Culture

The Five Biggest Announcements From This Year’s E3 Gaming Conference

What the annual event lacked in major console announcements, it more than made up for in all things NOSTALGIA.

by Kemal Atlay  23 June 2015

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The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, is one of the biggest events on the video game industry calendar. Held annually at the Los Angeles Convention Centre, E3, unlike other video game exhibitions, is open exclusively to people with professional ties to the industry.

E3 2015 managed to set some new personal bests: there were over 52,000 attendees, up from almost 49,000 last year, and 274 exhibitors, compared to 187 in 2014. It also had a spectacular social media reach, with over 6.3 million tweets, 7.5 million Instagram likes, and more than a million E3-related videos uploaded to YouTube.

Without any major console announcements (except for a particularly juice one from Microsoft), this year’s conference lacked the news-making potential of its predecessors, but there was a distinct feel of nostalgia in the air, with news of remakes and new instalments of old franchises that defined the childhoods of many. Here are the five biggest things that happened.

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#1: Final Fantasy Goes Back In Time

Square Enix decided to completely blow fans’ minds, with a big announcement for the Final Fantasy franchise: the rumoured remake of the classic role-playing game, Final Fantasy VII.

Final Fantasy is easily one of the most popular video game franchises of all time, with the first released on the Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1987. Final Fantasy VII, which came out in 1997 to widespread critical acclaim (Gamespot and IGN both give it a score 9.5 out 10), follows the story of Cloud as he joins a group of mercenaries in the fight against the mega-corporation ShinRa, which is draining the planet of its energy for its own means.

The cinematic teaser trailer reintroduces fans to the dark and gritty hyper-industrialised world they know from endless hours of gameplay, and ends with a shot of Cloud’s back with his trusted Buster Sword. A release date is yet to be announced.

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#2: Microsoft Announces Backwards Compatibility For Xbox One

Microsoft came out of E3 2015 the clear winner of the big three, with the only major console announcement: backwards compatibility for Xbox One. Backwards compatibility basically allows video games from older generation platforms to be played on the newer ones. “We won’t charge you to play the games you already own,” Microsoft’s Mike Ybarra said, explaining that you only have to insert an Xbox 360 game into the Xbox One for the compatible version of the game to be made available in the user’s game library.

Gamers have been waiting for this, as it’s not exactly cheap to upgrade from consoles – when the Xbox 360 was first released, it cost around $500 to buy in Australia, but it’s only worth a $100 credit towards an Xbox One when you trade it in to Microsoft. The value of video games depreciate just as rapidly, so clearly it’s a win for XBox users. There will be 21 backward compatible games to start with, with Microsoft slowly adding to the catalogue over time.

People got excited.

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#3: Fallout 4

When Bethesda announced a few months ago that they would be hosting a live showcase at this year’s E3, it was rumoured that the video game publisher would use it to announce the highly-anticipated Fallout 4. Much to the delight of fans of the Fallout franchise, the rumours turned out to be true.

Bethesda stole the show with its gorgeous teaser and gameplay trailers for the fifth instalment in the hugely successful open world RPG franchise (Fallout 3 ranked number 10 in IGN’s ‘Top 100 RPGs of All Time’ List), set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by nuclear war. The trailer, dazzlingly colourful yet bleak at the same time, provides glimpses of the Fallout world before the bombs dropped via vivid flashbacks, and shows mysterious figures roaming the beautifully detailed urban and rural scenes. At least the main player will have a friendly German Shepherd for company.

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#4: Star Wars: Battlefront Gameplay Trailer

This year is quickly shaping up to be the year of Star Wars. Fans are already anticipating the December release of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, so when the reveal trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront video game was released in April, it was poured over meticulously to see what clues it held for both the upcoming game and movie. (IGN did a fine job of dissecting the trailer here.)

The gameplay trailer Electronic Arts released at E3 throws us into the midst of an epic battle on the ice planet of Hoth, with Rebel soldiers fighting Stormtroopers in icy trenches to defend an outpost from the Empire. Critics praised the first footage of the multiplayer first-person shooter, which not only showed off impressive graphic detail but also a highly intuitive first-person gameplay, and a greater level of interaction between the vehicles and ground forces than previous Battlefront games. And — just to tease us — the trailer ends with what appears to be the beginning of a light saber battle between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker.

November 17 cannot come soon enough.

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#5: Super Mario Maker

Nintendo decided to forgo any major console announcements and just focus on their games – a gutsy move that paid off, thanks in no small part to one particular announcement that had me giggling like mad: Super Mario Maker, which gives you free reign to manipulate Mario’s world.

Nintendo allowed their developers to go back to the roots of the Super Mario Bros. franchise, and they engineered something truly unique. Players will be able to use the Wii U Gamepad to customise classic levels and build new ones; meanwhile, connecting Amiibo figurines to the console will allow new characters to enter the Mushroom Kingdom (the trailer has Link from The Legend of Zelda hopping about).

As Morgan Sleeper from Nintendo Life puts it, “Nintendo is giving us much more than a Mario level editor — it’s giving us a way to celebrate the series, in typically joyous style.” I can’t wait to give Bowser a serious butt-kicking.

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Kemal Atlay is a journalist from Melbourne. You can find him ranting about politics on Twitter @kemal_atlay.