With E3 2016 only two weeks away rumors of what may or may not be announced at the show have been heavily speculated. With Bethesda kicking things off Sunday, June 12 with their showcase speculation has arisen that aside from showcasing the much anticipated gameplay from Dishonored 2 that the company would announce the long development PREY 2 has a release date in his backyard track. This will be very interesting year as the company is doing their second showcase and last year focused heavily on three titles, to which have already been released with the third having a scheduled release this fall. Naturally the speculation has fallen on what the company will spend the panel announcing and promoting with everything from Rage 2, PREY 2, a new Elder Scrolls or Fallout game, and a new intellectual property being announced. One thing is for certain it is definitely going to be an interesting viewing event for numerous fans online.
Monday, June 13th is the real workhorse of the day as EA, Microsoft, and Sony grab headlines with their showcases the day before the convention opens. E.A. is not having a traditional space on the floor at E3 as they will be running their EA Play event at the same time. There conference is expected to feature Battlefield 1, TitanFall 2, and various EA Sports titles as that is what they have announced as being showcased at the event open to the public and press following the conference. There is of course the matter of Star Wars and fans hope to get more information on the recently announced sequel to EA Star Wars Battlefront which is due next year and hopefully news of some of the other Star Wars titles in development. The other intriguing aspects to this conference are the unknown element of what is to come. EA has already announced to very large titles with Battlefield 1 and TitanFall 2 so one has to wonder just what they have in store if they felt the need to announce these two games already rather than saving them for the event.
Many eyes will be looking at Microsoft as an attempt to gain ground on Sony who is absolutely dominated this generation of consoles. Speculation has run heavy that the company will announce an enhanced and slim version of the Xbox One with the enhanced version being capable of running 4K resolutions and being compatible with the Oculus Rift virtual-reality headsets which would give the company a virtual-reality presence to rival what Sony is bringing to the market in the fall. Rumors have the new system as being very impressive however reportedly not available until 2017. Expect the focus to be on more backwards compatible titles as well as upcoming titles specifically Gears of War 4 which the company needs to be a hit due to less than stellar reviews for their last featured exclusive Quantum Break and a solid but less than riveting response to the last Halo title.
Sony will reportedly not discuss the rumors of their enhanced system even with rumors stating that it could be on the market as soon as September of this year. Expect the focus to be on Playstaton V.R. which will launch this fall as well as new partnerships and exclusive titles. Release windows for The Last Guardian and other previously announced titles are to be expected but it will be interesting to see if the as yet unannounced titles will run heavy to the V.R. side or likely remain mainly for the traditional set up. Due to their partnership with Call of Duty, it is likely that we may see a new trailer for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare as well as other partnerships announced.
The one thing that fans can count on is news that is both expected and unexpected coming out of the showcases. While many of the surprises often leak online ahead of the events, there are often twist and turns that people did not expect which only leads to the excitement and frantic discussion and debate following the events. Stay tuned as this is going to be one exciting ride.
