Hype, rumor, and fact all have their place in a successful E3, and this year is NOT the exception to the rule.
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There’s an insane amount of information to sort through (and in addition, an almost deafening buzz), and some of the best and most awaited titles are finally going to make their first huge marketing appearances.
Microsoft and XBL have not really confirmed a lot for this year’s E3, but there are several games and studios that have confirmed an appearance to show demos or make announcements:
Forza 4 by Microsoft
Gears Of War 3 by Epic Games
Rise Of Nightmares by Sega (Kinect title)
Star Wars Kinect by Terminal Velocity
Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster by Double Fine
Unnamed Title by Good Science Games (Probably a Kinect title)
XCOM by 2K Games
These games also have a planned release this year and are expected out on the floor:
Doodle Jump (Kinect title)
Hulk Hogan’s Main Event by Majesco.
Rumor has it that Microsoft fanboys might be messing their pants this year over hardcore fan titles rumored to make an appearance. Exclusives are where it’s at with Microsoft, and from having Hideo Kojima on stage to the Final Fantasy XIII demo they’ve managed to keep things interesting to the very end of the show. Several of these titles are Kinect related, and won’t be really directed toward hardcore gaming, but there’s enough here to keep the most violent shooter happily involved until the end of the countdown.
Alan Wake: Night Springs (Will support Kinect)
Codename: Kingdoms
Dance Central 2
Forza World
Gears Of War Kinect Rail Shooter
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (Will support Kinect)
Halo: Combat Evolved Remake
Kinect – Fable
Kinect – Fun Lab
Kinect – Harley Pasternak’s Hollywood Trainer by Majesco
Kinect – Left Brain Right Brain by Majesco
Kinect – Monsters: Mass Destruction by Majesco
Kinect – Motion Sports: Adrenaline by Ubisoft
Kinect – Over the Top Wrestling by Majesco
Kinect – Raving Rabbids by Ubisoft
Kinect – Roller Coaster Game
Kinect – ShowTime by Ubisoft
Kinect – Sports 2
Kinect – Star by Ubisoft
Rumored Features
Free-To-Play games for the XBLA (FTP for XBL? Really?)
Full Stereoscopic 3D support
Kinect community site for users and developers
Project Orapa (Will combine Xbox Live, Kinect and IPTV)
Potential price drop for the Xbox 360 console and Kinect.
Zune features/services integrated with Xbox Live Gold
Confirmed Absentees
Here is a list of studios/games which were supposed/rumored to be at E3 this year but have been confirmed by their respective studios that they won’t be making an appearance.
343 Industries
Zipline Studios
Zombie Studios
Fez
Guardian Heroes
Gunstringer
Hybrid by 5th Cell
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
PowerUp Heroes
Radiant Silvergun
Spelunky HD
Toy Soldiers: Cold War
Trenched
Also, sadly confirmed that NC Soft won’t be making an appearance with Guild Wars 2. How disappointing that the only real Free-To-Play (no microtransactions) MMO is not going to be represented especially after the release last week of the Engineer video.
Confirmed Appearances
Project Cafe is the only leak from an otherwise airtight Nintendo. Confirmed features for this year’s event include:
Official announcement of Project Cafe, the successor to the Wii.
The Project Cafe controller which has generated a lot of hype on it’s own.
3DS interfacing with Project Cafe.
Wii – Dragon Quest X
Wii – Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword
Wii – New Kirby game
Zelda’s 25th anniversary
Nintendo remains competitive, and expectations are high for some major announcements for the Project Cafe console. We can hope the following titles will have release dates announced at the exp this year:
3DS – Animal Crossing
3DS – Donkey Kong
3DS – Kingdom Hearts
3DS – Mario Kart
3DS – Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater
3DS – Metroid
3DS – New Pokemon title
3DS – Star Fox
3DS – Super Mario
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Mega Man Legends 3
Possible ports of PS3/360 titles
Project Cafe – Super Smash Bros
The Legend Of Zelda: Four Swords
Wii – Pikmin 3
Some of the feature rumors:
Huge price drop for Wii and 3DS bundles.
3DS wares announcements.
Mr.Iawata has stated that all of the following developers are on board with the 3DS. This was a year ago and we have yet to hear the titles they are working on. Maybe we’ll some announcements made this time.
Activision
Atlus
AQ
Capcom
EA
Harmonix
Hudson
Konami
Level 5
Majesco
MMV
Namco Bandai
Sega
Square Enix
Takara Tomy
Take-Two
Tecmo Koei
THQ
Ubisoft
Warner Bros
Confirmed Appearances
Gameplay time! There should be some actual play availability for the following titles.
Infamous 2 by Sucker Punch
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One by Insomniac Games
Resistance 3 by Insomniac Games
Twisted Metal by Eat Sleep Play
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception by Naughty Dog
E3 for Sony is revolving around the annoucement of their Next-Gen portable device. The official name, pricing model, and release date will be announced during the show. They will be allowing attendees to actually try out the NGP, and seven first party titles will be announced as well.
Sony decided to add to the feeding frenzy by releasing rumors themselves, and these titles have a better than even chance of being released during the show.
Agent by Rockstar Games
God Of War 4 by Santa Monica Studios
Grand Theft Auto 5 by Rockstar Games
Final Fantasy Versus XIII by Square Enix
NGP – Gran Turismo by Polyphony Digital
NGP – Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker by Konami
NGP – Wipeout: Trinity by Sony
PSP remaster series ports to PS3
Sly 4 by Sucker Punch
Starhawk by Lightbox Interactive
The Last Guardian by Team Ico
Unnamed Title by Guerrilla Games
Rumored Features
Price drop for PlayStation Move and PS3 console.
Xperia Play? S1, S2 Android tablets?
Another disappointment, Metal Gear Solid 5 definitely not on the table this year, although Konami is releasing Metal Gear Solid HD (a remake for 360 and PS3). Maybe next year, Solid Snake!
The PC platform also scoring a solid win with 43 titles represented this year:
Dungeon Siege III
Driver: San Francisco
Dragon Nest
Dhalia’s Adventures
End of Nations
Hitman Absolution
Magicka
Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning
King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame
Jagged Alliance: Back in Action
Deux Ex: Human Revolution
Defenders of Ardania
Battlefield 3
Batman: Arkham City
Bastion
Aliens: Colonial Marines
BioShock Infinite
Bodycount
Dead Island
Dark Souls
Combat Wings: The Great Battles of World War II
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
Mass Effect 3
Metro: Last Night
Tropico 4
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Warrior: Future Soldier
Tomb Raider (2011)
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North
Untitled Bungie Project (working title)
Vindictus
Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine
Warhammer 40,000 Dark Millenium Online
Wargame European Escalation
WAKFU
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Take On Helicopters
RaiderZ
Rage
Prime World
Orcs Must Die!
Renegade Ops
Saints Row the Third
Sword of Stars II: Lord of Winter
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2
Serious Sam 3: BFE
World of Tanks
Contributors to this article: SarahtheRebel and Roninbear