E3 2019

It's that time of year again, we're a couple weeks from E3, so time for semi-baseless speculation. To start, here's the current schedule for the conferences and streams (all times PT):

June 8
EA: 9:15 am

June 9
Microsoft: 1 pm
Bethesda: 5:30 pm
Devolver Digital: 7 pm

June 10
PC Gaming 10 am
Ubisoft: 1 pm
Square Enix: 6 pm

June 11
Nintendo: 9 am

No news on anything Sony, but I'm betting they'll livestream something. I'll add it to the schedule when/if it gets announced.


With that out of the way, on to the speculation:

This whole thing is really going to be Microsoft's to win or lose this year. They're almost certainly going to be unveiling the Xbox Two, and for once they're probably going to be announcing with a solid first-party lineup. They've been snatching up all those dev teams for the past few years, and I imagine that this will be the year that we begin to see the fruits of that effort.

Aside from the Microsoft stuff, my big prediction for this E3 is that this is going to be the Year of Superhero Games. To run down the list:

• Nintendo will be showing off Ultimate Alliance 3. That's basically guaranteed.
• The more reliable parts of the Internet Rumor Mill have Rocksteady working on another DC property. Earlier this year they were doing a bunch of hiring for their marketing department, so they may be getting ready for a reveal.
• There's also WB Montreal, which is supposedly working on a Batman game. Don't know if Warner Bros is going to be inclined to announce two DC games at the same time, but I wouldn't rule it out.
• If we don't hear about that Avengers game that Crystal Dynamics is working on, then I seriously have no fucking clue what's going on with them. They were supposed to start sharing info last year, so if it doesn't show up at this E3, I'm inclined to start throwing around the phrase "development hell."
• And at the rate that Marvel's been working out game deals, I wouldn't be too surprised to see yet another one announced. Sony gave us Spider-Man, and Nintendo's giving us Ultimate Alliance; the Xbox Two's launch lineup is seeming like an increasingly fitting place to drop another trailer with a Marvel logo.

Added EA's live stream to the schedule.

And, to go along with my superhero games prediction, we've got our first confirmation:

No Elder Scrolls isn't a shock, but I would've expected this year to be the big Starfield blowout. I'd guess that, at the very least, they're waiting until both the PS5 and the Xbox Two are actually announced before showing the game.