E3 is nearly upon us, and we’re gearing up to hear the latest announcements from major publishers like Ubisoft, Nintendo, and Bethesda. Each year, we’re greeted to new gameplay from highly-anticipated titles, as well as game announcements that have us shaking with excitement for weeks to come. While some companies – Sony the most notable – have delivered awesome presentations recently, other publishers have underwhelmed with few notable games and a lack of fanfare. With a few surprises, however, even struggling brands like Xbox can get players excited again.

Here is what we want to see from each major publisher at E3 2017, listed in the order they’ll be presenting.

Electronic Arts

Technically, Electronic Arts no longer does an E3 press conference, instead opting to host its own “EA Play” event for the same purpose – it’s just a day before the other companies begin hosting their shows, so we’ve included it anyway.

Unlike any other companies, Electronic Arts has an uncanny ability to drain the excitement out of even its biggest game announcements and demonstrations with unnecessary banter and on-stage interviews that go on far too long. That’s something we don’t want to see anymore. Put some trust in the games being shown, and give the audience a chance to see them in action. This means that both Madden and FIFA should be on and off the stage in just a few minutes, with a quick announcement of their new features and a trailer all that fans need to justify their next purchase.

We already know that Star Wars: Battlefront II will feature a full single-player campaign – something the previous game lacked – and Electronic Arts would be wise to show it off at length during its press conference. The multiplayer from the original game lacked depth and featured a pretty small number of maps, but it was still engaging. So, the multiplayer doesn’t require an extended demonstration in order to instill confidence in fans, but the campaign does. We need to know that DICE’s success with the story mode in Battlefield 1 wasn’t a fluke and that we can expect this level of quality in the future.

The Need for Speed series rebooted in 2015 with limited success, and its always-online requirement and cheesy story mode made it pale in comparison to other racing games like Forza Horizon 3. Need for Speed Payback looks like Ghost Games’ attempt to get the series back on the metaphorical track, but we haven’t seen enough of the game to know for sure. A single, uninterrupted race to give us a sense of the game’s vehicle physics and environments will go a long way toward gaining skeptical players’ confidence back.

Given the controversy surrounding BioWare and Mass Effect: Andromeda’s apparently rushed development, it would be a mistake for Electronic Arts to trot out a fourth Dragon Age game already. Dragon Age: Inquisition won several game-of-the-year awards when it launched in 2014, but a sequel will need to make an even bigger splash if it wants to receive the same level of acclaim. The same goes for BioWare’s unannounced “Dylan” IP, but a small teaser trailer could help to drum up a little excitement.


Microsoft

Microsoft has, by far, the most to prove at this year’s E3. Xbox One exclusives – even those “console exclusives” also available on Windows 10 – are few and far between, and the games that the first-party Xbox studios have been putting out come from existing franchises. Other projects, most notably PlatinumGames’ action-RPG Scalebound, were canceled just as player interest was at its peak.

The star of Microsoft’s show this year will be Project Scorpio – that goes without saying, and the console’s 4K-ready horsepower is certainly impressive. But Microsoft can’t rely on a console alone in order to sell its systems. We need to see a lineup of exciting games that support the technology, and most of them have to be releasing exclusively on Xbox One and Windows 10.

Halo 6 is out of the question. Microsoft already confirmed that the game won’t be making an appearance at this year’s show, and that’s probably for the best, as Halo 5: Guardians underwhelmed fans and the Xbox brand has relied too heavily on the series recently. A new Gears of War game also seems highly unlikely, as The Coalition just launched Gears of War 4 last year.

Forza Motorsport 7 is essentially guaranteed, as Microsoft has annualized the Forza series, and it should serve as a great tech demonstration for Project Scorpio. We wouldn’t be surprised if it kicked off the show, but Microsoft shouldn’t focus on it for too long. Though the visuals will undoubtedly be impressive, we need to hear about unannounced games.

The Xbox One is already set on first-person shooters, but it lacks the action-heavy role-playing games we’ve seen on PlayStation 4. The closure of Lionhead Studios makes it highly unlikely that Microsoft will be announcing a new Fable game, but if the company were to unveil a new “Souls-like,” even with a second-party developer, it could make the Xbox platform much more enticing to would-be-purchasers.

Most importantly, however, Microsoft must show players that its lineup of 2017 games are good enough to sell systems. Sea of Thieves is, by all accounts, a massive return to form for Rare, but Crackdown 3 remains more of a question mark. If the game can truly deliver on its promise of open-world destruction and mayhem, it has to be given a chance to shine during the show.

Bethesda

Unlike the other publishers at E3, Bethesda doesn’t traditionally show off a plethora of new games during its press conference. Instead, it couples together a few game announcements with extended demonstrations of its upcoming titles. This strategy helped to increase hype for games like Fallout 4 and Dishonored 2, but Bethesda’s confirmed lineup of upcoming games is very slim. Outside of PC-exclusive shooter Quake Champions, very little appears to be on the publisher’s plate right now.

It has been three years since the release of Wolfenstein: The New Order, and a teaser during Bethesda’s show last year for something called “The New Colossus” means that a sequel is very likely to be announced this weekend. We already know the basic pillars of the series like robot dogs and advanced weaponry, so we’re hoping to just get a chance to see BJ Blazkowicz blast some Nazis in an underground bunker or on the moon.

It has also been nearly three years since The Evil Within released, and Shinji Mikami’s team has undoubtedly been working on a follow-up ever since. It’s absolutely essential that Bethesda shows off the game running in real-time on a console so it demonstrate the technical improvements from the first game, which suffered from sluggish framerates and, initially, an odd aspect ratio to ease stress on its engine.

Elder Scrolls Online content continues to roll out, including the recent Morrowind expansion, but it’s time fans are given the first details about The Elder Scrolls VI. It’s unlike Bethesda to show off one of its games this far away from release, so there is little chance of even a teaser image being revealed during the show, but it would appease fans who have already played Skyrim on five different systems.


Ubisoft

Riding high off the success of For Honor and Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Ubisoft’s E3 conference this year is hosted by game developers in place of regular host Aisha Tyler. We’re certain to get a few new game announcements, as the publisher loves to end its presentations with a huge game reveal, as well as gameplay from Far Cry 5, but much of Ubisoft’s time should be devoted to the plans it has in place to support existing games.

For Honor was massively popular at launch and it has received a steady stream of new downloadable characters in the following month, but game lobbies aren’t particularly populated anymore. An update to the game’s matchmaking system or servers to make battles run more smoothly doesn’t sound like something a publisher would announce at E3, but it could transform a game that has been plagued by technical issues for months.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands, meanwhile, needs more than just a simple technical fix. Player-versus-player multiplayer has been a staple of the series for years, and its exclusion from the game at launch was a sign that it had been rushed out the door to meet its release date. Since then, Ubisoft has promised a competitive multiplayer mode but has yet to deliver on its promises or even give a release window. We need to at least see a competitive match in action if we’re to believe that player-versus-player multiplayer is actually “coming soon”. 

Assassin’s Creed Origins has already been leaked. We know the game’s Egyptian setting, some information about its characters, and the return of naval traversal, but we have to see the game in action. A gameplay demonstration showing off any changes to combat and the game’s parkour system, as well as improvements to its stealth mechanics, should help to make fans forget about the series’ last two forgettable games.

What does this leave for Ubisoft’s “surprise game?” We’re putting our money on Splinter Cell, which has yet to arrive to current-generation consoles. A Sam Fisher-led adventure, complete with the return of actor Michael Ironside, seems appropriate given the recent success of the Tom Clancy brand, and with the Hitman and Metal Gear franchises seemingly in limbo, it would fill a void for stealth-action fans. We just hope Ubisoft has the good sense to not make it an open-world game.


Sony

Sony could go the entire PlayStation E3 press conference without announcing a single new game and the show could still be a success. A massive number of games have already been announced, including a new God of War, Days Gone, and The Last of Us: Part II. We need a chance to see these games in action and get more concrete information on when they’ll be available.

Dreams, the latest game from LittleBigPlanet creators Media Molecule, has been missing in action for what seems like an eternity, and the game absolutely must been show during the PlayStation conference in order to keep it from getting completely forgotten. Early demonstrations were slow and failed to show off its user-created content in an interesting way, so we’re hoping that its next demo is a little faster paced.

PlayStation VR also needs to get the spotlight during the conference. Since its launch in October, big-budget VR exclusives have been relatively rare. As Microsoft has already revealed that it will not show any Xbox One-compatible VR technology this year, Sony has an opportunity to gain an even larger lead. Just a couple of big games is all the headset needs to keep players from feeling buyer’s remorse.

Third-party games are a staple of PlayStation conferences, and we’re itching to hear more about Kingdom Hearts III. The game still appears to be quite far away from release, but it was already demonstrated at last year’s show. Just another glimpse of combat or more details on the story will be enough to tide us over, though Square Enix can’t make a habit of this for much longer.

Perhaps the biggest game we’re hoping to see during Sony’s press conference is a third-party title, as well. Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 was just delayed into 2018, but it’s quite likely that we’ll see our first glimpse of gameplay next week. With the game’s characters, gameplay improvements, and story still a mystery, just about any new information would be appreciated.


Nintendo

Nintendo just released the massively successful Switch console along with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time – but it can’t show signs of slowing down if it wants to have a successful E3. Continued support for the Switch with new games as well as remastered Wii U titles will help the console keep its momentum going into 2018, and 3DS talk needs to be kept to a minimum – Nintendo needs to show that it’s going all-in on the Switch.

Super Mario Odyssey will be the star of the show this year, and with only a handful of levels shown off in gameplay demonstrations thus far, much of the game remains a mystery. Nintendo needs to show off a larger chunk of gameplay, preferably featuring creative locations and any unique abilities Mario has acquired with his special new hat.

Nintendo has been leaning heavily on Fire Emblem recently, with the 3DS-exclusive Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia launching in May, but we need to hear more about its plans for the series on the Switch. Fire Emblem Warriors launches this autumn, but thus far, we’ve only seen a few seconds of its combat in action. We don’t need to see a huge portion of the game in order to get a sense for what it’s trying to accomplish, but a demonstration of its more “Fire Emblem-y” features like the “weapon triangle” should help to get fans interested. For the dedicated Fire Emblem game for the Switch, which is expected to arrive next year, Nintendo just needs to give us a title and a first glimpse of the game’s story. There will be plenty of time for a more detailed demonstration before it launches.

Retro Studios, the Texas-based studio behind games like Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country Returns, has been pretty quiet recently, and we’d like to see them return to one of their previous franchises for a new installment on Switch. Given the success it saw with Donkey Kong, it’s likely that it’ll be a sequel to that rather than a new adventure for Samus, but Metroid fans shouldn’t completely give up hope for a new game.

The Switch has already seen an enhanced port of Mario Kart 8, and a similar Wii U remaster, Pokkén Tournament DX, is arriving to Switch this autumn, but we’re crossing our fingers that Nintendo chooses to develop a full-fledged Super Smash Bros. sequel instead of simply moving its existing Wii U and 3DS game to the new platform. Though the fighting mechanics in the recent Smash Bros. game are excellent and it has a great cast of characters, the game is relatively light on single-player content. A full-fledged campaign like what we got in Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii would be a welcome addition, but we won’t be holding our breath.

Disclaimer : The following article was written freely based on the author's opinion, and it may not necessarily represent Inven Global's editorial stance.