The Electronic Entertainment Expo, E3, is now a week away and rumors about new IPs, release dates, and new services have been running rampant.
In a recent turn of events, Microsoft has started making a massive push to even the playing field with Sony. They’re striking the price of the Xbox One to $400 by getting rid of the Kinect effective June 9th. And although that is the business equivalent of giving the middle finger to developers working on Kinect-centric titles, this move will actually make Xbox One a more viable console. Simply put, the vast majority of gamers do not want a console for TV features, they want it for gaming. And up until now, the PS4 has been winning the console war because it is a video game console first. But, that aside, Halo 5 has also been announced. So that begs the question, what are we going to see at E3 this year? I have some thoughts, come and humor me for a minute.
Playable Characters? Most likely
- The conference will have a trailer for Halo 5 that will showcase the abilities of the Xbox One as only a first party studio can. The trailer will have the player running through a few different environments while fighting off enemies. Towards the end, the player will witness a large creature being killed by an unknown combatant. A few tense seconds will pass before the combatant is revealed to be Master Chief, confirming that you will be playing as the unnamed female Spartan that is present in teaser images for Halo 5. The trailer will end with the release date for Halo 5 being in the Spring of 2015.
- On the heels of the Halo 5 trailer, we’ll see a short presentation on the Halo television series that will detail the main character and the general plot of the show. Steven Spielberg will only be present via a pre-recorded messaged about how excited he is to help bring the series to life. He will remain a producer for the show.
- The Halo Master Chief Collection will get an official release date for sometime during the holiday season of 2014.
- Gears of War will get a teasers trailer that shows glimpses of game play and what will appear to be Marcus Fenix dying before we’re presented with the logo for the new game titled Gears of War with a provocative subtitle like “Requiem”.
- Sunset Overdrive will get another game play trailer, except with a much more polished build. The trailer will show just how silly and fun the game will be when it hits shelves. It will also get a confirmed release date for sometime in November to avoid competing with Halo.
- There will be no fewer than three all new IPs announced during the conference. All of which being exclusive titles for the Xbox One.
- There will be no fewer than two new IPs that will come to all platforms, but will have timed exclusive content for Microsoft platforms.
- The conference will close with a rapid barrage of at least ten indie games for XBLA before the reminder that the Kinectless Xbox One is $399 in stores that day.
A lot of these predictions of mine are based off of rumors and are mostly things I would like to see, I believe a lot of the things are said are safe bets. Since Phil Spencer took over as Head of Xbox, I think the console will start gaining a lot more traction. Although, let me be clear, the Xbox One is doing incredibly well in terms of sales. I’m just saying there’s plenty of room for improvement and E3 is the best time to really go out and try to start tipping the scales in Microsoft’s favor.
What do you think of these predictions? Like them? Hate them? What do you think we’ll see during E3 this year for Microsoft? Let us know in the comments below!