E3 2015 Press conferences and streams
Day 2 at E3 2015 is underway! Nintendo and Square Enix have shown off their wares, and we’re a few hours away from the PC Gaming Show, which kicks off at 5 pm PT/1 am BST.
With an action-packed Day 1 behind us, check the sections below for links to new and developing stories – the highlights from one of the most satisfying E3 starters so far.
Bethesda – June 14
Bethesda’s first-ever E3 conference has come to a close. But if you didn’t catch it, don’t worry! You can re-watch the stream via Twitch or on the Bethesda blog.
All the announcements from Bethesda’s keynote:
- Doom gameplay trailer emerges from the depths of E3
- Official Dishonored 2 trailer shows off a sneaky new female protagonist
- Fallout 4 will ship with the coolest special edition gadget ever
- It’s official: Fallout 4 release date is November 10
- Here’s everything we know about Fallout 4 so far
Microsoft – June 15
Phew. Microsoft’s E3 2015 conference is over but there’s a lot to digest. Missed anything? We’ve got you covered.
All the announcements from Microsoft’s keynote:
- Xbox One is now backwards compatible with all your old 360 games
- Halo 5: Guardians will have you hunt down the Master Chief
- Recore is the Xbox One’s new IP, made from the talent behind Metroid Prime
- Fallout 4 is coming November 10, but it will be better on Xbox One
- Xbox Game Preview is like Steam Early Access
- The Division beta will release in December for Xbox One
- The Xbox Elite: Microsoft’s new ultra customisable controller
- Rise of the Tomb Raider gameplay trailer shows Lara in peril
- Microsoft has new relationship with Valve VR, and a special Minecraft for HoloLens
- Rare Replay puts the original Perfect Dark on your Xbox One, but not Goldeneye
- Gears of War 4!
EA – June 15
After killer shows from Bethesda and Ubisoft, EA’s felt a little drawn out and dry in places. But there was still plenty to get our teeth stuck into, including the first gameplay trailer for Star Wars Battlefront.
The announcements from EA’s keynote:
- First Star Wars Battlefront gameplay trailer brings the battle to Hoth
- Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is a gorgous open world, parkour simulator
- FIFA 16 trailer at E3 2015 demos fresh kicks, female teams
- Catch the Madden 16 official trailer right here
Ubisoft – June 15
That’s Ubisoft wrapped. We had Tom Clancy, dancing, awkward stage chat, and South Park! Assassin’s Creed Syndicate was also in the mix, but if you’re not at E3 this year we have good news: Ubisoft is bringing the game to London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Stockholm from June 16 to 18, and Sydney from June 17 to June 19. You can book for the special events here.
The announcements from Ubisoft’s keynote
- The Division is releasing next year. No, really
- What’s better than a new Assassin’s Creed Syndicate trailer? Two ACS trailers
- Ghost Recon’s long nap comes to an end with Wildlands
- Rainbow Six: Siege trailer at E3 2015 reveals beta release date
Sony – June 15
Sony had a killer line up this year thanks to all the classics. The audience was practically on its feet the whole night cheering on almost every single game announced. Oh and it’s probably good it led with The Last Guardian, and ended with Uncharted 4.
The major announcements from Sony’s big keynote:
- The Last Guardian is finally coming to PlayStation 4
- Horizon: Zero Dawn is like Conan the Barbarian meets Transformers
- No Man’s Sky shows gameplay in a gorgeous pulp sci-fi universe
- Final Fantasy 7 will be remade on PS4 first, the ultimate fan service
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 gameplay trailer is chockfull of combat
- Project Morpheus goes multiplayer at E3 2015
- The classic RPG series Shenmue has been revived on Kickstarter for PS4
- Uncharted 4 shows off some serious gameplay in a heated car chase
Nintendo – June 16
Nintendo’s digital event started out with a puppet skit, gave us some good games to look forward to, and then ended with a montage of fans and Shiggy jamming out to the Mario theme song. There was no new Zelda (well, there was … for 3DS), new Amiibos and just a passing mention of the mysterious NX system, but some tried-and-true favorites did get new titles. It felt like a holding pattern for Nintendo, but when you’re the House of Mario, you can afford to have your fans wait just a little bit longer.
The major announcements from Nintendo’s Digital Event:
- First Star Fox Zero footage finally justifies the Wii U Gamepad
- Nintendo announces a new Zelda and Metroid game for the 3DS
- Skylanders and Amiibo are coming together as one
- More news on the Nintendo NX due in 2016
Square Enix – June 16
Square Enix’s E3 press event is in the books. It was a bit long, but we got a good look at some highly anticipated titles (like Kingdom Hearts 3 and Just Cause 3) and news on Final Fantasy 7 headed to iOS devices later this summer.
The major announcements from Square Enix’s press conference:
- Just Cause 3 starts unleashing chaos in December
- Rise of the Tomb Raider E3 trailers put Lara on the ropes
- Here’s the Kingdom Hearts 3 gameplay trailer from E3 2015
- Final Fantasy 7 is coming to your iPhone and iPad this summer
- Hitman takes the series back to basics
PC Gaming Show – June 16
The first-ever PC Gaming Show at E3 delivered exactly what it promised. There were guest appearances by Lisa Su of AMD, Cliffy B and Phil Spencer, and talk on new tech like AMD’s new graphics cards. We learned Killer Instinct is coming to the PC and, perhaps most exciting of all, No Man’s Sky will launch on the PS4 AND PC at the same time.
Well done, PC Gamer. We can only hope there will be a PC Gaming Show at E3 2016.
Hardware we’re excited to see at E3
Update: Oculus revealed quite a lot at its pre-E3 event including a new Oculus Rift headset and controllers dubbed Oculus Touch. We weren’t able to use the virtual reality headset or its controllers, because the company promised the E3 show floor is where all the VR action will take place.
By the time E3 rolls around players will be a year-and-a-half into the new console generation, so publishers, developers and platform creators need to bring their A-game to LA.
Here’s what we’d like to see – and believe us when we tell you, this is simply a starting point for an ever-growing list.
Console craze … and PCs now too!
We don’t expect to see very much in the way of hardware at the 2015 expo. Both Sony and Microsoft will have gaming platforms in the market that are under two years old and if Nintendo’s past form is anything to go by, it’s doubtful it’s ready to throw in the towel on the Wii U just yet.
Nintendo’s only just launched its new 3DS and 3DS XL and Sony continues to support the PS Vita platform, so new handhelds probably aren’t on the agenda.
But the notion of a slimmer, more svelte Xbox One wouldn’t be unappreciated. On the other hand, if the PS4 loses any more weight it may disappear under your television altogether. What’s more likely is that both Microsoft and Sony will make attempts to better utilise their mobile device gaming platforms. A price cut for any of the home consoles wouldn’t be completely unexpected either.
An area of hardware we do expect to see plenty of is virtual reality. The Oculus Rift is officially expected to touch down next year, though pricing is still up in the air. But now that we know when to we’ll see a more finalised version, we expect it to be at the LA expo with guns blazing.
Microsoft teased the HoloLens at Build 2015 developer conference, though we’re sure all the juicy info will pop up in June. The HoloLens site even lists the following blurb: "Holographic computing promises whole new ways for us to create, collaborate, work, and play. We look forward to showing and telling you more at E3, the world’s premier trade show for computer and video games and related products."
Sony’s Project Morpheus still has some way to go, but Sony’s made big leaps forward with the second generation of the headset, and we expect to see more games for it shown off at E3.
Finally, Valve used GDC 2015 to announce its new (and finalised) lineup of Steam Machines, which will launch later in the year. And if we’re being incredibly optimistic for a moment? Half-Life 3, Portal 3 and Left 4 Dead 3 announced all at the same time. Imagine. Just imagine.
Speaking of imagining, year in and year out, our friends at PC Gamer would look on at the biggest gaming expo with wanting eyes. While Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony get to show off their wares with bombast, the excellent games and infinitely more powerful hardware on the PC received no such spotlight. But that’s all about to change.
Presented by AMD and sponsored by Blizzard Entertainment, Bohemia Interactive, Tripwire Interactive and Digital Storm, PC Gamer will play host to the first E3 conference all about PC gaming.
In a surprise move, Phil Spencer will be a guest at the PC Gamer conference. Check out this interview with Spencer and PCG to find out more.
Hosted by StarCraft 2 e-sports commentator Sean ‘Day[9]‘ Plott, the PC Gaming Show will be live streamed in partnership with Twitch from the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles on June 16.
Joe Osborne also contributed to this article.
Let’s talk E3 games
Update: Curious about what Bethesda will be talking about? Here’s it’s full lineup below, but unfortunately it won’t be live streamed.
June 16 – 1:00pm PT Join Marty Stratton, Executive Producer at id Software, and Hugo Martin, Art Director at id Software, for a look into the next chapter of DOOM.
2:30pm PT – Todd Howard, Game Director at Bethesda Game Studios, sits down for an exclusive interview about Fallout 4.
June 17 – 11:00am PT Bethesda hosts a roundtable with id Software’s Marty Stratton (Executive Producer), Hugo Martin (Art Director), Garrett Young (General Manager) and Robert Duffy (Chief Technology Officer).
1:00pm PT – Check out an exclusive panel discussion with Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard (Game Director), Emil Pagliarulo (Lead Designer), Istvan Pely (Lead Artist), and Jeff Gardiner (Lead Producer).
4:00pm PT – Join Lucas Davis, Design Director at Battlecry Studios, and Rich Vogel, Executive Producer at Battlecry Studios, for an inside look at BATTLECRY.
Thursday June 18 – 11:00am PT – id Software’s Marty Stratton sits down for a special interview that dives into DOOM’s strong community and the developer’s plans for getting players involved.
1:00pm PT – Join Pete Hines, VP of PR & Marketing at Bethesda Softworks, for a recap of Bethesda’s E3 and find out what’s next for the publisher and its studios.
3:00pm PT – Get an even deeper look at Battlecry’s maps and character classes with Victor Antonov, Visual Design Director at ZeniMax, Lucas Davis and Rich Vogel.
Here’s the Fallout 4 trailer, fresh from Bethesda and 10 things we learned about the new Fallout.
And while we’re at it, here’s a teaser of the upcoming Rise Of The Tomb Raider game, which we’re sure to see more of at E3.
It’s hard to predict at this stage what developers and publishers will have in store for the E3 shop floor. But there are a ton of titles in 2015′s pipeline we desperately want to see more of.
One publisher we’re hoping will recapture some of its E3 glisten is Bethesda. The publisher’s E3 2014 showing was tepid to say the least, and showcasing The Evil Within and BattleCry failed to set the world alight. However, 2015 is set to be extra special – Bethesda has invited us to its first ever E3 press conference, which will take place this year. One game from Bethesda we know we’ll be seeing is Doom, after the publisher released a very, very short teaser ahead of its big event.
We’d also be quite pleased with a sequel to Dishonored, or if there was any news about the undeniably intriguing Prey 2. But on the very top of our wish list is an announcement about Fallout 4. They’ve got to at least give us a tease, right?
More rumours about Fallout 4 spilling out with the conference inching closer. IGN reports that behind the scenes gameplay sessions of the next Fallout game will be held in LA.
Other hopefuls include the Warner Bros Mad Max game, one of the belle’s of the E3 2013 ball that we saw neither hide nor hair of it at E3 in 2014. We’d like to see a lot more of that now it’s been given a September release date.
Elsewhere, it’ll be interesting to see if Activision has more in store for the world than another Call Of Duty, another Skylanders or more bolt-on parts to Destiny. The normally reserved publisher introduced one of this year’s biggest and best new IPs. We’d love to see them repeat that trick – even if the odds on it happening are slim.
Square Enix could do with some regrouping. Aside from Final Fantasy XV, which is receiving a mixed reception at best, and the upcoming sequel to the Tomb Raider reboot, Square doesn’t really have much beyond games with niche appeal. Why is this? This is the publisher that holds the rights to both the Hitman and Deus Ex franchises.
We’ve already had a good glimpse at Uncharted 4, and we expect the game to have a big presence at E3, although it has now been pushed back into 2016. It’s shaping up to be one of the most next gen games yet – have you seen the detail in Drake’s chest hair?
There are also rumours that United Front is working on a new Sleeping Dogs title and we’d love to see that. Oh, and Sony could ‘fess up and tell us whether we’ll ever see The Last Guardian in this lifetime.
As for Nintendo, it’s bad news: we won’t see Zelda Wii U at E3. In fact, Nintendo announced that it’s pushed the game back beyond 2015. We’re still expecting Star Fox Wii U this year, however, so hopefully that will be flaunting its stuff on the E3 show floor. Perhaps Nintendo might give us a glimpse of something else?
We don’t want to start any rumours, but the recent release of the Metroid Prime trilogy on Wii U could be a sign that another franchise might eventually make a glorious return to the home console…
We’ll find out on June 16 at 9 am PST during another Nintendo Digital Event followed by an extended Nintendo Treehouse Live at E3 stream, which will feature "even more games and guest appearances by developers."
Check out the video below of Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé ‘training’ for the first Nintendo World Championships in 25 years. Fans will be able to participate via various Best Buy locations around the US where the winners from different regions will compete in LA during E3.
Additional writing by Nick Cowen
