promises super-short load times, 8K resolution, and 120 frames per second. The first confirmed launch title for this new console is none other than Halo Infinite, which isn’t really a surprise to me. Microsoft’s current console, the Xbox One, is receiving a new remote play functionality similar to that of the PlayStation family. There’s even a new controller coming called the Elite Series 2, which has a 40-hour battery life, a charging dock, and Bluetooth compatibility. PC gamers will be happy to know that the Xbox Game Pass will soon finally be arriving to Windows computers. To close this paragraph, I’ll list all of the other games and updates that were displayed at this conference:

• The Lego Speed Champions pack for Forza Horizon 4
• Cyberpunk 2077, starring Keanu Reeves
• Gears 5
• Elden Ring
• Phantasy Star Online 2
• Psychonauts 2, developed by the newly-acquired Double Fine
• The Battletoads reboot
• The Outerworlds
• A reboot of Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
• Bleeding Edge
• Minecraft Dungeons
• A game based on The Blair Witch Project
• Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
• Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
• Tales of Arise
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps
• Borderlands 3
• State of Decay 2: Heartland
• Spiritfare
• Wasteland 3
• Dying Light 2
• Way to the Woods
• Gears Pop
• The Legend of Wright
• 12 Minutes
• Crossfire X

As you can see, Microsoft had an absolute butt-ton of games on display this year. I applaud them for their lineup, and I can’t wait to hear more about Scarlett.

Bethesda didn’t have anything mind-blowing to share, but they had a truckload of updates for their current games and trailers for their upcoming titles. We even witnessed announcements for the beginnings of new IP’s — An action game called Ghostwire: Tokyo, and a firearm-filled game called Deathloop. And finally, Bethesda announced their streaming service called Orion, which sounds like a competitor to Google’s Stadia. All aboard the streaming bandwagon! The remainder of Bethesda’s presentation included…

• Doom Eternal
• Fallout 76, which is soon getting NPC’s and a 52-player battle royale mode
• The Nintendo Switch port of Elder Scrolls: Blades
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood
• The Elder Scrolls VI
• Commander Keen mobile game
• “Rise of the Ghosts” expansion for Rage 2
• Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot VR game
• “Scalebreaker” DLC for The Elder Scrolls Online
• “Moons of Elsweyr” expansion for The Elder Scrolls Legends

I’m not an enormous Bethesda fan, but I can’t complain about their conference this year, even if they didn’t announce any new IP’s. As long as the games are good, it’s a win-win for everybody.

Indie game giant Devolver Digital had a thin catalog to show off (Kind of like EA), but that doesn’t mean their conference was bad. Before I list the individual pieces of software they showed off, I should mention they now have an 8-in-1 self-rip-off compilation called Devolver Bootleg. Never thought such a collection would be a thing, but Devolver’s proved me wrong. Now that that’s out of the way, here are the other titles and expansions they displayed:

• Fall Guys Ultimate Knockout
• An arcade light-gun game called Enter the Gungeon: House of the Undead
• Carrion
• “Picnic Panic” DLC for The Messenger
• My Friend Pedro

I never delved into Devolver Digital’s catalog, but there’s always the chance I’ll give one of their games a shot. Hopefully some of you readers are happy with their lineup.

Next up to the plate was Ubisoft, and their flagship announcement was that of Uplay Plus, which costs $14.99 per month and rivals subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and Google Stadia Pro. If I had a shot of Pepsi for each company that’s jumping on the streaming bandwagon…Anyway, here are the games and expansions that the French publisher had at their show:

• Watch Dogs Legion, which takes place in London and allows you to recruit and take control of nearby players
• Upcoming episodes for The Division 2, along with the announcement of The Division on Netflix
• A zombie-filled shooter game called Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Quarantine
• Roller Champions, a game that depicts a futuristic version of roller derby (I’m actually really intrigued about this one)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (Did I mention a cute doggo appeared on stage?)
• An action game called Gods & Monsters

Ubisoft doesn’t need Assassin’s Creed or FarCry in order to have a good E3 conference, and they proved that this year with ease.

The RPG-loving folks at Square Enix took their turn next, and delivered a pretty stellar press conference this year. It may have been mostly about Final Fantasy, but there was nothing wrong with that and they had a fine amount of other software to talk about. I’m definitely curious about the racing game they’re publishing (No surprise considering how many racing games I’ve reviewed here, right?), Circuit Superstars. I’ve written an entire article recapping this conference, so feel free to read that one for my full analysis on it. https://silversoulgaming.com/2019/06/11/squaring-off-a-recap-of-square-enixs-e3-2019-press-conference/

Last but the furthest thing from least, Nintendo stepped onto the stage and put on what was probably the best conference of E3 2019. There were no 3DS games to be found, but plenty of games for the Switch. The Big N’s lineup at this presentation included…

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which has been delayed to March 2020
• Hero from Dragon Quest and Banjo-Kazooie coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
• Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in development
• Dragon Quest XI: Definitive Edition
• Luigi’s Mansion 3 (Which I am absolutely amped up for)
• The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, which has a dungeon-maker mode
• Resident Evil 5 and 6
• No More Heroes 3
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses
• Panzer Dragoon remake
• Contra Rogue Corps
• Contra Anniversary Collection
• Spyro Reignited Trilogy
• Alien: Isolation
• Astral Chain
• Pokemon Sword and Shield, which work with the Poke Ball Plus
• Daemon x Machina
• Trials of Mana, which is a Seiken Denetsu 3 remake
• Cadence of Hyrule
• Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (So pumped this series is coming to Switch!)

With an incredible press conference like this, I can see why a blue puppet named Arlo claimed that Nintendo is back. They are indeed back to being relevant again, and they ain’t budging!

It wasn’t quite perfect, but I really didn’t have much to criticize about this year’s E3. The remainder of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 are going to be packed to the grim with some enthralling games and services, even if it seems like the whole streaming-subscription thing is going to be a rapidly-spreading infection (Not that game-streaming is stupid or anything like that). This is probably the most challenging article I’ve written, but all’s well that ends well (No smoke from my keyboard, don’t worry about it). Hope y’all enjoyed E3 2019 as much as I did!