Electronic Arts came into E3 this year with a lot to prove. The industry titan has been battered a bit over the last year with all of the noise around the launch of SimCity, the departure of their CEO, and a lot of other noise around online passes and other parts of their business. EA came out swinging and I'm not just talking about the joking jabs that Peter Moore took at certain media personalities before the presentation started and delivered one of their best press conferences in years. Here's the high level summary of the event
Talking Points
- Very heavy focus on next generation gaming
- All games will either use the Frostbite engine or the Ignite engine
- Next Generation isn't just about graphics
- Smartglass/mobile is an important part of next generation games
New Things
- Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare - fantastic third person spin on the popular game
- Peggle 2 - 'nuff said
- Titanfall - one of the best looking games of the show so far. Love the look and feel of the game and how can you go wrong with a game with mechs and jetpacks in it?
- Battlefront - The prayers of every Star Wars fan were answered when this short teaser came up. No details but the thought of a Star Wars game running on the Frostbite engine is awe inspiring
- Need for Speed Rivals - great looking game and digging how single and multiplayer action blends together so seamlessly
- Dragon Age: Inquisition - More Dragon Age which makes a lot of people happy
- Battlefield 4 - sure it's a lot of the same thing over again but the multi-player demo was amazing for the level of destruction you can cause. Battlefield 4 doesn't drop mics, it drops entire buildings
- Mirrors Edge 2 - you wanted it, you got it. No release date though other than "When it's done"
What they didn't say
- Why NHL 14 won't be on next gen consoles this year
- What's going on for current generation systems?
- Is there anything at all in development for the Wii U
- Release dates/windows for Battlefront, Mirrors Edge 2
Summary
Like I said earlier, this was one of the best presentations Electronic Arts has put on in years. The list of games was a perfect mix of titles that we already knew about mixed in with some fantastic surprises like Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare and Battlefront. While I'm personally disappointed at the lack of a next gen NHL game this was a different EA on stage today, a confident and relaxed EA that looks to be delivering some fun content over the next few years.
