E3 is almost upon us, the annual gaming convention where all the big news and announcements are made. Last year saw a lot of the "never going to happen" games get revealed - FINAL FANTASY VII Remake, Shenmue III and The Last Guardian. This year is going to have to do something pretty special to top that; but we have some ideas (in our minds anyway) of how they can do just that.
Carrying on from a couple predictions we made on the latest Podcast, Brandon and I look at a few games that we will most definitely see, some games that could potentially be announced, and a couple that will most likely take away all the credibility we have as newshounds. We also have an idea of something that we don't think will make an appearance.
Five Things We Will See
Munch
- Gran Turismo Sport *
- Detroit
- Shenmue III
- FINAL FANTASY VII Remake
- The Last Guardian
All of these are pretty straight-forward, the three big names from E3 last year and the two biggies from Paris Games Week. Most of them we haven't seen much of yet other than their announcement trailers, with GT Sport only recently showing off some gameplay footage. Most of these are also due to be released later this year or early next year.
* - Appearance has now been confirmed by Sony since time of writing
Brandon
1. Dreams
Dreams first appeared as a small project that Media Molecule was working on during the PS4 reveal back in February of 2013. Since then, we’ve watched this game take shape into a marvelous creation tool. Media Molecule keeps promising that there is a game aspect as well, but none of it has been shown. Having been in development in some form or another for at least three years, it’s probably nearing completion, and it would be a good time to show off what the game itself will be.
2. RIGS
This VR game has been shown multiple times, but hasn’t seen the kind of focus at E3 that you would expect from what appears to be the fullest, large scale VR project that the company has. Not only should we expect to see more of the game and how it will actually play, it would be a lost opportunity for Sony to not find a way to stream matches being played on the show floor.
3. Japan Studio
Japan Studio is one of the most prolific developers in the industry, though they tend to serve more of a support role for a lot of games. Right now, they have a hand in
Gravity Rush 2,
The Last Guardian,
The Tomorrow Children, and
The Playroom VR. All of them are slated for this year and should see stage time.
Gravity Rush 2 in particular failed to really show what makes it special and new compared to the first game last year, so it should get a decent amount of time.
4. Matterfall
Housemarque is not just one of the best developers making Sony exclusive titles, it’s also become a staple of the Sony Press Conference. With
Resogun showing up in 2013,
Alienation being announced in 2014, and
Matterfall being announced in 2015, not only does it seem likely that they will show
Matterfall (which will almost certainly release within 12 months), it wouldn’t be all that surprising for them to announce ANOTHER new IP. This could very easily be a spiritual successor to several titles, including
Super Stardust HD,
Resogun, or
Outland.
5. Lots of Indie Games
Let’s face it, there are going to be a lot of Indie games we don’t know about. I’m sure several will be games that have been on the stage before or have recently been on the PlayStation Blog, but there’s usually several every year that show up for the first time on Sony’s stage at E3. And one of them will probably be available “right now!”
Five Things That Could Be Shown
Munch
- Red Dead Redemption 2 (Or simply just Red Dead 3)
- Darksiders 3
- Whatever Kojima has been working on
- Borderlands 3
- A new Elder Scrolls game
Most of these have been speculated for quite some time now, with quite a few years since the most recent release in each of the series. Bethesda are doing another conference this year too, and the only non-released game they have left (going by my terrible memory of last year's conference) is
Dishonored 2 so they will definitely be announcing something. We also haven't heard anything about the mystery project Hideo Kojima has been working on with Sony, and what better place to reveal it than the grandest stage in gaming?
Brandon
1. Dead Don’t Ride
It’s been nearly four years since Sony Bend has produced one of their own games, instead focusing as the leader of the XDev program for Sony, which helps bring smaller games to PlayStation. Dead Don’t Ride has been a big rumor lately, with insiders suggesting that this is a game coming from Sony Bend. This is all but confirmed, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the game appear on the stage considering how long it has been for Sony Bend.
2. ThatGameCompany
It’s been a while since we’ve seen anything from ThatGameCompany. Their most recent game was
Journey PS4, released in 2012, making this the longest period without a game since their first game released in 2006. Jenova Chen appeared as part of a Sony interview after E3 last year, where it was fairly clear that they were working on something, but he was reticent to say anything about the project. While ThatGameCompany is no longer under contract to Sony (they have since completed the three exclusive games they were under contract for), it’s been quite common for second and third party studios in such situations to continue to make exclusive content for Sony.
3. Ratchet and Clank DLC
This would be a slightly odd thing to see for the franchise, but they are unlikely to have a new Ratchet and Clank game ready for show time, despite Insomniac’s prolific reputation. More likely would be that they have something to show in the form of Ratchet and Clank DLC seeing as how successful the reboot was.
4. Sly Cooper
It’s been a couple of years since
Sly Cooper Thieves in Time, and
The Sly Collection before it, were released, and both did decently well. With the recent success of
Ratchet and Clank, it wouldn’t be all that surprising for
Sly Cooper to make an appearance as well, though perhaps handled by a different studio. Don’t expect to see anything about the
Sly Movie, though. Sony might be bold enough to give it another try despite
Ratchet and Clank's movie failure*, but the smart move might be to can it for a little while longer while they focus on successfully rebooting and revitalizing the
Sly franchise.
* - I liked it and suggest fans of the series check it out - Munch
5. Soul Sacrifice 2
This is definitely going to be a stretch, but it’s also quite possible. Keiji Inafune has gone on record saying that he was interested in making a sequel to this game and had ideas for it. The game appears to have sold decently well, though potentially not quite enough to warrant a sequel. However, with a higher budget and a little bit of confidence, this is a game that could come back and fill the void left by Monster Hunter.
Three Crazy Ideas We Have
Munch
- inFamous VR
- Justice League from Rocksteady
- God of War: The Kratos Collection for PS4
Like I said, we may lose all credibility here. Justice League may be the only one that is likely here, with Rocksteady finished on the
Batman Arkham Series, it makes sense that they would be looking to build on the world they have built up; however, WB will be bringing the freshly announced
Injustice 2 from NetherRealm so it will be unlikely they will be showing off two games at once. If I keep asking for a Kratos collection I am bound to get one right?
inFamous VR is just me losing my mind a little, it would be fun though!
Brandon
1. Insomniac shows off Sunset Overdrive 2
While I doubt the game will debut at the Sony Press Conference seeing as how the first game was exclusive to Xbox One, it wouldn’t surprise me if Insomniac decided to self-fund the next entry and try to bring the game over to PlayStation as well. PlayStation is where they built their reputation, and it’s likely that people will go crazy over this after the success of Ratchet and Clank.
2. PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale 2
The original game didn't sell how you would hope such a game would sell, and certainly not in a way that would suggest a sequel. In fact, Sony cut ties with the original developer. However, this could be a big year for Sony's IPs since they've been quiet for so long this generation. In a year where Uncharted and Ratchet made a big splash, and so many of their top tier developers are almost certainly making appearances at E3, this could be the perfect time to try to revive this idea.
3. Ken Levine shows new IP for first time
It's been a while since we heard from Ken Levine in any big way since the launch of
BioShock Infinite in 2013 and the subsequent massive restructuring of his team to a small 15 person or so studio. There's no reason to think he's inclined to reveal his new IP on Sony's stage... except his game will almost certainly make a splash on a stage, and without his publisher hosting a presser, Sony makes the most sense for the type of game he's aiming for. And there was that one time he wanted to make a Vita game.
Something we won't see
Munch
1. Anything Vita
Sony has almost abandoned the handheld at this point, and each year has shown less and less footage at events. This doesn't mean that they are still releasing a steady stream of games, while doing it on the quiet side; they are releasing absolutely nothing for it. It is a system that is surviving solely on third party titles these days, with the majority of them being smaller Indie and Mobile ports. I think this is the year where they just leave the Vita at home, sadly.
Brandon
1. Naughty Dog
While Naughty Dog split into two teams some time ago, they were once again combined to work on
Uncharted 4 A Thiefs End upon Amy Hennig's departure from the studio. We’ve not heard that a second team was reformed. Even if they had, most of the studio was working on
Uncharted 4, so any other game (even a
Last of Us 2) would be in the earliest stages of development and not ready for the stage.
So those are our predictions and unrealistic hopes for E3 this year. Are you hoping any of these get announced? What are you hoping to see this year? Let us know below.