E3 Pre-Show Thoughts: Ubisoft

And we're back with the next set of pre-show predictions...next up, Ubisoft!

First off, Ubisoft is most likely going to have the best show of the night.  Not in terms of overall reveals, just because Aisha Tyler is doing the presentation.  She's really one of my favorite parts of E3.  Yes, that whole "dank memes" thing was stupid but I'm convinced the guy was a plant and Ubisoft made her say all that nonsense.  She just happens to be the most amiable presenter at the show every year.  I'd add "professional" too, but everyone would complain about all the swearing she does because for some reason professional equates to "Ben Stein reading the dictionary" rather than someone who's clearly capable of getting up in front of thousands of people and sounding comfortable rather than tripping over their words, not projecting and barely emoting.

This guy honestly doesn't look that bad to me. Not sure why people are so salty.

Ubisoft's presentation will most likely lead off with the reveal of Watch_Dogs 2.  In production likely since not long after the last game finished, this is their major money-maker for the year so expect a huge focus on it.  Most likely, we'll get a full mission from it that's somewhere near the middle of the game, something designed to show off the changes and additions to the gameplay and convince as many naysayers as possible that this game is better than the last one.  We'll end it with a reveal of the game's release date--somewhere between September and October (going near November is all but suicide for a lot of games), and probably some mention of the massive loads of DLC that will enrage internet people everywhere and give Jim Sterling probable cause to create an entirely new Jimquisition on how publishers think gamers are walking moneybags.  (He'll be right, but unfortunately so will they.)

Obviously this is not the real thing, that's not confirmed yet.

If there IS such a thing, expect them to sneak in the Assassin's Creed Collection either right after or
close to Watch_Dogs.  They'll have prefaced the beginning of the show by saying there's no proper Creed game happening this year, but then intro into the collection by pointing out that "Assassin's Creed fans won't be completely left out".  I'd guess this would be a collection of the AC2-Revelations series, but I wouldn't claim that for certain.

Then at some point during the show I'm guessing we'll get some sort of musical performance from some pop star that will cause the whole gaming part of the internet to collectively roll our eyes as they unveil the new Just Dance, a game that no one who cares enough to watch E3 wants to see but will still sell in the Top 10 longer than every "GOTY" candidate you can think of.  I dunno, maybe Drake will come do Cha Cha Hotline Bling.  That's still a thing, right? 

Sidenote: This game might have something to do with VR.  Maybe.

The Crew actually did really well when all was said and done, so I'd expect to see more of it. Problem is, I'm not sure if we'll get a second expansion pack or a second game altogether.  If the former, they'd probably push that down the line to Gamescom, but since a second game would be a bigger deal it'd definitely pop up here. 

We'll get another clip of For Honor as they reveal a different section of the game and try to explain in greater detail how the game has improved and changed since last year, but I'm doubting we'll get any sort of formal release date.  If we do, expect it early/mid-2017.   This game was confirmed to launch between now and March 2017.

Then things will get much more light-hearted as Matt and Trey of South Park fame will make their way out onto the stage again to show off their new South Park game, The Fractured But Whole.  Expect it to be just as funny as the last game but maybe not quite as mechanically sound since Obsidian is no longer behind the actual game design bits.  Still probably more than good enough to warrant a purchase if you're a South Park nerd, though.  This game is tentatively scheduled for 2016 so I'm thinking either it gets pushed into 2017 or comes out sometime in August or December, skipping the major release months.  Everything Ubisoft's announced so far is due out between now and the end of Fiscal Year 2017, so I'm revising my opinion.  Long shot opinion: "it's out right now".  More likely: August/September release.

After that, they'll bring up Ghost Recon: Wildlands again.  Last time was mainly just cutscenes with some minor snippets of gameplay snuck in--this year there'll be nothing less than a full on mission that shows off some of the cool shit the game is capable of and the major selling points of this iteration of the series.  I'm still not sure this is going to get a release date yet though. It feels like it's a 2017 game still, since we've seen relatively nothing of it yet.   Ubisoft seems to have gotten themselves together, so I'm betting on this being their December release.   Rainbow Six: Vegas did pretty good numbers coming out then, and I can see this doing the same.

And then lastly there's the big end reveal.*  The new game that we won't actually get to play until ages from now.  I'm actually pretty torn with this one.  It could be Splinter Cell.  It could be Beyond Good and Evil 2.  Or it could be Far Cry 5, though I place the most doubt on this one since Primal just came out.  If anything I'd bet on that for Gamescom later in the year.   For my money, it's going to be the new Splinter Cell--Blacklist was well-received and while the game fell short of Ubisoft's ridiculous expectations, it still did quite well for itself overall.  There's little chance it's not a priority project, especially since it's not really an Ubisoft show without a Tom Clancy game.*

Either way, it'll be a show stealer that's visually impressive and probably the coolest cinematic we'll see the entire conference (or Top 3, easy)...but people will end up making "downgrade" or "won't be out until PS5" because the internet is literally only half as clever as it thinks it is.


Probably won't be a big end reveal this year--they confirmed a new AAA IP that would come out before March next year and would be revealed before E3 started.   It'll be some multiplayer-type ish along the lines of The Division, so my hype levels are at rock bottom since Ubisoft doesn't do fantasy type stuff.

 
*Oh, and I guess I missed the discussion about The Division and whatever the second half of the year is going to have in store with regards to DLC and potential expansions, but you knew that already, right?