Month: June 2018

Enlarge / Bethesda's logo as carried by the publisher's growing roster of mascots. New this year: Rage 2's punk rocker! (credit: Sam Machkovech)

LOS ANGELES—Video game publisher Bethesda hosted a rollicking pre-E3 press conference on Sunday evening with a number of game reveals from existing franchises like Doom, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and Rage. But the publisher's most tantalizing reveals were also its shortest ones: long-rumored game series Starfield. and the first mainline Elder Scrolls entry since 2011.

Bethesda director Todd Howard closed the conference with Bethesda's two-part tease of future games. The first, Starfield, was described as "a brand-new, next-generation, single-player game. This one is in an all-new epic franchise. Our first wholly original franchise in 25 years."

Starfield's reveal trailer began with a cinematic look at a planet's edge in space, followed by a floating satellite in its vicinity that is abruptly ripped through time. No release date was announced. Its description counters the repeated rumor that Starfield might revolve around smartphone play. Instead, Howard's brief description may point to a wait until successors to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One reach the market.

Enlarge / It's coming, Squid Boy. It's coming.... (credit: Nintendo)

For the sixth straight year, Nintendo will forgo the traditional pre-E3 press conference in favor of a livestreamed Nintendo Direct video presentation. We'll be on hand to deliver all the news straight from Nintendo starting at 9am PDT (12pm EDT, 4pm UTC) on Tuesday, June 12.

Nintendo has made no secret that the Nintendo Switch edition of the Super Smash Bros. fighting-game series will be a prominent focus of its E3 activities this year, so expect to hear a lot of details about that effort. We also wouldn't be surprised to hear a bit more about upcoming Switch entries in the Pokemon and Metroid Prime series, which have been under radio silence since very brief teases at last year's E3.

Outside of the first-party efforts, a credible leak suggests a Switch port of Fortnite will lead a lineup of coming indie and third-party ports for the system that includes Dragon Ball FighterZ, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, Killer Queen Black, Paladins, and Overcooked 2. Don't be surprised if that list is at least a bit incomplete, too.

LOS ANGELES—Microsoft used its pre-E3 press conference today to stress that, despite recent troubles securing high-profile exclusive content, the Xbox One can do toe-to-toe with the PlayStation 4 when it comes to games and content available on no other console.

Many of those console exclusives will come from newly purchased developers that are now part of the Microsoft Studios family. The purchases of Undead Labs (State of Decay), and Playground Games (Forza Horizon) were not all that surprising, given their previous work on Xbox exclusives. But Microsoft's acquisition of Ninja Theory (Hellbalde), and Compulsion Games (We Happy Few, now coming August 10) we a bit more surprising, and a sign Microsoft is looking to bring new talent in house.