What Would Have Been the E3 2020 Report

So as I would traditionally do around this time, I would be doing a report on E3. But since the coronavirus has forced the show to be cancelled this year, I decided that I would instead report on all the gaming news that we have received thus far since the lockdown started in March. At the time of writing this, Microsoft and Sony have done reveal events on their latest consoles, Nintendo have done at least one Direct show on games coming out this year and are planning to do what would have been their E3 one at some point, EA have been doing some things with Valve and the PC Gaming Show occurred on the 13th. As far as I know, there may be other events on the way. We will just have to wait and see. So with all of that, let's take a look at all the gaming news from March 2020 to now as I share my thoughts on all that has been said:
Nintendo

Now of course I should stress that while this pandemic is happening, many gaming companies are making drastic changes to their release schedule. But unsurprisingly, gaming is the least affected because most of what can be done in terms of development can be done from home. So we start with Nintendo who this year are all about releasing games for the Switch which even though was initially a replacement for the disaster that was the Wii U, I would see it as their ninth gen console if nothing else. Since lockdown started they did a Nintendo Direct and released an Animal Crossing game which was critically acclaimed because of how it gives us the experience that we at the time, cannot have which led to it being sold really well. So in the mini Nintendo Direct that we had in March, two Xenoblade games were announced including a new entry as well as a Switch port of Chronicles known as the Definitive Edition (and of course unlike most ports that are done, there will of course be some new features added that hopefully won't go unnoticed). 2K Games are bringing some of their most beloved titles to the Switch including the complete BioShock trilogy, the first three Borderlands games and a few of their other titles too. DLC is coming to Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and another fighter is coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate but its not who you think it is and is probably one of the few characters no one really wanted. All that plus a bunch of indie titles and many other things too. A good selection of things coming to Nintendo and when they do their planned E3 event, I will of course add to this to account for all news from that. Especially because this year marks the 35th anniversary for Super Mario Bros. so it will be good to see what they have planned to mark the occasion.

Microsoft

So desipte the pandemic, Microsoft are still hoping that the new series of consoles that are to succeed the Xbox One line will still be released later this year. Having already planned events for now cancelled events like E3, they have decided that starting from May, they will do monthly updates on the new console. Unusual for a company to be making a series of consoles rather than just one with occasional updates for both software and hardware. But that's what they are doing so who am I to judge what I personally feel is a good but risky move. What we know so far at the time of writing this is that the Xbox Series X will support 8K resolutions and will maintain backwards compatibility for all the selected Xbox and 360 games that the Xbox One had as well as games from that console too. A 4K Blu-Ray drive will be built in whereas some features the Xbox One had such as the ability to use another HDMI device on the console, will be discontinued with newer methods on how to do this. But while all that is well and good, the big question is the games and there is some good news there. Microsoft have stated that while the launch title list may be quite small, this is because they plan to continue to develop games for the Xbox One as well as the new line of consoles, but add extra features for the new platform. Confirmed titles coming to the platform include a few ports like Grand Theft Auto V and Gears 5 and brand new games such as Halo Infinite and Hitman III. All very promising. Now all we need is a price and then we can all start saving up.
Sony

So before I go on, I would like to stress that these designs of consoles are expected to be the final designs at launch. But as mentioned, some will receive updates over time. So in lieu of their usual E3 presentation, Sony also did an all digital event largely talking about the games coming to their upcoming PS5 as well as a look at the console design and loads more. What we know so far is that the PS5 can be compared to the PS4 in terms of its ever so similar architecture which Sony have used to confirm that the console can play most PS4 games and most PSVR games too as well as PS5 games. This is big news considering that they have been under pressure to offer backwards compatibility for many years now especially with the Xbox One having given gamers that option for a while. As for the rest of the console, its pretty much what we are all expecting. Built-in 4K Blu-Ray player, a chance to try an 8K resolution and some other things too. Where it differs from the Xbox Series X however is its offerings for accessories all of which take advantage of the console's features. What is most surprising is how the new controller is now known as a DualSense one and not what were expecting it to be known as which would have been DualShock 5. But that's OK as it's proving to some of us that Sony like to go away from tradition to try new things. I guess the last thing to mention before the games is that there will be two versions of the PS5 coming out with one having the previously mentioned disc drive and the other being all digital. Now as for the games, it will almost certainly play out like the Xbox Series X launch in which we get a small amount of launch titles because of it being backwards compatible with PS4 and VR games. However there have been more first party titles announced which include Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon: Forbidden West as well as some games from longer running franchises such as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Sackboy: A Big Adventure. But the console will no doubt have a very similar list of games coming when compared to the new Xbox. So overall, I feel that Sony are well-prepared for the ninth generation, but whether they can do battle with Microsoft on even ground is another mystery entirely.

PC Gaming Show

Wow I never thought this would get so much hate. I mean sure most of us will be more keen on consoles than PC at this point, but I guess that's what you get with things like this. So PC Gaming Show happened again this year, but this time as part of a trio of presentations led by the Guerrilla Collective. When combined, the total amount of games is well over 100 which is a lot of games. Many of them are available now while others we need to be patient for, but every single one of them (according to Wikipedia) will be released on PC and some also or in addition to consoles. I won't go into too much detail, but expect to have a good time even though some games are hyped up by the presenters only to be something we were not really wanting. But yeah totally worth the 2+ hours of your time I find.
Electronic Arts (EA)

So of course the biggest news to come from EA which will almost certainly please all PC gamers out there is that they are bringing their games over to Steam as a means to attract more players on arguably the most popular platform to play PC games on. They started this with the release of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order last year and in the months of lockdown, they have been bringing more of their games. So folks this means that your Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Star Wars collections can now be one step closer to completion among others. However, like with Ubisoft's games, you still need Origin to play them which will be OK for some people, but for many others not so much. With that out of the way, EA went ahead with their usual event albeit as an online showcase rather than on a stage. Along with the Steam news, they also announced that they are committed to also bring games old and new onto the Nintendo Switch and a bigger commitment to cross platform play for many of their games. Of the new and updated games announced, there is Star Wars: Squadrons, Apex Legends, Rocket Arena, It Takes Two and Lost in Random among many others. They may still be the worst company ever, but at least they are now on the path of redemption. Let's hope they continue down that path.

Everyone Else

Everyone else at the time this gets posted, have not yet or are not going to do a presentation as such. But there is still news to share. Ubisoft have announced that Assassin's Creed: Valhalla will be their ninth gen launch title for Xbox Series X and PS5. Valve had Steam do their annual Summer Games Fest in which gamers get to try new and upcoming games for a limited free period. IGN ran a three-day online expo showcasing many upcoming games for all platforms which included a number of play sessions, trailers and interviews for many games. And of course a lot of other things were shown off. Just goes to show that no lockdown or disease will stop us from playing, developing, publishing and releasing games while sticking to the rules put in place.

There is probably going to be more events happening in the near future that will continue to showcase games. But for what we got, it's been OK I guess. Of course, we will have some hate towards some things that were announced, but be grateful that we have something to look forward to even if for some of us, we are alone during this time.