Believe it or not, E3 2018 is here. The annual gaming extravaganza returns to Los Angeles for what is poised to be one of the biggest weeks of the year for gaming news, reveals, and trailers. As always, announcements will primarily come from the various conferences that take plays in the days leading up to E3; here's when all of those happen and where you can watch livestreams and liveblogs.
EA kicked things off on Saturday, June 9, with its EA Play briefing, while Microsoft and Bethesda will follow on Sunday afternoon and evening, respectively. Devolver Digital, a relative newcomer to E3 press conferences, will also host one on Sunday. Square Enix follows these on Monday morning; Ubisoft then takes its turn in the afternoon, with Sony's presentation slated for later that evening. The PC Gaming Show also happens on Monday. Nintendo then concludes the press conferences with its briefing on Tuesday morning.
Below we've laid out the exact schedule, complete with times, for all of this year's press conferences. We'll be streaming all of these press conferences here on GameSpot as well as on Twitter. The show itself runs June 12-14, and like last year, it's open to the public--here's how to get tickets.
For an idea of what to expect from the show, check out all the games confirmed for E3, as well as all the companies at the show. We've also rounded up the biggest E3 rumors to give you an idea of what might be announced.
E3 2018 Press Conference Schedule
Saturday, June 9
Electronic Arts (EA Play) -- 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET / 7 PM BST (4 AM AET on June 10) Watch livestream Follow live blog News roundup
Sunday, June 10
Microsoft -- 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM BST (6 AM AET on June 11) Watch livestream Follow live blog
Bethesda -- 6:30 PM PT / 9:30 PM ET (2:30 AM BST / 11:30 AM AET on June 11) Watch livestream Follow live blog
Devolver Digital -- 8 PM PT / 11 PM ET (4 AM BST / 1 PM AET on June 11)
Monday, June 11
Square Enix -- 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM BST (3 AM AET on June 12) Watch livestream Follow live blog
Ubisoft -- 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM BST (6 AM AET on June 12) Watch livestream Follow live blog
PC Gaming Show -- 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET / 11 PM BST (8 AM AET on June 12)
Sony -- 6 PM PT / 9 PM ET (2 AM BST / 11 AM on June 12) Watch livestream Follow live blog
Tuesday, June 12
This morning in Los Angeles, Electronic Arts kicked off E3 2018 with a press conference in which they announced a new Star Wars game, an Unravel sequel, and took a longer look at BioWare’s upcoming RPG Anthem, which is out next February.
It was a straightforward way to begin E3: light on major news, with a focus on games we already knew about. Here’s everything EA showed and announced.
Battlefield V gets more destructible environments and a battle royale mode.
The next Battlefield game will bring back the destructive environments that DICE ran wild with in Battlefield: Bad Company. In the World War II-based Battlefield V, tanks can blast through buildings and destroy cover in real time. Also, your character can dive-roll through windows? Hell yeah man, I’ve always wanted to do that in a game like this. “No loot boxes. No premium pass,” the developers reiterated on stage.
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They also announced “royale reimagined” for Battlefield, meaning that Battlefield V will be getting a battle royale-style gameplay mode. I’m shocked. Shocked, I say! The developers said they’ll have more to share on that mode later in the year, and we’ll see more of the game at Microsoft’s Xbox conference tomorrow.
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Respawn’s Star Wars game is called Jedi: Fallen Order.
Respawn’s Vince Zampella confirmed that means you’ll be playing as a Jedi, lightsabers and all. The game takes place “during the dark times” between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, when the Jedi are being hunted. Per EA on Twitter, it’ll be “an original Star Wars story around a surviving Padawan set shortly after the events of Star Wars: Episode III.” It’s coming in holiday 2019.
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Battlefront II is taking on the Clone Wars.
Star Wars Battlefront II is getting a bunch of new stuff this year, including a new squad system, a new starfighter mode, a new command-post capture mode, and new heroes and maps taken from the Clone Wars. There will be new heroes including General Grievous, Obi Wan Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker.
Unravel Two brings Yarny back for a co-op adventure, out today.
It looks as cute as the first game, but has a co-op focus that has both players using their yarn abilities to swing around and avoid hazards. They were sure to stress that you can play it in single-player, if you want—the other yarn character just wraps itself around Yarny and you can control them both. The demo also had this weird bird chasing the yarn creatures around, and it was pretty stressful. Go away, bird!
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EA also pulled the first Beyoncé of E3, announcing at the end of the presentation that you can buy the game... today! It’s on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Sea of Solitude is all about loneliness and depression.
It’s another EA indie, this time from German studio Jo-Mei Games. The game was introduced in a winningly wandering way by writer/creative director Cornelia Geppert, who seems pretty great. It’ll be out in early 2019.
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Command & Conquer is returning as a mobile game.
After those announcements, EA hosted a resoundingly unexciting stage demo of a new competitive Command & Conquer mobile game. It’s called Command & Conquer: Rivals and it definitely looks a competitive mobile RTS. I don’t really know what else to say about it. You can watch a gameplay overview here.
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We learned more about BioWare’s Anthem, coming in February.
During an on-stage interview segment, BioWare manager Casey Hudson, Anthem executive producer Mark Darrah and lead writer Cathleen Rootsaert talked about how they’re approaching their much-hyped action RPG. They seem pretty focused on story, and Rootsaert said they’ll be adding things to the game “for years to come.”
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As we already knew, the sci fi action game is designed about the “Javelin” exo suit you wear. Since your character is a person who wears the suit, you can change your suit whenever you want to fit the mission or your team makeup. So basically, Javelins are changeable character classes.
There’ll be no loot boxes in the game (not a huge surprise), and there’s the expected customization options for your mech. We saw a gameplay demo that looks like the same third-person, Destiny-ish gameplay we’ve already seen. Slick though, and some pretty big bosses. I’m also happy to report that the soundtrack during the demo was synth-heavy in an appealingly Mass Effect-ish way, especially in quieter moments. Watch that demo here:
The game’ll be out on February 22, 2019. For more on Anthem, read this post compiling everything we’ve learned about the game.
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A few other things: We got a dramatic trailer for FIFA 19, which is out on September 28; an enhanced “Origin Access Premiere” subscription service is coming later this year that’ll give full access to EA’s big PC games; Madden is coming to PC; We got a trailer for Madden Overdrive; and EA CEO Andrew Wilson talked up their “Play to Give” program supporting various charities.
And that’s it for EA! Feels like last year’s EA press conference was just last week. But no, it was an entire year ago. You are now a year older than when you first found out about A Way Out. I’m not, though. Every year, I stay the same age.
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We’ll be here all week covering every E3 press conference and with news, interviews, and hands-on impressions from the show floor. Stick around.
EA had already announced its biggest titles, like Battlefield V, before its E3 keynote. But it showed up with a number of smaller announcements, including a new indie game that’s launching today, as well as some gameplay footage for the highly anticipated BioWare game Anthem. And the show was shot through with promises that EA isn’t going to repeat last year’s Battlefront II loot crate debacle. It was a low-key way to start a week of big reveals, but not a disappointing one.
Here’s the most exciting stuff from the show.
After being announced last year, Mass Effect studio BioWare’s new game Anthem was due for a bigger reveal in 2018. It’s a shared-world role-playing game set in a hostile future, where players don powered armor suits known as “javelins” to play cooperative missions. EA didn’t disappoint with its reveal: it offered a release date, some more details, and a few minutes of gameplay. The footage so far makes it look like a combination of mech warfare, Destiny-style massively multiplayer gameplay, and the epic science fiction that BioWare is known for. Anthem will be released on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on February 22nd, 2019.
This isn’t a big surprise, since it feels like every game is getting a competitive multiplayer mode inspired by the massively popular PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite. But now we know that Battlefield V will let you fight to be the last player standing in a World War II battlefield. You know, just like in real life. In any case, we got a new trailer with a little bit of multiplayer gameplay and some detail about the game’s single-player “War Stories.”
The first Unravel stole our hearts with its adorable yarn protagonist Yarny, although it sometimes frustrated us with its challenging puzzle platformer gameplay. Now, it’s getting a sequel called Unravel 2, which is supposed to be “friendlier,” “more challenging,” and “more playful” than its predecessor. Among other changes, Unravel 2 will feature two Yarny characters, which means that either one player can control both, or two people can play cooperatively. Unravel 2 is not only being announced today, it’s being released immediately on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
EA picked up indie game Sea of Solitude some time ago, and it’s got a new trailer out at E3. One of the game’s core themes is that “when humans get too lonely, they turn into monsters” — and in this case, that’s literally the plight of protagonist Kay, who must explore a nearly deserted city finding others like herself. Sea of Solitude is shaping up to be a haunting little game when it comes out in early 2019 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Titanfall developer Respawn hinted at a new Star Wars game before the show, and now we know it’s called Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. We don’t know much more than that, unfortunately. The single-player story game is slated for release during the holiday season in 2019; it’s set after Revenge of the Sith, when the Jedi are being hunted; and it’s got a dark and gritty feel. Oh, and you can use a lightsaber.
Meanwhile, Battlefront II is getting expanded with material from the Clone Wars, including playable versions of Anakin Skywalker, Count Dooku, General Grievous, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. We don’t know when that’s coming out, but there’s a Solo-themed expansion arriving on June 12th, featuring new environments on Kessel and a new starfighter mode, among other things.
It can be tough to keep up with all the reveals and new footage out of E3, so every year we put together a list of every game revealed or shown—even the ones that definitely aren't going to be on PC, because it's nice to know what might be influencing PC game designers in the coming years.
We'll be updating this list after each E3 press conference, including the latest trailers and our estimation of every game's PC release likelihood. Check back all week as we add new games.
Anthem
Coming to PC? Yep
When's it out? February 22, 2019
At EA Play we got to see more gameplay and a cinematic of Anthem. It's very much a co-op shooter with live elements, with the ability to fly and go underwater. BioWare made a point of letting everyone know that there won't be any lootboxes, though there will be microtransactions for cosmetics. There won't be any romances either, sadly, but the game will be out on February 22.
Battlefield 5
Coming to PC? Yep
When's it out? October 11 (with Origin Access)
As usual, Battlefield 5 was announced a little before E3, and we got the big reveal at EA Play. For more footage of the game in action, check out this Nvidia gameplay. Unsurprisingly, there will be a battle royale mode, to be revealed later this year.
Jedi: Fallen Order
Coming to PC? Almost certainly
When's it out: Late 2019
Respawn Entertainment's Vince Zampella cheerily announced a new singleplayer Star Wars game at the EA conference. It is set between Episodes III and IV, in a time when the Jedi are being hunted down across the galaxy. There's literally nothing in the way of screens or videos yet, but this could be awesome.
Unravel 2
Coming to PC? Yep
When's it out? Now!!?!
Unravel 2 was straight-up released in the middle of the EA conference this year. Yarny is back, but now he has a pal that you can control in drop-in co-op sessions. Unless you want to play co-op online, anyway. Check out the reveal and launch trailer.
FIFA 19
Coming to PC? Yep
When's it out? September 28
EA has wrestled the UEFA Champions League license back from PES, and it's going to feature in pretty much every mode in the game. The so-far excellent story mode is coming back too, starring Alex Hunter. Details on FIFA Ultimate Team are coming later in the year.
Sea of Solitude
Coming to PC? Yes.
When's it out? Early 2019
This very pretty indie adventure was announced at the EA E3 conference with a trailer and some sad music. It's set in a world where humans turn into monsters if they get too lonely.
Madden 19
Coming to PC? Yes, remarkably.
When's it out? August 10
EA's excellent American Football series is coming back to PC after a long, long hiatus. "Real player motion" is this year's incremental update, but for PC players the whole package will seem new and shiny because the last PC Madden game came out TEN YEARS AGO.
Command & Conquer: Rivals
Coming to PC? No, mobile only.
When's it out? August 10
The next C&C game will be a competitive 1v1 mobile game, which is obviously a bit disappointing, but hey it might be fun? The gulf between the cinematic and the in-game action is hilarious at least. And Kane looks like a guy running his own craft beer bar these days.
NBA Live 19
Coming to PC? Nope
When's it out? September 7
Hey, you can't win them all. While Madden is making its way to PC for the first time in years, we're not getting so lucky with NBA Live. But hey, we had FIFA make a proper re-entry on PC in 2016, and with Madden coming this year, you've got to hope EA is planning on making all its sports games available on PC eventually.
