Feature: What Not to Expect at E3 2018

E3 season is always about dreaming big. Sony's 2015 press conference is of course the perfect example of fan-fiction turned reality with the re-reveal of The Last Guardian and the outlandish announcements of Final Fantasy VII Remake and Shenmue III dominating chatter for that particular year. But sometimes it's a good idea to put a cap on that excitement. These are the games, announcements, reveals, and headlines you should not expect to be a part of E3 2018.

The Elder Scrolls VI

Pete Hines, vice president of PR and marketing at Bethesda, stated earlier this year that the publisher plans to release two big games before it gets around to launching the latest entry in the Elder Scrolls franchise. Those two titles appear to be the long-rumoured Starfield and the just announced Fallout 76. While one of them definitely has the possibility of releasing this year, we can't envision both of them being dated for a 2018 launch, and so it's likely that we will have to wait a significant amount of time before getting a sneak peak at what comes after them.

As a result of that, any chance of a surprise announcement of The Elder Scrolls VI is slim to non-existent. As time passes, the possibility of it showing up increases, but any sort of reveal at E3 2018 is incredibly unlikely.

Borderlands 3

We already know that Borderlands 3 is in development, but the possibility of it popping up at this year's E3 for a surprise unveiling is rather weak. Despite cropping up on the recent Canadian Walmart leak, Gearbox Software's lead man Randy Pitchford took to Twitter to basically say that the upcoming loot shooter won't be putting in an appearance at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. Except in true fashion of course, he did it in the sloppiest way possible.

Red Dead Redemption 2

It is said time and time again, but Rockstar Games does not do E3. It works on its own pre-release and marketing schedule, and this rarely includes a stop on the Los Angeles show floor. The last time the company did put in an appearance was at Sony's 2014 event to announce the PS4 port of Grand Theft Auto V, but in the four years since then, it's been a no-show. Unfortunately, we expect E3 2018 to be no different.

An abundance of Battle Royale games

Everyone seems to think that this year's E3 will be overloaded with Battle Royale games, as publishers desperately try to get a piece of the slowly shrinking pie. But we're really not so sure. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 could well debut its new Blackout mode during Sony's keynote, and we wouldn't be surprised to see another title or two reveal something similar, but in terms of basing the entire experience around whittling down the player count to one, we doubt you'll see much of it on stage.

All Battle Royale games currently in development are going to be playing off of the hype and popularity surrounding Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, and because of that, they've all at most spent a single year in development. Early access titles don't exactly look or play well in a conference setting viewed by millions around the world, and so we can't imagine many publishers shining the spotlight on them during their live events.

PlayStation 5

Sony has already stated that it won't have any hardware announcements to share at the show, but the fact that it even had to come out and say that is a sign. The current generation is slowly starting to wind down, and when combined with the next point we'll be discussing, it's understandable how some fans may have thought we'd get our first glimpse of the PlayStation 5 in less than two weeks. 

However, this will not be the case. Sony's focus will solely be placed on the PS4 and its current PSVR device, with all games shown to be released on those platforms. It's possible that this will be the last E3 where Sony chooses to do that, but for this year at least, the spotlight is still on the current generation.  

First-party game announcements from Sony

In terms of first-party, PlayStation will be focusing its stage show efforts on Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man, and The Last of Us: Part II. All four titles are expected to receive in-depth showings on the Sony stage, with trailers and gameplay galore.

Outside of these games, however, it's likely to be very slim pickings. The fact of the matter is that outside of the aforementioned titles, there probably aren't many more PS4 exclusives Sony has left to announce. With the next generation looming large, studios will be beginning to develop for what comes next, and as a result of that, sequels to the likes of Horizon: Zero Dawn are likely to be saved for the next generation. The same goes for the follow-up to God of War.

We think there's a good chance of a "one last thing" announcement from first-party that could surprise viewers, but outside of that, you're going to need to look to the third-parties and indies taking to the PlayStation stage for your shocks and surprises.

Release dates for PS4 exclusives

Sony has showed a lot of reluctance when attaching a solid release date to its titles in the past year or so, with the likes of God of War and Detroit: Become Human receiving a launch day only a few months before the event itself. Because of that, we doubt we'll get any specific release dates for the big three titles Sony will be focusing on that don't already have a date attached to them.

Sony may choose to attach a year to the end of a trailer to The Last of Us: Part II, or slap an "Early 2019" on the end of an extended gameplay segment of Ghost of Tsushima, but don't anticipate any solid launch dates to come out of the Sony conference. 

That's what we're not expecting to see at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, but what about yourself? Is there something obvious we missed? Warn us of a no-show in the comments below.