Right now, millions of people all over the planet are turning to video games as a distraction from what’s going on outside their windows. People are flocking to games in a huge way during this difficult time – so much so that the servers of even the biggest games and companies are struggling to cope with the unprecedented demand. We used to think that nothing could bring down a ‘Call of Duty’ server for long. It turns out that we were wrong.
Losing E3 is sad, even if it is necessary. It’s a great community event where a fun time is usually guaranteed, and the secrets of the twelve years ahead of us are revealed. These days, though, so much is known about what to expect at E3 prior to arriving there that we may not actually be missing out on much. You might not be able to attend E3 in 2020, but we can easily tell you what you would have seen if you were there.
No Sony
We don’t know exactly what went down between Sony and the organizers of E3, but there’s definitely some bad blood, no matter how much each side denies it. Maybe Sony thinks that E3’s organizers are all Xbox fans. Maybe E3 think Sony hog the spotlight too much. Whatever the real reason might be, Sony had already confirmed that despite this being the year of the PlayStation 5’s launch, they would be steering clear of E3. The company has its own special events lined up, including a semi-official video game tournament at the Tokyo Olympics that will showcase (for some inexplicable reason) the ‘Champion Edition’ of ‘Street Fighter 5.’ The absence of one of the world’s largest video gaming companies would have made the event a little strange, but we’re sure everyone would have coped.
Resident Evil 3 Remake
The demo for the remake of ‘Resident Evil 3’ has just been released. We haven’t had the chance to play it yet, but we’re willing to bet that it’s excellent. ‘Resident Evil’ is one of the all-time-great video gaming franchises – one that’s been everywhere from cartoons to movies to slots. You might not be able to kill zombies in as grisly and satisfying a fashion at online slots websites as you can in the console version, but just the fact that someone saw merit in making an online slots version of ‘Resident Evil’ at all tells you a lot about how big ‘Resident Evil’ has become, and how familiar the pubic are with it. The full game would have been out by the time E3 rolled around, and it would likely have been one of the stars of the show.
Final Fantasy VII Remake
We don’t want to dwell on remakes too much – that’s a job for the movie business – but it would be impossible not to mention the long-awaited remake of PlayStation 1 classic ‘Final Fantasy VII’ in writing this article. The original game holds a special place in the hearts of millions of gamers, and when the remake was announced in 2015, it was greeted with an outpouring of joy. Getting to the point where it’s ready for release has been a frustratingly long journey, but that journey is almost over. The remastered telling of the tale should be out in April this year, and so it would still have been hot news by the time of E3. We just hope that people would have been talking about it because they loved it, rather than because it’s disappointing. We can’t wait to see Cloud and the gang again and have our hearts broken in HD this time.
Assassin’s Creed: Ragnarok
Is it even an E3 conference if you don’t get a sneak peek of a forthcoming Assassin’s Creed game? We think not, which might go some way to explaining why E3 2019 was so disappointing. Ubisoft hasn’t even officially confirmed the existence of Assassin’s Creed: Ragnarok yet, but the fact that it’s on its way is among the worst kept secrets in the entire world of video gaming. Nobody can be too sure about where it’s up to in terms of development, but an Easter egg implanted in last year’s ‘The Division 2’ gave the game away that production work had already started. E3 would have been the perfect place for Ubisoft to give us our first look at their latest creation. Now that we know E3 isn’t happening, we expect them to show it to us in another form very soon.
Fable 4
Yes, it really has been ten years since the release of the last ‘Fable’ game. Yes, we have been here many times before with speculation. This time, though, we had good reasons to believe that ‘Fable 4’ was going to be a ‘surprise’ announcement at E3, and we’re still sticking to that belief even though the event is no longer happening. Microsoft hasn’t exactly been subtle about the fact that they’ve been working on a new ‘Fable,’ and those hints have been going on for long enough for us to believe that they’re approaching the point of readiness to give it to the world. The only question is whether it’s going to be an extension of the original tale and a direct sequel or a reboot of the whole franchise. Given that ten years have passed, we’d lean towards the latter.
Aside from the above, the rest of the event would largely have been hoopla and frivolity. We might have found out some nice new details about the Xbox Series X. We may even have been given a chance to play with one. Sadly, that just wasn’t to be – but all the games and devices we would have seen are still on their way to us. We’ll just have to be a little more patient while we wait for them to arrive.
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