The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2019 was the 25th event of the E3, where the leading hardware manufacturers, publishers, and software developers in the game industry present new and upcoming products to the members of the video gaming community. It took place in Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Convention Center from the 11th to the 13th of June, 2019. If you could not make it to the event, you can just watch the live stream on YouTube. Other platforms such as IGN might stream the event, but your best bet is YouTube. The event has been primarily sponsored in recent years by AMD and Intel, but now it is being sponsored by Epic Gaming. Epic Gaming is not the favourite of most PC gamers, but what can they do about it? Besides, a lot of gaming companies made their presence felt such as Microsoft, Nintendo, Devolver Digital, Bethesda Softworks, PC Gaming Show, Ubisoft, and Square Enix. Sony, however, held no press conference before the event.
The E3 2019 was the bomb, and it is no doubt that a lot of gaming industries flooded the event with all their latest releases in store for their fans. This is, however, interesting to notice that E3 was dominated by PC games than actual console games. This is a bit astonishing, although it is clear to every gamer that most PC games can played on the top console games, if not all, in the industry today. We might want to discuss that in full detail, but we can’t ignore the fact that Sony Computer Entertainment was going to be absent from the E3! Sony confirmed late in 2018 that they would not attend the event because (in their words) “they are looking for inventive opportunities to connect with their community”. We can’t say why the sudden decision to be absent, but we know other gaming industries were there. Several companies like Microsoft, Ubisoft, EA, Nintendo, among others made some ground-breaking announcements about their newest releases and future products. This is why a lot of games were announced at the event, such Cyberpunk 2077, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, FIFA 2020, and much more.
Ninja Theory was one of the first developers to take center stage at E3 with their Bleeding Edge game that was unfortunately leaked a few days before E3,2019. Gearbox announced its Borderline 3 game, the highly anticipated game with slit screenplay release date is set for September 13, 2019. The new Call of Duty Modern Warfare will take you to the modern battleground with characters that just might second guess orders and let’s not forget the good news, cross-play support is happening. Cyberpunk 2077 stole the show at the E3, 2019 although its viewing was shown to a selected few behind closed door sessions. The game is set to be released in 2020, it stars Keanu Reeves and it can be completed without a single kill. Juicy details and new trailers on other PC games such as Gear 5, The Outer Worlds, Watch Dogs Legion, Outriders, Elden Ring, Marvel Avengers, Star Jedi, and Pokemon were revealed. X-box announced 60 new games while more information on the release date and features of Project Scarlett by Microsoft was revealed. One of the biggest stories that made the rounds during the E3 conference came from Square Enix. The gaming company revealed that the Final Fantasy 7 remake will be released on March 3, 2020, and it will cover on Midgar region.
There were lots of things to do besides listening and viewing new releases of several game companies. For instance, an e-sport zone was created to shine the spotlight on its gaming culture art, music and fashion. There were professional gamers, developer interviews on games such as Outer Worlds and pro-am tournaments on PURG amongst others. Epic used this opportunity to promote its Fortnite e-sport tournament. The company offered players the chance to participate in Time Trials, Player vs Player, and Arcade games at their respective stations. Epic’s free play pro-am tournament connected its Block Party and E3 activations by giving attendees the chance to compete in a Time Trial challenge to win a spot on one of the 8 competing teams. The team that won at the Block Party would be flown to New York City with a friend to watch the games biggest e-sports tournament, Fortnite World Cup Final taking place at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre (Arthur Ashe Stadium) on the 26th to 28th of July 2019. This tournament is no joke as there is a $30 million prize pool to be won which is slightly higher than the £20 million prize pool won at the recent Dota 2 tournament. It is going to be the largest prize pool in e-sports history and this just shows that there is a boom in the e-sport industry and the stakes will get higher as the as market grows.
