The Electronic Entertainment Expo, E3, the largest annual industry expo focused exclusively on video games and technology, is back again in 2017. The press conferences were held June 10-13, and the general exhibitions take place June 13-15.
Announcements, demos and trailers were released during six press conferences held by the world’s leading digital entertainment companies, showing gamers and technology enthusiasts around the world what upcoming titles will soon be available.
Electronic Arts began the expo with a bang. The company invited a drumline onstage to promote the latest Madden game. “Madden 18”, “NBA Live 18″ and “FIFA 18″ will be released later this year, all of which will feature brand-new cinematic story modes. Such story modes will allow users to customize a character and play through a dramatic sports story.
“Star Wars: Battlefront II” is launching this year with a full single-player campaign. This game takes place between “Return of the Jedi” and “The Force Awakens” as a way to “bridge the gap,” Janina Gavankar, the game’s lead voice actress, said. The game will include rebalanced multiplayer modes that take place throughout all eras of the Star Wars universe. All post-release expansion content will be available for free to all players.
Electronic Arts also announced “Anthem”, a new multiplayer science fiction game being developed by BioWare. In “Anthem”, players will fly around a vast alien jungle in exosuits, a type of powered artificial exoskeleton, to complete missions.
Microsoft announced an upgraded version of the Xbox One, officially known as the Xbox One X, and it is capable of playing Xbox One games at 4K resolution. The Xbox One X will be available in November for $499. The Xbox 360 backward compatibility program will expand to include original Xbox games later this year.
“Forza Motorsport 7” will race onto store shelves later this year, and “Minecraft” was updated with cross-platform play. This update will allow players on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows 10 and even smartphones to play together seamlessly for the first time.
“Middle-earth: Shadow of War” will debut with an expanded nemesis system to allow players to recruit orcs into their own personal army.
Ubisoft announced many sequels during E3. “Assassin’s Creed: Origins” returns to its roots by being set in ancient Egypt. Far Cry 5 takes place in a small part of Montana under the control of a religious cult. Just Dance 2018 will feature a host of new songs.
“Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle” is a new Nintendo Switch-exclusive strategy game where Mario and friends team up with the Rabbids from the Rayman series to save the Mushroom Kingdom.
Bethesda is updating some of its old games with virtual reality headset compatibility, including “Skyrim”, “Fallout 4” and “DOOM”. The company then announced two sequels, “Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus” and “The Evil Within 2”. Bethesda also revealed a program called Creation Club, which will allow users to pay for user-created mods in “Skyrim” and “Fallout 4”.
Sony revealed expansions for “Uncharted 4” and “Horizon: Zero Dawn” called “The Lost Legacy” and “The Frozen Wilds”, respectively. The company gave the “God of War” reboot an official release window of early 2018.
Insomniac Games’ new Spider-Man project was demoed. The game will launch for PS4 in 2018.
Nintendo ended the expo by briefly demoing “Super Mario Odyssey”, which is releasing October 2017. Nintendo also showed gameplay footage for new Kirby and Yoshi games exclusive to the Nintendo Switch. Finally, Nintendo announced that “Metroid Prime 4” is in development, and “Metroid: Samus Returns” will be heading to the Nintendo 3DS September 2018.
Other third-party announcements from E3 included an upcoming “Dragon Ball Z” fighting game, a prequel season for “Life is Strange” (titled “Before the Storm”) and “Ori and the Will of the Wisps”.
