E3 2016 PS4 PlayStation 4 1

The doors of the Los Angeles Convention Center are yet to open, but the press conferences always mark the start of E3 anyway. It's a shame, then, that Sunday's round of presentations fell flat – with both EA Games and Bethesda struggling to string together any meaningful reveals. Both pressers really disappointed, with the latter being a particular bummer given just how emphatically the publisher burst onto the media briefing scene in 2015.

All's not lost, of course: Ubisoft and Sony will attempt to pick up the slack later today – while Microsoft and Nintendo also have their own shindigs planned. But we are starting to wonder whether the success of the current round of consoles has taken the big third-party publishers by surprise; it's frankly unforgivable that Mass Effect Andromeda – a title first announced in 2013 – only managed to muster a behind-the-scenes clip.

To be fair to EA, both Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1 look spectacular – the only downside being that they're due out within days of each other. And to Bethesda's credit, Dishonored 2 is looking tidy, too – even if it didn't demo particularly well in the presser setting. But coming into these conferences we were expecting much, much more from both publishers; a Skyrim remaster is fine and dandy, but where was the rumoured Wolfenstein?

We can't remember the last time that an E3 got off to such an unimpressive start, and we hope that things pick up soon. The good news is that Sony's conference is practically on military enforced lockdown, which could mean that the manufacturer's got nothing to leak – or that some serious surprises await in just a few hours. Will it fall upon the Japanese giant to rescue this annual event again? Yes, maybe.

What do you think of the E3 2016 press conferences so far? Were you disappointed with EA and Bethesda's dismal showings, or are we exaggerating? Temper your hype dramatically in the comments section below.