E3 2019 predictions: which games will be revealed?

Our US chums put their cards on the table and make some big predictions for the E3 2019 conference

E3 2019 will bring many of the biggest companies in gaming under one roof for a week of exciting reveals and surprise announcements. Microsoft, Nintendo, Ubisoft, Bethesda, Square Enix, and more will bring all of their upcoming titles, including some we haven’t even seen yet, to the public. The question is what exactly might these companies announce?

Let’s try and make some predictions, then. Of course, some scenarios are more likely than others, and there will probably be a few surprises that we couldn’t see coming, and that’s the fun of E3 predictions.

It’s the most exciting time of the year if you’re a gamer and here are a few things that might make E3 2019 the best expo yet…

Halo Infinite gameplay reveal

This is set to be a big year for Microsoft at E3, considering the company won’t face any competition from PlayStation, which has bowed out from the 2019 expo. That means that Xbox will be one of only two major consoles at the show, and the only one giving a live press conference. (Nintendo Directs are pre-recorded.)

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Part of Microsoft’s plans at E3 this year will undoubtedly involve Halo Infinite, the next chapter in Xbox’s flagship series. While the game was announced in 2018 with a trailer showcasing the new Slipspace engine, the reveal didn’t feature any actual in-game footage. It’s likely that the Xbox conference will close with a lengthy look at the new Halo, even if the game isn’t set for a 2019 release. 

No, Halo Infinite probably won’t be ready for release this year or even this console generation. Could it be an exclusive launch title for next-gen Xbox? 

Halo TV Series

First Look at Halo TV Series

A Halo live-action series is coming to Showtime and it will star Pablo Schreiber as the Master Chief. The show, which is being exec produced by Kyle Killen (Awake) and Steven Kane (The Last Ship), begins filming this autumn in Budapest.

That means Microsoft won’t have much to show in terms of footage. That said, a quick glimpse of Schreiber in Spartan armour might be enough to wow the crowd during the Xbox conference. Either way, expect Microsoft to at least mention the TV series based on its most important game franchise.

Gears 5

Gears 5 gets a release date

Microsoft announced a whole suite of new Gears Of War games at last year’s E3, including a mobile game based on Funko Pop figures, a PC strategy title, and a new mainline instalment in 2019 that picks up where Gears Of War 4 left off. Expect this main one, Gears 5, to have a big presence at the Microsoft conference this year, as it’s likely to be the console’s big exclusive for autumn 2019. 

Xbox Game Pass goes beyond Xbox

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed in late 2018 that the company planned to bring Xbox Game Pass to PC at some point in the future. While we haven’t seen any actual movement on that front, there’s no reason to doubt that PC will get the excellent on-demand games service. It makes a lot of sense considering that Xbox’s Play Anywhere programme already lets users play exclusives on both Xbox One and PC with a single copy of the game.

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A much wilder rumour has been making the rounds on the internet, though: Xbox Game Pass could also be launching on the Nintendo Switch. That’s right, Microsoft’s mission to make Xbox Game Pass the premier on-demand service of the games industry could extend to competing consoles. We’re already starting to see hints of this possible future with Cuphead, an Xbox console exclusive that’s being ported to the Switch. 

Microsoft would absolutely bring the house down if it announced Xbox Game Pass for PC AND Switch at E3. How likely is this to happen? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Xbox Scarlet

Xbox announces its next-gen console

How else could Microsoft capitalize on Sony’s E3 absence? By unveiling its next-gen console. Project Scarlet has been in the works for the last few years, and there are plenty of rumours as to what it is, including a streaming-only box that won’t support discs. If so, Microsoft could take this opportunity to convince its fans why going disc-free is the future of gaming. 

Considering Sony is taking its time with the PS5, which won’t launch before April 2020 at the earliest, Microsoft might not be in a rush either, choosing to announce its next console at a dedicated event instead of E3. It’s also likely that the console is still at least a year out from its release date and the box might not be finalised.

Slowly unveiling the console, giving yourself enough of a window to create excitement ahead of launch while also being able to control the conversation, seems prudent. But still, some info about the next Xbox would be very welcome.

Bungie shows up with Matter or Destiny

It’s an exciting time for Bungie, legendary creator of the Halo franchise as well as the loot shooter Destiny. No longer under contract with Activision, the studio is now free to do what it wants with Destiny as well as its next IP, which is rumoured to be called Matter, based on a trademark filing discovered back in 2018. Bungie received a $100 million investment from Chinese publisher NetEase for Matter, which probably means that the studio is already hard at work on the game. Whether Bungie decides to bring Matter to the show is anyone’s guess, although if that’s the case, you won’t see much more than a brief teaser.

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Of course, Bungie might not be ready to move on from Destiny 2 just yet. The first game received a Year 3 update called Rise Of Iron, and something similar could be in store for the sequel. The other possibility is that Bungie is ready for a fresh start with the Destiny franchise, choosing to announce Destiny 3 now that Activision is no longer in the picture. What does an Activision-less Destiny game look like? Maybe we’ll find out at E3.

The Avengers Project

Square Enix unveils The Avengers Project

It feels like Square Enix announced its secret Avengers Project ages ago. The publisher dropped the game’s one and only trailer, teasing the defeat of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, in early 2017 and we haven’t heard anything about the game since.

So what do we know for sure? The game is being developed by Crystal Dynamics, the studio behind the Tomb Raider series, with help from Deus Ex developer Eidos Montreal. Shaun Escayg, former Naughty Dog creative director, and Stephen Barry, a 27-year games vet from EA and Visceral Games, have also joined the project in leadership roles at Crystal Dynamics.

Beyond that? We don’t even know what time of game The Avengers Project is, and only time will tell. Square Enix is hosting its own E3 conference this year, which means it has a few things to announce. Could some more Marvel details be involved?

Final Fantasy VII remake finally takes the stage

Square Enix loves announcing projects years before their release date for some reason. Specifically, the wait for the remake of Final Fantasy VII has felt interminable. First announced at E3 2015, Final Fantasy VII Remake has yet to make another meaningful appearance at the show. It’s likely that will change at this year’s Square Enix press conference, where we’ll hopefully get new footage from the game and maybe even a release date. It’s time.

Doom Eternal

Doom Eternal gets a release date

Doom Eternal was announced at last year’s E3 with a 2019 release window. With nothing else going on for Bethesda in the fall (as far as we know), this highly anticipated Doom sequel will likely fill the holiday spot for the publisher. I’m looking forward to it!

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Some Call of Duty news

While Activision hasn’t officially confirmed it, everyone is expecting this year’s instalment of the first-person shooter series to be Modern Warfare 4. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Infinity Ward, the studio that created the Modern Warfare series, is back at the helm for the 2019 instalment. 

The only thing we know for sure about this next instalment is that it will include a single-player campaign after last year’s Black Ops 4 decided for forgo a traditional story mode. You can expect all the regular multiplayer as well as co-op play (likely in the form of a zombie mode). The big question is whether we’ll get a new version of Blackout battle royale along with it? We’d hope to see these questions answered at E3.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 gets a release date

Here’s another game we’ve been talking about for quite some time. To say that Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most highly-anticipated titles at E3 2019 is an understatement. This new sci-fi RPG based on the tabletop game Cyberpunk 2020 comes from The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red as their follow-up to the incredibly successful Witcher 3. From what we’ve seen of the game so far, Cyberpunk 2077 doesn’t look like it’ll disappoint.

It’s hard to say whether Cyberpunk 2077 will be ready for a 2019 release date, but we’d hope to learn more about the game – and how soon we can expect it – at this year’s E3 showcase.

Batman Arkham

New Batman game from WB Montreal

Rocksteady completed its Batman Arkham trilogy with 2015’s Arkham Knight, but there are plenty more stories to tell, according to WB Montreal, which has reportedly been hard at work on a new Batman game. The game hasn’t been officially announced by WB, but that’s what E3 press conferences are for! 

Since we don’t know anything for sure about this game, all we have to go on is rumours. The main thread of gossip at the moment has to do with the subject matter of the game, which will allegedly focus on a new enemy from the comics, the Court of Owls, an underground crime syndicate made up of the city’s most influential citizens.

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One thing is for sure: Batman’s been out of the game for too long and 2019 might be the year he finally returns to E3…

Justice League Game

Rocksteady’s Justice League?

Unless Rocksteady has something much bigger in store for E3. The studio that created the modern blueprint for action-adventure games has been silent since 2015, working on something top-secret for Warner Bros. The internet speculated for years that Rocksteady was developing a Superman game, but studio co-founder Sefton Hill shot that rumour down in late 2018. 

That doesn’t mean Rocksteady isn’t tackling a big DC property, it might just be much bigger than any one character. In fact, the studio might actually be tackling a Justice League game that brings DC’s entire pantheon of superheroes to consoles and is ready to absolutely nail an announcement at E3 2019. 

This prediction is based on nothing more than speculation, so take it with a fair few grains of salt. Wouldn’t it be awesome, though?

Metroid Prime 4

Metroid Prime 4 returns

Metroid Prime 4 was first announced in a Nintendo Direct during E3 2017, but a lot has happened since then. Bandai Namco Studios was originally hired to develop the game, but by January 2019, the third-party studio was off the project, replaced by Metroid Prime creator Retro Studios, which was starting work from scratch.

This is good and bad news. While it’s nice that Retro Studios is once again working on the franchise, this also means that the wait for a new Metroid Prime game just got a bit longer. It’s highly unlikely we’ll see anything substantial from this game at this year’s E3, but maybe another short teaser to reassure fans that things are back on track might be the right move for Nintendo. Either way, don’t expect to see Metroid Prime 4 until 2020 at the earliest. 

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Metroid Prime Trilogy for Switch

Nintendo might want to appease fans anxiously waiting for Metroid Prime 4 by re-releasing the first three games in the series for the Nintendo Switch. In fact, a rumour to that effect has been floating around the internet since April. Metroid Prime Trilogy for Switch really isn’t such a far-fetched prediction. 

F-Zero

A new F-Zero game

Nintendo has brought most of its major properties to Switch at this point, including Mario Kart, which will never get any better than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the best Mario-themed racing game ever made. So maybe it’s time to bring back one of Nintendo’s other racing franchises: F-Zero

The publisher hasn’t released a new F-Zero game since 2004’s F-Zero Climax, which, well, Nintendo kinda warned us it was the climax of the series… This is just wishful thinking, but maybe, just maybe, F-Zero will zoom through that Nintendo Direct with a vengeance.

New Castlevania title from Konami

Konami hasn’t done much with Castlevania since 2014’s Lords Of Shadow 2, a bad game that seemed to convince the publisher that there was no money left to be made with the franchise. But if Netflix’s Castlevania animated series proved anything, it’s that fans still love these stories. It seems Konami has taken note of the renewed interest. 

Late last year, Konami released Castlevania Requiem, a PS4 re-release of two of the series’ most beloved instalments. A little less than a month before E3 2019, the publisher is re-releasing eight more classic Castlevania games, including many of the titles that started it all. Might Konami be preparing us for something even bigger?

We know that a new Castlevania mobile game, Grimoire of Souls, is on the way in 2019, but that might just be an appetizer for a new, mainline instalment in the franchise, a title to revive the series’ place as a AAA gaming juggernaut. If that’s not the case, at least we’ll have Koji Igarashi’s Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night just a few days after E3. 

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Assassin's Creed Ragnarok

Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok revealed

While the Assassin’s Creed franchise is taking a break this year, there’s no reason Ubisoft couldn’t tease the next instalment in a short video. Rumour has it that the new game, allegedly titled “Ragnarok,” will focus on the world of Vikings. Short of this being a samurai game, this sounds like the most exciting era for a new AC game. Why not flaunt that at the biggest games conference of the year?

Back 4 Blood is the new Left 4 Dead

World War Z may be a fine homage to the original cooperative zombie shooter, but Back 4 Blood comes from the actual creators of Left 4 Dead. Turtle Rock Studios returns for a new take on the PvE zombie shooter it helped pioneer. 

While we don’t much about the new game, the studio has teased that it won’t just be more of the same: “You’ll be able to shoot up a lot of zombies like in Left 4 Dead, but there’s a whole lot of new stuff in Back 4 Blood which makes it unique.”

It’d be nice to get a first look at all that “new stuff” at E3. Maybe at the Xbox conference or the PC Gaming Show?

James Bond 007

Bond is back, baby!

The James Bond 007 license has lied dormant since those atrocious Activision games and no other publisher has shown any interest in doing anything about it. But with a new movie on the way next year, Daniel Craig’s final outing as 007, could now be the time for a studio to bring the icnonic spy back to consoles? Probably not, Mr Bond, but here’s hoping.

Ken Levine’s new game unveiled

Ghost Story Games, legendary BioShock creator Kevin Levine’s new studio, was born out of the ashes of Irrational Games in 2017. The studio’s focus is on smaller, narrative-driven games as opposed to the scale of AAA blockbusters like BioShock, but we have no idea what Ghost Story’s first project may be. 

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Levine has said that he was most inspired by Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor‘s Nemesis system, in which characters remember and react to your past actions in the game, when launching the new studio and that more could be done for “reactive narratives” in games.

Levine teased that his new game’s sci-fi narrative is unlike anything you’ve ever seen and will be set in a smaller, detailed world as opposed to a sprawling open-world. It’d be nice to learn more about the game at E3. 

BioShock 4

BioShock 4 brings down the house

Ghost Story Games’ first project isn’t the only game Take-Two Interactive might have up its sleeve. 2K has reportedly been hard at work on the next BioShock game since last year, a top-secret sequel that has yet to be confirmed by the publisher.

The revolutionary sci-fi-horror shooter series has been on hiatus since 2013, which means there has been plenty of time for a new team of developers to begin shaping a new instalment. At E3, we’d love to see a brief teaser letting us know that the series will continue.

What do you think of our E3 predictions? What would you most like to see? Please feel free to leave your ideas in the comments…