TOP EARLY ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM E3 2021

E3 is back and finally under way after about 700 days since the last official E3 event. The festivities kicked off on Thursday with Geoff Keighly and Summer Game Fest. The early portions of the official E3 are now in completed and in the books while the rest of the event is still in progress. Here is our Recap for the early portions of E3, from Thursday to Saturday with a few things that caught our attention just a little more.

BATTLEFIELD 2042

In what essentially kicked off the week of announcements, EA and DICE finally revealed their next iteration in the long running Battlefield franchise after a hiatus of three years since the release of Battlefield V in 2018. Although fans were only treated to cinematic trailer, it was nearly five minutes long, it set the tone for battlefield and many outlets had deeper information if you wanted to find out more.

The two major takeaways from the information that EA answered, is that there won’t be a Battle Royale (at least at launch), and there is no campaign. Both of these decisions are very interesting and bold, however, the decision that I find bolder is that the game won’t be shipping with a Battle Royale, which still feels like one of the biggest markets on the planet. Games like Warzone, Apex and PUBG are still doing great numbers with EA announcing how well Apex has been doing at their last earnings report, Activision reporting how well Warzone has been doing with in game purchases making up about 60% of the companies revenue, and PUBG developing a mobile sequel and a console/PC sequel

There is likely a Battle Royale in development or something very similar, especially considering that EA stated that Battlefield 2042 will have three pillars: All-Out Warfare, which the series has become known for with modes like conquest, Hazard Zone which is a squad based, high stakes mode that was clarified will not be Battle Royale and finally the third pillar which is developed by DICE LA that will be revealed at EA PLAY in July.

DICE LA is the studio that is being led by Vince Zampella, who is the founder of Respawn Entertainment who have made some of the best shooters in history. From his time creating the original Modern Warfare at Infinity Ward, to Respawn creating fresh experiences with Titanfall and the class based Battle Royale, Apex Legends, Zampella is the right person to lead that studio. The idea that whatever the studio is working on as a third pillar is enough to devote a lot of time from EA Play towards it, is promising. EA calls this mode a love letter to fans.

The game will be launching on both current gen and previous gen consoles, however the older consoles will only have matches with 64 players while the newer consoles and PC will support 128 players per match. The game will feature specialists that have certain gadgets that are exclusive to that operator which sounds similar to Black Ops 3.

Battlefield 2042 will be launching October 22, and October 15 for members of EA Access. While there will likely be a lot of potential buyers that are off-put by the lack of campaign and likely won’t purchase, EA has definitely not made this decision lightly as they ran the numbers thoroughly. They have seen how many people play the single player portion, for how long, how long they play the multiplayer portion and how much they spend inside of that ecosystem. The hope is that with all of the resources, including taking Criterion off Need For Speed for the year, that we will see the best Battlefield yet.

There has also already been precedent of a large publisher not including a single player mode with the release of Black Ops 4. Activision reported that Black Ops 4 was the best selling game of the year, and in its first three days grossed over 500 million which likely didn’t cover development and marketing combined. According to Gamerant, Black Ops 4 is the 15th best selling COD game with only 3.5 million copies sold. It was also built around three pillars with Multiplayer, Zombies and Blackout Battle Royale. There is mixed results in the data and clearly EA is taking a risk but they didn’t become the company they are without doing their research.

ELDEN RING

Without a doubt, one of the more highly anticipated announcements that people, at least hardcore gamers, have been waiting for was the next FROMSOFTWARE title. The hype for this game did seem high considering that it has only been about two years since it was first revealed. In the gaming sphere, two years is not a long time to wait for a game. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was originally announced in 2014, in what looked to be a fairly complete state with a release in 2015 scheduled but didn’t come out until 2017.

The last title delivered by FROMSOFTWARE and the mind of Miyazaki was Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and that released in 2019. When you also account for the global pandemic, it really hasn’t been that long since their last game. Elden Ring will see the studio return to publisher Bandai Namco after Sekiro was published by Activision. I am curios as to why the studio working with Activision in the first place and why they didn’t return for the publishing of Elden Ring.

I am not the expert on FROMSOFTWARE titles and have typically enjoyed their more recent releases with Bloodborne and Sekiro. Elden Ring looks like more of an evolution instead of a revolutionary change from previous FROMSOFTWARE titles.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as most of their recent titles have been at the minimum, critical successes with cult followings, and likely have been commercial successes in their own right, at least enough to generate sequels and spin offs. The first impression of the trailer was that the combat looks very similar to Sekiro, which was very fast and fluid with a likely new emphasis on open world traversal as we can see the main character summon a ride a horse for a large part of the trailer.

Visually, FROMSOFTWARE looks to be creating another fantastic world full of life and lore that artistically stands on its own. Sadly, the game is going to be released on the PS4 and Xbox One which means that it won’t have a development that is focused on pushing the envelope forward technically but the art design will more than make up for that. Hopefully, Elden Ring will be able to run at 120 FPS on the next gen consoles with up to 4K or at least 1080/120.

Elden Ring is also one of the first titles to stake their claim for a 2022 release which seems reasonable. If the title does get delayed I would only expect to see it delayed until the end of March 2022 as that would be the end of the fiscal quarter for Bandai Namco who is publicly traded. Most FROMSOFTWARE of recent memory have been published by Bandai Namco, which means a good relationship that would lead to transparency between the two companies about realistic time frames.

Sekiro was also released in the early part of the year on March 22, 2019 and FROMSOFTWARE likely enjoyed more of a spotlight with typically less releases in the early parts of the year. Releasing early in the year didn’t affect awards as Sekiro still picked up a lot of accolades including Game of the Year from The Game Awards.

UBISOFT FORWARD

Ubisoft Forward felt a little underwhelming, with most of the announcements being about their live service games. As I predicted, crossplay was announced for Rainbow Six Siege for more than just cloud platforms, however, there is a large caveat that cross play won’t be between PC and consoles, but only between Xbox and PlayStation, which is sad that they coudln’t figure out some solution to aim assist or make it only avaivlbe for casual matchmaking.

It also won’t be available until early 2022, which is a long time from now in the gaming world, when there will be a lot of new experiences that will be offered with full cross play.

There were two announcements that stood out from the rest and the first is that Rainbow Six Quarantine has been officially renamed Extraction and it will be available early September. This title, since its not PVP, will feature full cross play. I had higher hopes for this title than what was showed at Ubisoft Forward. Considering that Rainbow Six experimented with this mode during their Outbreak event back in March of 2018, the trailer fell short. Three years is a long time in development, especially when it is being built off an existing engine, universe and mechanics.

The Extraction trailer game off vibes of the Halo: Infinite reveal at during Microsofts big showcase reveal in 2020, which drew ire of many fans due to how the visuals and gameplay looked dated. Visually, Extraction looked dull, lacked detail and personality to set it apart from the shooter crowd. Considering that Extraction will be released within about a month of Back 4 Blood, a similar PVE co-op shooter coming from a studio who basically formed the genre, it will be hard for Ubisoft to gain traction with this title. There is nothing about Rainbow Six Extraction that said 2021.

One of the few surprises of Ubisoft Forward that wasn’t about their live service games was the eventually expected sequel to Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Since the original was released in August 2017, which would fall in the launch window of the Switch, there could be the possibility that gamers were just hungry for anything new on the hybrid console. Kingdom Battle reviewed well with an average review score of 85 and sales were great. According to Ubisoft, as of June 2021, Kingdom Battle has sold over 7.5 million copies, putting it in the upper echelon of Switch titles concerning sales and easily in the top twenty best selling games on the Nintendo Switch.

The sequel, Sparks of Hope, is due out in 2022, and time will tell if the success of the original was either based on the quality of the title or if it was more of a right place/right time situation. The cinematic and short gameplay trailer didn’t show much, but from the snippets that were seen, Sparks of Hope, looks to follow in the footsteps of Kingdom Battle with the Roomba still leading the way. As many as the original sold and as big of a platform that Ubisoft Forward is, there was another tactics game that garnered more interest.

METAL SLUG TACTICS

One of the more pleasant surprises from the opening night of Summer Game Fest with Geoff Keighly was the announcement of Metal Slug Tactics. A blend of the classic run and gun franchise infused into a grid based tactics game that looks something along the lines of Into The Breach. Almost everyone has a fondness of some sorts for Metal Slug, as the franchise has been around for almost 30 years with the first release coming in 1996 for the Neo Geo arcade.

The Metal Slug series is no stranger to exploring other genres. Since 1996, including original entries, spin offs and compilations there have been almost 20 entries. Metal Slug has ventured into third person shooters and tower defence, so seeing the series attempt a tactics based game shouldn’t come as that big of a surprise.

Comparing Metal Slug Tactics to Into The Breach might be more than just visually as it will also incorporate rogue like elements. This will “keep battle layouts unpredictable and ensuring clashes are won through strategy and not memorization” As with other roguelikes, this should make the game infinitely repayable and constantly challenging.

The great news is that Metal Slug Tactics is being published by Dotemu, who have been behind some great retro inspired games such as Windjammers, Streets of Rage 4, and the upcoming TMNT: Shredders Revenge. Dotemu has either been behind these titles as either a publisher or developer or both is some cases but for Metal Slug it appears to be only in the publisher role. It does bode well for the success of the title to have Dotemu behind it.

As much of a pleasant surprise as the announcement was, the downside is that Metal Slug Tactics is currently only announced for PC, when it seems like it would be a perfect fit for consoles, especially the Nintendo Switch. if you were to read between the lines , the likelihood of Metal Slug Tactics coming to at least some consoles is high because Dotemu has a history with those games and most of their other games of bringing their titles to consoles like the Nintendo Switch. The announcement will likely be saved for an Nintendo Indie World Presentation. Metal Slug Tactics is currently slated for a 2021 release.