How time flies. Its hard to believe that E3 is upon us and it basically started last week. Most would say that E3 might have been last week with Google announcing Stadia details which we will cover this week as well as multiple Ubisoft leaks, EA Play and what we thought of that conference, as well as a cancelled Blizzard project.

Ubisoft Leaks

With the arrival of E3 comes the arrival of leaks before the show and while it does seem like this year has had less than years past there have still been some. As usual Ubisoft always seems to be part of the E3 leaks as Amazon UK posted a listing for Watch Dogs Legion. There have been a lot of rumors lately about the third entry in the series, however, whether it was Amazon UK who is a credible source or whether it was because it was close to E3 but this leak was confirmed by Ubisoft. As shortly after the leak they posted to their social media “God Save the NPC’s. Reveal at E3” Ubisoft always has trouble controlling their leaks and game reveals but I assume that is a byproduct of being such a large company with multiple studios in multiple countries. It was just in the last couple of weeks that there was substantial evidence about another leaked Ubisoft IP. This was a new IP that could potentially be a Nintendo Switch exclusive and it looks to be a futuristic roller derby game that channels Rocket League. The game is called supposedly called Roller Champions. I spotted this article on Polygon. Included was some leaked art that shows four different characters with different outfits and styles. Its most likely similar in the way to something like Mario Kart deals with different Karts. Some with be better at acceleration, some will be better at top speed and some will be stronger on the track. Also the characters themselves look to have a variety of options for cosmetic configuration from outfits to skates to headgear and much more. What I find somewhat interesting about the differences between this leak and the one for Watch Dogs Legion was that for the latter they confirmed it and posted to their social media accounts. For Roller Champions, a representative from Ubisoft just said they don’t comment on rumors or speculation. It’s possible that it was always the plan for Amazon UK to leak it or because there was enough information floating about the third entry in the series or possibly is because Roller Champions doesn’t exist or has been cancelled. That isn’t the end of the Ubisoft leaks as last week as GameSpot reported there was a listing for a Ubisoft Pass on the Ubisoft Store. The interesting thing to note is that the Ubisoft Pass was quickly taken down as it was most likely posted incorrectly but the Ubisoft store still has a section for subscription services. I dont think this is a huge surprise as we are deep in the middle of the subscription age as everyone is trying to get their piece of the Netflix model from toothbrushes, to meal kits and to things like GamePass. This would make a lot of sense for a company that has such a deep back catalog of games over the past five years or so. According to their last earnings report they noted that they aren’t dependent on new releases being massive hits right out of the gate because they have a large library of games that makes up about half of their sales according to the last report. Most of their games feature strong in game cosmetic purchases so getting more people in the door via a Ubisoft Pass would make a lot of sense. Its current competition on the console landscape would be EA Access, and GamePass. With Ubisoft having their E3 conference on Monday we dont have to wait long to more about these rumors as well as the few things that haven't leaked yet.

Starcraft First Person Shooter

This week, Jason Schrier at Kotaku ran an article about a canceled first person shooter in the series of Starcraft. This is now the second game that we know of in the Starcraft universe to be cancelled with the first being StarCraft Ghost, intended for the PS2, Xbox era of consoles that was supposed to be a stealth, third person shooter type game that was popular in the late 2000’s. There is a lot to unpack from this article including why did this game get cancelled after its reported two plus years in development. Apparently the main reason this game began was to see what other projects could be made using the Overwatch engine that could help speed up the amount of time in between Blizzard releases by reusing tools for other franchises or creating new ones. Blizzard makes quality games but they are in no rush to release them as their last mainline release was in 2016 with Overwatch and as of now they only have Diablo Immortal, the mobile game in co development with NetEase coming out this year. According to three sources from the article, who are closely involved in the game, it came as a surprise that the game was cancelled as it had been in development for over two years and it played quite well. In the game you were a Terran marine who fought the zerg, similar to the main campaign from the RTS games. The apparent reason for the cancellation of the project is because the team has been dispersed and added to the Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 development teams to help speed up those games. Its unfortunate that the Starcraft shooter got cancelled as that universe is quite rich in lore and could have helped expand it but it is great news that they didn’t have to terminate any positions and were able to transition the team to other games. According to the article, both of these games are flagship titles for this years Blizzcon, but take that with a grain of salt as last years there was plenty of sources and articles that seemed like we would have heard from Diablo 4. Another thing to note is that Overwatch 2 will be adding a focus onto PVE, similar to Left 4 Dead, but maybe hopefully it can figure out something along the lines of a shared universe game as well as the PVP shooter it currently has. Doing raids in that universe with what blizzard is capable of sounds like a great time. One thing that’s for certain is that developers usually respond to articles like this with some canned response such as “we currently dont respond to rumors or speculation” or “at this time we dont have anything to announce” Although this time they did respond saying that they dont announce things until they are ready so as to not have gamers expectations get too high and ultimately disappointed if they decide not to move forward on the game. It also adds a lot of extra pressure to the development team. Hopefully this means with the addition of extra development members to the Diablo 4 team we might see that game at Blizzcon 2019 in November.

STADIA

This week google finally unveiled the pricing and structure details of its upcoming streaming service, stadia. Initially the service will only be available on select google apps and devices including those with chrome, chromecasts, the ultra if you are looking for full 4k and the new google pixel 3 and 3a. They said it would be coming to other devices in the future so we will wait and see what that means. Maybe AppleTV is in the future as the route apple is taking for games doesnt look similar to the AAA Stadia approach so you never know. So how much is it and when is it coming out you ask.  Well it’s not quite as simple as that.  As for when is it coming out there are a few different answers. The premium users will be able to play stadia this November when it launches with the founders pack. The founders pack includes a limited edition blue controller, chromecast, 3 months of stadia pro and 3 months to give to a friend. They were also touting the the founders pack buyers would be the first people to have access to creating user names so there is also that added bonus if that means much to you. The founders pack is available for preorder now and is going for 129 US.  The next question you have is what is stadia pro and that is their top of the line streaming service that costs 9.99 month. This includes 4K, HDR and 60 FPS. The catch is that to fully utilize all those feature you will need 35 Mbps download speed. The recommended minimum is 10 Mbps and that will get you 720p and 60 FPS.   As for what you can play it sounds like they are taking a similar approach as Microsoft GamePass as there will be a selection of games that the Pro users can play and if you want to stream other games not included on their service then you will have to buy those out right. As of right now it’s unsure if being a pro user will give you a discount on purchasing the games outright. If you would rather not sign up for the pro service then then will be offering Stadia Base which will allow users to play without having to pay subscription fees.  They didn’t talk much about it but this tier will max out at 1080 and won’t include any games.  Anything you want to play you will have to purchase. The base service also won’t be launching until next year. Speaking of playing Google Stadia announced many games that would be coming to the service featuring many AAA Ubisoft titles including the new ghost recon and division 2, Bethesda will have games on their including doom eternal and Youngblood which you have to imagine their open world RPGs won’t be far behind.  They did say that they will have 30 games in the launch window, which who knows how long that could stretch to. They didn’t announce any Stadia exclusives as of yet but that is most likely in the works as the hiring of jade Raymond to lead first party should bear fruit in the future.  Google is trying to get out ahead of all the E3 announcements as the main place to stream games but in just a few short days we will most likely be hearing from Xbox. 

A very loud rumor is that Xbox will be talking about their project Xcloud service. As for the past few years Xbox has been basically in a rebuild mode by changing direction, acquiring first party studios and development of their game streaming service Xcloud.  As a company that has been in the AAA gaming and console business for almost 20 years it will be interesting to see what they can bring to the table and how it competes with Google. 

EA PLAY

The nice thing about recording the podcast on the weekend is that I am normally able to get all of the news from the week. Well on Saturday EA had their EA Play event a few miles from the actual E3 grounds. The spent a half hour on the new reveal for Respawns Star Wars game, Jedi:Fallen Order, Apex Legends, Battlefield V and a bunch of time on sports titles and The Sims 4. As expected the whole presentation was a bit lacklustre with minimal announcements but there was bright spots in it for sure. The downside of there presentstion first was that most of the sports games are exactly what was expected and that is minimal changes year to year and updated rosters. Battlefield V couldve used a shot of adrenaline into its fanbase but instead it just got some minimal info including upcoming maps and a new pacific theme. The Sims 4 apparently is high enough on the EA food chain that it garnered half hour as well to talk about the new tropical island expansion coming to the game. I respect the game and the people who like it but half hour for an expansion for a game that was released in 2014 seems a little out of touch with what the majority of gamers want. As for the goods, I was very eagerly awaiting the full gameplay reveal for what Respawn could do with the Star Wars license and a blank canvas. As a regular player of Apex Legends I was also interested to see what they had planned for the second season of that game. First, Apex, because it will be a lot quicker. They announced the new seasons release date which will be out in early July, which will have a new weapon, and a new legend. These are good announcements but nothing that really blows your hair back. Weapons and characters are expected on a little more frequency that one a season as you look at one of the leaders in the seasonal gaming and that is Rainbow Six Siege. They have map changes, new maps, new characters and new weapons every season. Hopefully they will release another gun and character throughout the season to keep peoples interest and that season will be ending as we will be heading into the busy fall. Now onto the arguable lone bright spot for all of the EA Play and that is Jedi Fallen Order. This game looked like what I envisioned it looking like. Reading a lot of the coverage that has come out for the game since its reveal I am even more excited for this game. Reading an article on Game Informer where they sit down with Stig Asmussen, the director of the game as well as the previous game he directed being God of War 3.

He mentions a lot about the inspiration notes the game is pulling from including some very classic titles. “we looked at the structure of Metroid Prime closely” in regards to the sequence in which you unlock new abilities as well as the metroidvania style approach where there is plenty of exploring to do but there are clearly areas you can’t reach until you unlock a certain skill which opens up new areas. He also mentioned pulling a lot of inspiration from some of the more recent FROM SOFTWARE games including Dark Souls and Bloodborne where in combat and approaching enemies you have to take a more strategic and methodical approach. Based on the reveal trailer that Respawn showed at EA play you are a young Jedi who is learning skills as you progress though the game but you aren’t a super hero and there is plenty of danger in the world especially when challenging a foe who is superior to you or approaching an area in which you are greatly outnumbered. It looks like it also draws from games like Uncharted with the environmental puzzle solving and vertical exploration. When you add up all these elements combined with the audio and visuals that a Star Wars title brings along with the technical design that a Respawn game brings and we could be in for a real treat this November.