And just like that, we come to the end of another E3. This year had some highs but also had some lows. So, with all the press events done and all the trailers have been shown off, it’s time to decide who “won” this year’s E3. Was it Microsoft, Nintendo, EA? You’ll just have to read on to find out the victor.
EA
Another year, another dull and uninteresting EA showing. To be fair, the publisher did scale things down to make for a more lively and smaller experience. But, even with expectations being lower than usual, EA still didn’t manage to show off anything of interest, aside from the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. While I commend Kind of Funny’s Greg Miller and the other hosts for giving it there all to make things more exciting, it just wasn’t enough to keep things interesting. Usually, you want to show off a new game at E3, but all EA did was just show off new content coming for its upcoming games, like Apex Legends and Battlefield V. And even then, it was just pretty dull. Welp, at least they gave me another chance to take a weekend nap.
Bethesda
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. When Bethesda first started having E3 shows, they always had an impressive line up of games. This year, aside from Doom: Eternal, there was nothing of interest to show. While they had a few announcements that looked interesting, most trailers were either showing off new content for existing games like the abysmal Fallout 76 or showing off mobile titles. Not really the things you want to show to a press conference that has a lot of your loyal fans. Overall, such a disappointing press event from a publisher that has done much more. Oh, and they’re making their own subscription service…. yay?
Square Enix
Square Enix started off big. After years of waiting, the publisher finally showed off footage of the highly anticipated Final Fantasy VII remake. What we saw didn’t disappoint. Graphics were fantastic, the combat system looked like a significant evolution of the one found in Final Fantasy XV, and we finally got a release date of March 3rd, 2020. If the conference ended there, most people would be satisfied. Alas, that wasn’t the case. That’s not to say that Square Enix had nothing to show off. The new Avengers trailer looks interesting, though it would have been nice to see some gameplay. But, most of the games were different variations of JRPGs. Nothing wrong with that and it’s clear that Square Enix knew what their audience wanted, though you do want to show more off to the people at home who aren’t big JRPG people. It all made for a press conference that was perfectly okay. A little underwhelming, but just okay.
Ubisoft
Ubisoft always has, at the very least, an impressive showing. Some times cringy, but still they manage to bring some decent titles. Luckily, outside of the always terrible appearance of the latest just Dance, nothing too cringy came from this showing. While it would have been nice for the publisher to keep some of its secrets in a better vault (a lot of their games were leaked ahead of time). Watch Dogs: Legion looks like a great time killer, Rainbow Six Seige showed off more content, we had Jon Bernthal and his adorable dog showed off a new trailer for Ghost Recon Breakingpoint, and we even had It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator/star, Rob McElhenney, show off a new trailer of his latest video game show coming to Apple TV. Sure, we could have had some more exciting news of new games, like that new Roller Champions games, but it made for a good, not great press conference.
Microsft
This year, Microsoft showed off the tech of the upcoming successor to the Xbox One, Project Scarlet. We don’t know too much, but they are promising non-existent load times, 8K Resolution, and powerful hardware. That being said, we could have had an example of this, like how Sony showed the loading speeds of the PS5 with Spider-Man. That being said, Microsoft had a lot of games this year. Outerworlds is looking fantastic, the announced Elden Ring looks interesting, Dragon Ball Z: Kakorat looks terrific, and the announcement that Gamepass would come to PC is great. That said, it would have been better to see more gameplay footage of games like Gears 5 and they could have shown some more exclusive games. Still, it all made for an enjoyable show, though it could have been better. The Highlight was definitely seeing Keanu Reeves at the event. Just seeing him there and revealing that he was in the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 made the press conference a whole lot of fun.
Nintendo
So… Nintendo won E3. Honestly, there really isn’t that much to say about Nintendo’s press video outside of it was fantastic. While it started a little shakey by showing the various Dragon Quest heroes coming to Smash Brothers, it quickly found it’s footing. We got a release date for the new version of Dragon Quest XI, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is looking to be the best in the franchise, the remake of Link’s Awakening looks excellent, and we got announcements like the Witcher 3 coming to the Switch. But, just like with past Nintendo Directs, there was always a sense of joy and wonder to it all. From the cartoonishly over the top games that are coming to the Nintendo Switch to the hilarious skit of introducing the new Nintendo of America President, Doug Bowser, and instead got the actual Bowser, there was just a sense of child-like awe and admiration to the whole thing. Along with fantastic looking games like Astral Chains and Daemon X Machina, the announcement that Banjo and Kazooie would finally be coming to Smash Brothers, and the reveal of a sequel to Breath of the Wild made for an excellent all-around event and made Nintendo the Winner of this years E3.
So, who did you think won E3? Leave a comment down below.
