By Natalie DeCoste
The annual video game trade show Electronic Entertainment Exhibition, better known as E3, took on a virtual format this year because of the pandemic but still delivered some major news for the gaming industry.
E3 was canceled last year due to the pandemic, making this the first E3 since 2019 and raising the stakes on what video game companies have to offer. The event began June 12 and wrapped up on Tuesday, June 15.
Sunday saw a big announcement from Microsoft’s Xbox division and Bethesda Softworks with more details on their highly anticipated space RPG Starfield. Starfield is set to launch on Nov. 11 of 2022, and will initially be an Xbox exclusive. Xbox has been criticized for its lack of exclusive games in the past, and Microsoft seemingly hopes to change that with Starfield. This decision is a shift from Bethesda’s earlier choice to release Starfield for PlayStation and Xbox systems, PCs, and on Nintendo‘s platforms.
“Starfield is the first new universe in 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this next-generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey to answer humanity’s greatest mystery,” said Xbox in a statement after the trailer’s release.
Aside from Starfield, Microsoft and Xbox showcased 30 games during the event. Of those 30 games, 27 will be part of the Xbox Game Pass, the company’s video game subscription service.
“Our growing family of 23 studios is devoted to advancing the medium we all love,” the company wrote, “so we were happy to share that now through the end of the year, you can look forward to back-to-back monthly releases coming to Xbox Game Pass on day one, led by a record five new titles from Xbox Game Studios this holiday, including Halo Infinite.”
Other games Xbox previewed included Redfall and Halo Infinite. The company also announced that Hades and Among Us are coming to Xbox Game Pass.
Ubisoft also came out of the gates swinging, giving investors concrete launch dates and windows for several of its anticipated large franchises.
The biggest news for the company was the release of the first look trailer for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The game will launch in 2022 and is based on the monumentally successful James Cameron Avatar franchise.
Ubisoft also gave viewers a closer look at Far Cry 6, the sixth main installment of the company’s popular Far Cry series set to launch on Oct. 7. The company also debuted the latest installment in its Rainbow Six tactical shooter series titled Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Extraction. The game was initially supposed to be called Rainbow Six: Quarantine, but Ubisoft chose to change the title due to the coronavirus pandemic. The game will launch on Sept. 16.
PC gamers received exciting news about a series of games coming to Steam. Some highlights include They Always Run, a space-western 2D action game; Far: Changing Tides, a journey across a post-apocalyptic environment; and Lemnis Gate, a first-person shooter game that will come not only to PC but also PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One.
The trailer for FromSoftware’s Elden Ring also caused a stir in the gaming community when it dropped during Summer Games Fest last week. People familiar with FromSoftware’s Dark Souls series will recognize similar elements in Elden Ring’s design and gameplay. The announcement gave gamers their first look at the game since its E3 2019 reveal. The game will feature a massive map for gameplay with six major domains and new ways to engage in combat including the ability to summon spirits. Elden Ring launches on January 21, 2022
Still to come from the event is Nintendo’s Direct presentation, a 40-minute show that Nintendo said is focused exclusively on Switch games rather than hardware. Nintendo may reveal the unnamed sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as well as Splatoon 3.
