Did EA Win E3 2018?

Every year, once E3 has wrapped up and everybody has gone home to digest what they’ve seen, a question is asked: Who won E3? It’s an interesting question to ask, because a lot of what we enjoy at E3 is subjective. Players who don’t own a PlayStation 4 will probably not really care what Sony has to offer, and people who don’t own any Nintendo products will probably not even tune in to watch their presentation. That said, for those who watch the entire event, you kind of get an idea of which showcases were better than others, and which reveals were more exciting to watch. We can’t answer who won E3 2018 just yet because we’ve only seen one showcase so far, the EA Play press conference, but what we can look at is how this particular showcase landed.

It always used to come down to Microsoft vs Sony, Xbox vs PlayStation, as a battle for the ages. Remember E3 2013 when Sony came out and completely demolished Microsoft, pitching that their upcoming console would not only be cheaper, but would support pre-owned games? Yeah, that particular event went to Sony. Ever since that particular event, it really has become kind of a subjective question though, mostly depending on what games look the coolest.

So what did we see from EA Play this year. Well, first off the bat was Battlefield 5, and we saw some cool new footage for their multiplayer mode, but no gameplay there. They did reveal that there would be a Royale mode, but no more details beyond that and we kind of already knew it was coming. Destructible environments are cool, but we’ve seen that before in other Battlefield games.

Anthem was the other real big offering this year, as the company looks to jump into the Looter-Shooter market and take down Destiny 2 (and The Division 2, but that isn’t out yet so we’ll withhold judgement for now). We got a snazzy new trailer and some gameplay footage, which certainly looked cool if you don’t mind diving through water quite a lot. There was the reveal that the game would contain micro transactions, but no loot boxes, which seems to indicate that at least someone at EA is listening to the fans. And we got a release date, putting the game out early next year.

The Command & Conquer franchise got a new title, a mobile game in the vein of Star Wars Force Arena or Clash Royale, which, I mean, is this it for the storied franchise, is this the last gasp of Westwood Studios and their extremely popular RTS series? Probably, but at least the gameplay looks solid.

FIFA 19 managed to score a coup for the Football (Soccer) gaming world, by securing the rights to the UEFA Champions League. For a longtime that has been one of the only drawcards FIFA rivals Pro Evolution Soccer has had, so the execs at EA Sports must be feeling pretty good right now.

Madden NFL 19 is coming to PC, no longer content to be just a console game. It looks cool, with the same marginal improvements in gameplay and graphics that we’ve come to expect from an EA Sports title. Nothing really revolutionary there, but then nothing really revolutionary has happened to the sport in a while, so that’s not a bad thing. Similarly, NBA Live 19 got a release date and a snazzy new trailer, so we look forward to seeing how that stacks up against NBA 2K in the future.

Indie games got some love this year, with Sea of Solitude and Unravel Two getting some screen time. The developers seem to genuinely love their projects, and the games themselves look visually stunning, but at their core they don’t have the same pulling power as the big Triple A titles that most people are tuning in to see.

Finally, the big license that EA managed to procure a while ago: Star Wars. Battlefront 2 got some love, as the developers talked about the upcoming Clone Wars expansions that should see some beloved prequel characters making their appearance soon enough. And Respawn Entertainment got a little screen time as they talked about their upcoming game set during the fall of the Jedi Order. Sounds dark and exciting, but no real details just yet.

So, overall it was pretty good, it certainly kept our attention for the duration. The only real issue we had is that there was almost nothing new. A release date for Anthem, UEFA making its appearance, these are the only real details that surprised us, and to be frank, while cool, they aren’t the kind of surprises that will allow EA to “Win E3”. I don’t want to go out and say that EA has lost E3 by any means, there are plenty of opportunities for the other big names to completely screw things up still, but when I tune into E3 at 4 AM AEST, I want to feel like I got new information, stuff I didn’t already know. Leaks aside, this just felt very safe, and in a way that’s kind of disappointing. It’s probably not their fault, and they have every right to keep things relatively chill, but barring some unforeseen disaster for the rest of the event, I think it’s safe to say that EA didn’t win E3 this year.