Every year E3 Expo gets longer and longer. An event that only five or so years ago began on a Monday, now starts, unofficially, today with EA Play. If you keep up with gaming news, it probably started for you a few weeks ago. With WalMart’s Canadian website’s leak of several upcoming titles, much of the news from this year’s E3 Expo is known.
There’s still plenty to speculate about, however, so I want to take a moment and add my two cents to the conversation.
Here Are Our E3 Expo Predictions
Microsoft
Microsoft will announce at least two new exclusive games that no one has heard anything about.
Xbox has been trounced by PS4 when it comes to exclusives. Games like God Of War, Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Bloodborne have all been huge successes for Sony. I expect big green to step up and deliver some new hotness this year to try and take back some market share. In a year full of leaks, I think Microsft pulls a magic trick. My picks would be Fable and Perfect Dark reboots.
343 Studios will announce two new Halo games.
You read that right. I believe that we’ll get the reveal of the next in the regularly numbered franchise, Halo 6. I also believe that in the wake of the Battle Royale craze, we’ll see a Halo arena shooter come to light. PUBG isn’t exclusive to Xbox in perpetuity, and Microsoft needs its next cash cow. E3 Expo is the place to unveil it.
Permanent price drop of Xbox One X to $450.
Microsoft revealed a sale this week that saw all of their Xbox SKUs drop $50 for a limited time. I think that is where the One X will stay. Call it wishful thinking, but I’d love to get $50 off that console when I do end up buying one.
Sony
From Software, the developers of Bloodborne, will announce a new exclusive.
At last year’s Video Game Awards, From Software released a 30-second teaser for an unannounced title. Some have speculated that it was a new IP, while others have considered it might be something as far flung as a Tenchu reboot. I believe, without doubt, that it will be the follow up to Bloodborne.
One surprise exclusive will be announced.
Most if not all of Sony’s first-party development teams are working on something that’s been announced or teased, but I think they have something up their sleeve. Sony’s had a great year as far as exclusives go but not a whole lot still coming this year outside of Spider-Man.
We’ll see some Death Stranding gameplay.
Although this game is likely still two years away (only kinda joking), I think we see a gameplay demo on stage this year. Death Stranding was first announced at Sony’s 2016 conference. E3 is where you make a splash and Kojima is all about splashing.
Nintendo
Fortnite will come to Switch.
The Korean Game Rating and Administration Committee published a rating for the game on the Switch on June 1. And it makes sense for it to come to the console, they’re a perfect match. We’ll see how it plays out during Nintendo’s Direct Tuesday, June 12 at 9 a.m. PT.
Animal Crossing announced.
The last Animal Crossing game came out five years ago. Nintendo has announced a game for almost every other significant IP, and it would make sense to add a new Animal Crossing. We got a stop gap measure with the mobile-only title Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp last year but fans are begging for a proper console game.
N64 Classic announced.
This one’s a bit of a wish on my part. After very successful releases of the NES Classic and SNES Classic, it only makes sense that Nintendo would announce the next one in the line. The tech is there, and genuinely, I think this one only comes down to licensing for the biggest games.
Publishers
DOOM 2 announced by Bethesda.
We got one of the best First Person Shooters in the last decade in 2016 when Bethesda released DOOM. I was running another site at the time and had the privilege of reviewing it. The game is brutal and smooth, and I’m in love with it. A sequel announcement with an aim for a release next year would help to make my E3.
Splinter Cell announcement from Ubisoft
This year saw a very cool and peculiar update to Ghost Recon Wildlands; Sam Fisher joined the fight. The last proper Splinter Cell came in 2013, and while it was a critical success, no one bought it. My thought is that Ubi went back to the drawing board and reconfigured things a bit. I believe we’ll see the very first fruits of that labor during their conference on Monday, June 11 at 1 p.m. PT.
Fallout76 will be an open world resource collector game a la State of Decay
Fallout 76 was announced via social media the week before last, and since then, speculation has been building. My take is that Bethesda will announce that it will launch at the end of the year and be a State of Decay-style apocalypse survival simulator. No matter what it is, I’m down for a new Fallout. Bethesda’s conference is Sunday, June 10th at 6:30 PM PT.
