E3 is one of the most anticipated weeks of the year for gamers, with the gaming industry's powerhouses making their way to Los Angeles for a week of announcements and reveals. While EA now hosts its own event, EA Play, just before the show, its presence is still felt by show attendees.
Touchdown!
There are already a handful of confirmed titles for EA at EA Play and E3, and what's confirmed shouldn't surprise anyone. To get the obvious ones out of the way, there are the EA Sports titles. Madden and FIFA are the two of the biggest sports games on the market, with the latter being one of the best-selling games worldwide every year.
The next iterations of these games are going to be present and playable at the shows, along with a new NBA Live. NBA Live is EA's answer to the NBA 2K games from 2K Sports but hasn't sold the best over the last few years. Maybe a good showing this year could swing things to EA's favor.
Then there's Star Wars Battlefront II, the sequel to DICE's 2015 multiplayer shooter set in the Star Wars universe. While the first game wasn't bad, it was a bit of a disappointment due to a lack of content. DICE is looking to remedy that this year and has teamed up with Criterion Games and EA Motive to accomplish this.
Based on the released trailer it's looking like Battlefront II will most definitely deliver. The game will feature a full single-player campaign and multiplayer battles across all Star Wars film eras. With a November release date looming, EA is likely to spend a good chunk of the presentation on it.
The last confirmed title is a brand-new Need for Speed. The last game was released in 2015 to an OK response but wasn't the hit other entries in the series had been in the past. There hasn't been any news about how the new game will play, other than regular series dev Ghost Games is working on the latest entry in the series. Hopefully, a strong coming-out party can help reinvigorate the series.
Any Surprises?
It's usually easy to predict what Electronic Arts will show the week of E3. That's not a bad thing, but there's isn't as much excitement around it compared to Ubisoft for example. Over the last few years, Ubisoft has managed to catch fans off-guard with special surprise announcements, but EA hasn't managed to surprise the audience. It is completely possible for EA to do so but it's going to need some big surprises.
An easy way to build interest is by revealing what the other Star Wars games that are in development are about. Two other games are confirmed to be in development at Visceral Games and Respawn Entertainment, but nothing has really been shown of either except for concept and a few seconds of in-engine footage of the former's game.
Giving more of a taste might be enough to whet fans' appetite for the time being and remind everyone that these games are still close. The best possible surprise would be Bioware announcing a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic reboot, but that seems like a long shot.
Beyond that, it's hard to speculate as to what could pop up at the show this year. But based on what is going to be there, it should still be a good show for EA.
