E3 comes along every year and with it so does a number of different announcements, gameplay videos, trailers and teasers. As well as a plethora of premature rewards and subsequent hype leading up to a given game's release. It’s an exciting time of year for gamers who’ve been eagerly awaiting new releases and want to hear big news out of the industry in real time. But in the past few years, the conference has dwindled somewhat. It isn’t the same spectacle that it once was, and doesn’t carry the same sort of weight it once did in terms of game announcements. That being said, it’s still a huge platform developers and publishers use to get word out.
Be they big or small, many developers have at least a few rumors attached to their hip regarding future or currently in development titles of theirs. So it only makes sense that around this time of the year, rumors are running ramped. Anything from game releases to announcements to all sorts of leaks. The fact that E3 is so close only leads people to assume that these rumors will unfold there. So with that in mind, let’s look at 15 E3 rumors floating around that we really hope aren’t true and 10 rumors that have already been confirmed.
25 Hope Not: Borderlands 3 Absence
Fans of any given franchise will always want more if they can get it and sometimes that takes a toll on developers. Us wanting more games is all well and good, but these people have to go out there and come up with new ideas, which can get especially difficult when one wants to keep up the quality in an ongoing series. In this case, it looks like Borderlands fans are getting the cold shoulder in response to their pleas for Borderlands 3. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford let loose a string of tweets earlier this month seemingly stomping all speculation of the game being shown at E3. Pitchford alluded to many different magic metaphors in his dismissal of the game’s E3 presence. It wasn’t really good news for fans clinging to the June conference for hope. At one point Pitchford tweeted;
“I could write it out now precisely and specifically that ‘Borderlands 3’ will not be at E3 and many of you will choose not to believe it. Many of you will find a way to interpret the intent to suit what you want to believe regardless of what is true.”
Yikes. That doesn’t exactly bode well with fans. This can either be the most troll-ish way to throw off fans ever, or a pretty clear-cut denial of any Borderlands 3 related content hitting E3.
24 Hope Not: A New Splinter Cell IP
We all have games from our childhood that we love and more often than not, those games kind of fall off the map as the years go by. Not every franchise can be like Mario and Pokémon in the way that they’re just putting out title after title over the course of decades. However, some games change, and with that, they lose fans. The games lose steam and then you usually don’t hear much about them for a good while. Heck, you sometimes don’t hear anything from certain franchises at all. At one point in time, the Splinter Cell games were one of the most popular stealth franchises out there – mixing in military espionage to the traditional sneak and kill gameplay. But as is often the case, somewhere along the way the games started to stray from the original formula and incorporated more and more heavy action and shooter elements, drowning out the stealth. Well, if the Wal-Mart Canada slip-up is to be believed then there’s probably some more Splinter Cell on the way and where better to show it than E3? Though that sounds like it’s cause for celebration, it might be better for the series to remain dormant rather than drift further and further away from its roots.
23 Confirmed: A CD Projekt Red RPG
The studio behind the Witcher franchise has built themselves up to be one of the premier developers in the gaming industry today. From humble beginnings, CD Projekt Red have steadily improved with each entry in the aforementioned Witcher franchise and shown off their chops to an ever-growing fan base over several years. While the Witcher might be done for now, the studio has its sights turned to a more ambitious project; Cyberpunk 2077. We don’t know much about the game but we do know that the developer is supposed to show off some sort of RPG at E3 this year.
The listing made no mention of Cyberpunk 2077, which has some people speculating as to what this could mean.
But the vagueness of that statement has some thinking that Cyberpunk 2077 might not be ready to be seen yet. So what does this mean? Well, it certainly isn’t bad news for Cyberpunk if the RPG in question is, in fact, something else. It wouldn’t be completely out of the question for them to be working on another, smaller project in between. However, chances are that we’ll be seeing Cyberpunk 2077 – at least in some capacity – at E3 this year.
22 Hope Not: New DmC Game
The Devil May Cry games were some of the most popular hack and slash titles of their generation and are still very popular today despite the series not being one of the most active out there. That says a lot about the initial games’ impact among fans and the gaming community. However back in 2013, Capcom decided to reboot the series complete with a new look Dante that didn’t go over all too well with some fans.
Unless this is a return to the original series, we don’t want it.
Well, now it seems that a new DmC game might be in the works. Series director Hideaki Itsuno, who served as supporting director on the reboot, has been talking up his latest release and apologizing for the delayed announcement of said project. Many are speculating that this is going to be another DmC title, but the question is whether or not this will be part of the reboot or the original games. Well seeing as DmC 4 came out in 2008, it looks like this might be continuing off from the reboot. Not the worst news sure, but for a lot of fans of the old games it isn’t all that reassuring either.
21 Hope Not: Wal-Mart Canada’s Big Slip
As long as there are anticipated big name games out there, there will be a flurry of leaks supposedly pinpointing when these aforementioned games will come out. This is a common trend that more often than not fails to get the actual dates right and is usually the concoction of some devious fan rather than an actual leaker. But one thing that really throws people off is when retailers themselves are the ones serving up the leaks. This isn’t done purposely of course, as that’d cause all kinds of legal issues, but is more often than not some sort of slip-up on the retailer’s part.
Leaks coming from a retailer don’t make them any more legitimate.
It looks like Wal-Mart Canada might’ve let slip the announcements of a handful of AAA games well before this year’s E3. That would really be awful seeing as companies and developers go to great lengths to conceal what it is they’re releasing or working on until they’re ready to show it off. It also takes some of the excitement away from fans. But on the bright side, this is in no way a sure-fire indication that any of these titles are going to be released or even announced this year.
20 Confirmed: Spidey’s PS4 Homecoming
The hype couldn’t really be all that much higher for this next game. Given the popularity of superhero movies, you could see how some game developers would be willing to take advantage of the trend with the ever exploitable game market. There have been plenty of mediocre superhero games in the past, but Insomniac’s new Spider-Man title definitely doesn’t seem like it’ll be that. The game looks incredibly polished and despite us knowing the release date (September 7th of this year) many gamers are just as excited to see more of this title as they were when it was first announced. The PS4 exclusive looks to be one of Sony’s biggest releases of the year, and despite not being tied in with the current Marvel cinematic universe, is seen as one of the biggest releases of the year. There are a ton of expectations tied to this game and it isn’t all that farfetched to say that this might be one of the biggest releases of the year. We’ve seen some gameplay and the game looks like it borrows a lot from the Arkham games which makes things all the more exciting.
19 Hope Not: Still Nothing From Bethesda On TES
Skyrim was one of the most popular and lasting RPG’s of its era, and is still talked about favorably to this day. The huge world, the incentive to explore, solid combat and engrossing lore all made the game the kind of lasting experience it was. But as it stands the whole thing has gotten a little stale, mainly due to the fact that the game has been re-released more times than Bethesda’s made any actual references to any sort of sequel.
While many gamers would love to see this announcement happen, you shouldn’t hold your breath.
The Elder Scrolls 6 looks like it’s turning into the Half-Life 3 of console gaming, and that’s not exactly an exaggeration. For a while now it’s seemed as if people have been on the edge of their seats awaiting a new Elder Scrolls title only to be left disappointed. This year again, things will be more or less the same; rumors will sprout, people will get their hopes up and unless something unexpected happens – they’ll be crushed. At this point, the incessant speculation regarding the future of the franchise is hurting it more than the lack of a new game.
18 Hope Not: The Pokémon Switch News...
We’ve been hearing a lot of noise in regards to the upcoming Pokémon Switch title that’s currently in development. Ever since it was mentioned at last year’s E3 fans have been busy speculating as to what the series would look like on the Switch and what exactly will be different. There are plenty of rumors out there as we’ve already discussed. But one thing that probably wouldn’t be great is if the game was in fact announced at E3 this year. On the positive side of things an E3 announcement likely means a 2018 release. That’s good for Nintendo and definitely good for Switch sales. The faster they put it out the better chance they have of moving units by Christmas. But we know that Nintendo is going to have a lot on its plate this year. Not that they can’t handle it, but Pokémon is an IP that deserves all the time they can give it – especially this release that very much looks like it might change the formula in a drastic way for the first time in two decades. This is one of their most anticipated titles, so Nintendo needs to handle this very carefully and E3 may not be the best stage for this kind of announcement anymore ... so it's looking like it will be saved for a Q1 reveal.
17 Confirmed: Nintendo’s Schedule
Finding out a company’s E3 schedule is the first step to rampant and off the wall speculation at what’s going to be shown and revealed at the big event. In the entire gaming industry, perhaps no other developer is as popular as Nintendo is when it comes to speculating on the progress or even existence of upcoming titles. While the gaming heavyweight hasn’t let too much slip before the big day, fans have just enough of an idea to go on to get themselves excited. Well, the schedule has been released. It dropped late last month. Good thing too, seeing as a developer’s E3 schedule is one of the most talk about things going into E3. So the sooner that’s revealed the better. Nintendo’s E3 line-up includes a video presentation which will show off some 2018 titles including the new Smash Bros. game, as well as a new Treehouse Live that will show off tons of gameplay. If you’re looking forward to some new Nintendo properties this year then this new should have you really excited. There’ll probably be a few surprises in there as well, which you should definitely keep an eye out for. But having the schedule is a good start to it all.
16 Hope Not: Next Gen Consoles
It’s always just around the corner. Like a creeping feeling that you just can’t seem to shake off. We all get comfortable without current gen consoles and kind of get caught off guard when the big three start making their announcements one by one and suddenly; those consoles are very close to being completely obsolete. Despite Sony’s reassurances that the PS5 is another three years away, E3 being just around the corner means that people will be speculating when and if any new consoles will be announced. It might be a good feeling to some, but for those of us envisioning a pretty hefty chunk of our wallets having to be put towards these products – the news can definitely wait a while. There just doesn’t seem to be any real good reason to cut the current generation of consoles short at this point. Though they’re still not as sophisticated as gaming computers, these consoles are solid machines that more than get the job done. What’s more is that quality games have been coming out pretty steadily since 2016, so there’s no real complacency there either. All in all this is an unlikely rumor that would be a real kick in the pants if true in any way.
15 Hope Not: Microsoft Keeping Things Quiet This Year
While things like Console Wars might be overblown a little by fan bases, it is true that at their core, the big three – Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo – are all competing against each other to put out more titles and move more units. Each of these companies are busy looking to the future while they continually plan out what their next move is going to be to support current hardware. It’s a delicate balance that some are doing better than others at the moment. Microsoft hasn’t been making all that many headlines recently and some gamers out there feel as though the Xbox One has fallen behind the PlayStation 4 and even the Nintendo Switch. It can be seen as something of a trailing competitor, and though Microsoft definitely has things in the pipe going forward, this year’s E3 may not be all that busy on their end. This might mean that not all that many games will be announced this year which is pretty hard to swallow for Xbox supporters. It’s good to hear that a company is looking to the future but not taking the chance to announce some big name games at one of the largest video game events of the year seems like they’re overlooking the importance of getting gamers what they want now.
14 Confirmed: Kingdom Hearts 3 Will be Playable
After years of waiting, it really does seem like its happening. The Kingdom Hearts franchise has become one of the most beloved in the gaming community, melding Square Enix and Disney into one big super intellectual property. The JRPGs are some of the most well received of their era, and fans have been waiting patiently for the third installment in the core franchise for a long, long while now. Well, it doesn’t look to be all that far off anymore.
It looks like fans at E3 will finally be able to get their hands on Kingdom Hearts 3.
The game itself has been in development since 2013. So fans have been waiting for more than most would have to. At one point it seemed like it was stuck in Development Hell, but not anymore. With the news that some fans will get to play the game at E3 this year, the reality that it’s closer and closer to completion becomes all the more real. No more spin-off’s, no more side stories – we’re finally getting Kingdom Hearts 3. Let’s hope that this E3 is a sign of what’s to come for the franchise.
13 Hope Not: More Forza On The Horizon
Racing games are very popular among the sports sim community and unlike many other sports games, there have been various titles and franchises over the years that have added to the genre in ways that can’t be done with other sports sims due to the exclusivity of those IP’s. Not many people will want to play a football game that isn’t licensed by the NFL. Same goes for baseball, basketball, and soccer. But with racing games, you get all kinds – each of different quality sure, but willing to try something different no less. It’s kind of refreshing. The Forza series is one of the most well known and racing sims out there and definitely has a good deal of pull with racing fans. If recent rumors are to be believed we can expect an announcement for Forza Horizon 4 to get plugged into Microsoft’s E3 conference. The bad thing about this is that’d mean that the series is becoming more and more of a semi-annual one. While fans do like games that are released on a consistent schedule, there’s something to be said about the quality of games that are released on one, two or even three-year cycles. It feels like the attention isn’t being put towards making quality games rather than it is making a deadline with whatever you have.
12 Confirmed: Some Tasty New XSeed Localizations
While E3 tends to focus to big lights on well-known developers and publishers and their AAA titles, it’s also a time for those who are looking forward to smaller, more niche titles to keep an eye out for some interesting news. A subsidiary of Japanese game developer and anime production company Marvelous, Xseed Games have been bringing over niche Japanese titles to the West for a while now. They’ve brought over the popular Legend of Heroes RPGs, the steamy Senran Kagura titles and the Corpse Party horror franchise just to list off some of their work. Known for teasing their upcoming announcements to fans with various silhouettes, Xseed recently jumped ahead of all the E3 hustle and bustle and decided to announce four new localizations. The games are; a steam release of Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity, Gal Metal for the Switch, a PC release of Corpse Party 2 and Gungrave VR. Each of these titles is scheduled to be released in 2018. So it seems as though Xseed’s E3 will be focused on discussing these already established announcements. It’s a smart move by a smaller company that can very well get drowned out by the sheer volume of E3 announcements that come yearly.
11 Hope Not: More On Xbox Career Features
Achievements and trophies are relatively new concepts and additions to the gaming world but have caught on very well since they were first introduced. These things add a layer of competitiveness and challenge to games for some players and as a result are very highly regarded in some circles. That being said, while fun these things aren’t exactly an integral part of the gaming experience and shouldn’t really overshadow new IP’s – especially at an event like E3. It’s rumored that Microsoft will be showing us more of their career features for Xbox. With those unfamiliar of what that is; career features are basically an in depth look into a given player’s play style and focus more on how they play rather than what they’re doing to hunt down various achievements. It’s an interesting concept that show’s off quite a bit of detailed information as you can see in the above figure. While some might find this all very interesting, what Microsoft really has to do at E3 this year is show off some games, not obscure features that people may or may not care about. Career features aren’t going to sell consoles.
10 Confirmed: A Deeper Look at Ghost Of Tsushima
Sucker Punch Studios have been a huge asset for Sony over the years, having put out a number of console exclusive titles for the PlayStation that have really left an impact with fans. The Sly Cooper games were must-haves on the PS2 and the original Infamous games were some of the most interesting narratives you’d find on the PS3. But the studio looks to be ramping up for a completely different look this time around.
This is easily Sucker Punch’s most ambitious title yet.
Set in Feudal Japan, Ghost of Tsushima is an ambitious project that sees players fend off an impending Mongol invasion as one of the last surviving samurai. Described as a “samurai open-world game,” Tsushima has a ton of promise and definitely has fans excited. But for as much hype as there is for the game, we haven’t really seen all that much of it since it was announced to be in development. While that in and of itself has been cause for excitement, we can only imagine how the internet is going to blow up once we get our first real taste of this title at this year’s E3.
9 Hope Not: More Plants Vs. Zombies
Mobile gaming is something of a recent trend that’s really been picking up in the industry over the course of several years. With smartphones getting more powerful as they go along and the demand for these on the go games growing; these games are bound to get more and more popular going forward. The majority of these big name mobile games are freemium – meaning that they’re initially free but contain a large number of pitfalls, locked features and additional content that are all circumvented and accessed by paying certain amounts of money. Of all of these titles, the Plants vs. Zombies games are some of the most infamous out there. Well if you’re not a fan of the series then we have some bad news for you. A new entry in the Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare series looks like it leaked back in March and while it’s nothing concrete yet, there’s a good chance EA announces this at E3. Whether you’re not a fan of the series in the slightest bit or you just don’t want to see precious time taken up by this kind of game – this isn’t the most promising rumor out there.
8 Confirmed: More Death Stranding
Metal Gear might be dead in the water, but Kojima is moving on well from Konami in the best way possible. Soon after the acclaimed designer was unceremoniously booted from the company he’d put on the map with the Metal Gear games, speculation as to what Kojima’s new venture post Konami would end up being. After a while of guess work and mystery, the gaming industry was shown the first trailer for Death Stranding and everyone was immediately hit with a wave of excitement, joy and endless confusion as to what they’d just seen. To this day, we still don’t know what the game is. We’ve had three trailers and each has been more cryptic than the last. The safest bet is to assume that you’ll know nothing going in and possibly less coming out. It feels like it’ll be one of those. But we will be seeing more of it at this year’s E3. Now, we don’t know just how much more we’re going to see but it’s promising to those who are starved for any news regarding the game. We could be getting a whole hour of gameplay this time around. Or we could very well get just another confusing trailer to keep us guessing.
7 Hope Not: Persona 5 Switching it Up
Persona 5 was an anticipated game leading up to its release. Delays and a plethora of teasers made this JRPG something many fans of the series couldn’t wait to get their hands on. In the end, it was well worth the wait and served as the fantastic experience one would expect of the series. The games were supposed to be PS3 exclusives but thanks to the delays, were brought over to the PS4 as well. Mainline Persona games have always been exclusive to Sony consoles, save for the first game and its Windows port. One rumor involving the Switch suggests that Persona 5 might break that trend and head on to Nintendo’s hybrid console. This would be pretty strange for a game like Persona 5 as it just doesn’t feel like it fits the console. A strange thing to say sure, but think about what kind of games you’ll find on the Switch. They’re not games that require huge commitments of time out of players. Even Breath of the Wild didn’t have all that lengthy of a narrative, so you could pick it up, explore and go on doing that until you were ready to beat the game. But Persona 5 requires a lot of time and often has chunks of story that take hours to get through. It just doesn’t feel like a good pairing.
6 Confirmed: Nintendo Heavyweights Tournament Double Header
Lots of Nintendo content thus far on our list, and some more to come before we’re done. A lot of people look forward to Nintendo’s E3 presentations. They usually bring something that can get everybody excited and this year that something seems like its going to be the new Smash Bros. title on the Switch. It’s easily one of the most highly anticipated titles of the year and will most definitely move a ton of Switch units following this year’s E3. We still don’t exactly know how the game will work on the console, given the Switch’s unique controllers and hybrid nature. But gamers won’t have to wait long to get their first look at this title because Nintendo is actually going to be holding a Smash invitational pretty soon. The event will take place from June 11th-12th and will feature a number of players from around the globe. The event will be streamed on both YouTube and Twitch. Meanwhile, Splatoon 2 will also be getting its own tournament that will likely draw in some pretty decent numbers. It seems that Nintendo wanted to keep things competitive at this year’s E3.