E3 Expectations

So E3 is right around the corner and many websites, publications and media outlets are speculating on what will be seen and what could be announced. This year is the same as any other and will set the pace for the rest of 2012 and what us as consumers will be able to pick up at our local video game shops.

It’s a difficult time for all the home console producers; especially the big N. Of course Nintendo has a lot riding on this year’s E3 as it’ll be the place where it fully unveils its next generation hardware,  Wii U. It’s also their opportunity to convince hardcore and casual gamers alike that its features will be the future of gaming. I for one expect mountains of information on what the new hardware can do and at least some sort of idea of what software we’ll be seeing once it’s launched.

Nintendo also still have some ground to make up on their fairly dismal 3DS launch so we can expect some more of the handheld staples to come back into the fold. Luigi’s Mansion 2, Paper Mario 3DS and Animal Crossing are all big licenses for their little console and some of the main reasons why people will be picking it up this year. We can also expect the recently announced New Super Mario Bros 2 as well as some English details on the Pokemon Black & White 2 games. If all goes to plan we might even get some completely fresh announcements for other pieces of software like a new Advance Wars, Fire Emblem or Golden Sun.

The most interesting thing about this year’s expo is the fact that it is more home console based than ever. A few years ago we regularly had interesting PC announcements and add-ons at the expo but this seems to have been sidelined in favour of their console counterparts. Its true again that Blizzard and Valve (dammit no Half Life) won’t be attending this year and neither will a lot of the already announced big PC based games like Guild Wars 2 and Firefall.

Ok some PC games are expected to be on show, especially EA’s offerings, namely the new SimCity and the recently announced new patch for Star Wars: The Old Republic. EA are trying hard to stop subscriber loss and E3 looks like as good a time as any to announce their plans to combat this. It’s also hard to imagine that the EA conference won’t mention details on their Battlefield and Crysis franchises as these have been massive sellers in the last few years.

MMO’s are also making quite a bit comeback this year in the form of Neverwinter, Raiderz and the hugely anticipated Planetside 2. It’s strange to think that this genre is almost completely PC based still and none of the console makers have really figured out how best to get these integrated on their home platforms. It would also be a huge disappointment if the eagerly anticipated The Elder Scrolls: Online didn’t raise it’s head.

Most games on display at E3 these days will be promoted on consoles as I have explained above but many of these do in fact have a PC based counterpart. No only that but the majority of any new games on offer sent to be available on multiple consoles too. Looking into the future you can see games like Resident Evil 6, Assassins Creed 3 and Far Cry hitting everything they can. The more consoles they can process their games for the bigger their possible market.