With E3 beginning later this week, the team got together to pen down their hopes, wants and needs from each publisher.
Kicking things off is EA, the first publisher out of the gate at their EA Play event on Sunday, the 10th of June. You can find every single press conference time and date HERE.
[divider]SHANNON[/divider]
I’m honestly not sure what to expect from EA this year. Last year I was incredibly hyped for Battlefront 2 and feel like that delivered. I’m not a huge Battlefield fan, but feel more excited for Battlefield V knowing all post-release content will be free. I probably play more FIFA than any other game, so I’m keen to see both the PS4 versions as well as the Nintendo Switch versions of the game. I also think that EA need to tease their next Star Wars game. We’re half the way through their licensing agreement and we’ve only had two Battlefront games, which most people would argue didn’t reach the heights of the originals. I also think that EA will publish a few more originals games, especially with the success of A Way Out earlier this year.
[divider]JAMES[/divider]
At the moment EA as a publisher doesn’t excite me too much. They have some solid properties but barring Star Wars, which they’ve been bizarrely quiet about, nothing really grabs me as much as other publishers. I was so thankful to get a follow up to Mirror’s Edge this generation, and I’m hoping somehow that EA will be generous enough to consider bringing back the Dead Space brand in some way, shape or form. While Anthem looks okay, the multiplayer focus doesn’t really do it for me, so I’m keen to see if EA will bring out a big single player focused project to wow us all. I just want a real surprise from EA, really. But all we’ll probably get is Unravel 2.
[divider]BRODIE[/divider]
I’m really hoping that EA might manage to revive at least one of the dormant IP they’re sitting on. They’re currently sat on a handful of classic series that are near and dear to my heart, so to see one of them emerge would help me believe that EA actually does read my desperate, scrawled-in-blood fan mail. Given the recent remaster for Burnout Paradise, I’d obviously love to see a new entry in the series that perhaps reverts back to the party vibe of Takedown with the fun crash modes and so on. I’ve resigned to the fact that Dead Space is probably just a pipe dream now after the third game, which I enjoyed admittedly, returned an underwhelming amount of sales. I think there’s just one series that has a hope of sticking the landing and getting a long overdue sequel and that’s Skate. The lead-up to this year’s conference has already been rife with rumours of a Skate 4, but I’m not going to dare to dream just yet.
[divider]EWAN[/divider]
I’m desperate to see EA put its rights to Star Wars to use. Obviously, the cancellation of Amy Hennig’s narrative-driven single-player experience is disappointing, but Respawn Entertainment – the developers behind the Titanfall games – are still busy toiling away on a yet-to-be-announced Star Wars project. I suspect it is time to show off what they’ve we’ve been working on. With any luck, we’ll get a title, a release window and a teaser trailer.
[divider]TOBY[/divider]
Anthem and the slew of sports games are a given at EA’s presser. It’d be rad to see the return of Dead Space, but I think that’s just not going to happen for a while yet. Perhaps we see an announcement of a remaster, considering Burnout Paradise launched earlier in the year? I’m not too sure. Whatever happens, we should be getting a ton of info on FIFA 19, and with the rumours regarding FIFA nabbing the Champion’s League and Europa League licenses, I’m really, really keen to see what EA Canada will conjure up for this year’s football outing.
[divider]JOSH[/divider]
Their biggest licencing deal ever is on a knife’s edge after the blowback from Battlefront 2 led to Disney having to publicly condemn the loot box controversy. To make matters worse their marque action adventure title headed by huge industry names fell apart and was cancelled, leaving little to show from the deal so far. Normally I hate teasers so far from release but EA absolutely need to show off the Respawn project that was announced in 2016, I’d be shocked if it isn’t releasing in 2019 as their last project was released in 2016.
[divider]KIERON[/divider]
EA’s press conferences are traditionally the lull at E3 every year for me, mostly because I’m not super into their big franchises like FIFA, Madden, Battlefield and the like. That said the last few years have held a couple of surprises, such as the absolutely fantastic Fe and A Way Out from the EA Originals program. I definitely hope that the publishing giant continues their commitment to funding those great indie experiences and maybe has one or two to show off at E3. Other than that, there’s no doubt that we’ll be seeing a lot of Anthem, which was introduced with a slightly-too-good-looking gameplay demo at last year’s conference. It’ll be interesting to see if an extended demo of the open world Destiny-like multiplayer shooter holds up against its original showing. More importantly, though, I think it’s about time the world is introduced to the long-awaited new Dragon Age game!
