After a brief unplanned hiatus, our weekly E3 2018 prediction pieces are back! Now, this isn’t technically an E3 2018 prediction per se. That said, EA Play 2018 falls extremely close to the other E3 2018 conferences and as such Nicholas and I are including it in our E3 2018 predictions. We’ve put together a list of things that we might or might not see at the show. Here’s our EA Play 2018 predictions!
EA Sports
Nicholas: This doesn’t really warrant much discussion, we’ll see the usual suspects. Madden NFL, FIFA and the rest will all show up, as they do every year. EA continues to hold these exclusive licenses, so frankly I wouldn’t expect much to change.
Samuel: Cosigned.
BattlefieldÂ
Samuel: There have been many varying and conflicting rumors over just what form this year’s Battlefield title will take. Battlefield is always a strong fall title, with Battlefield 1 performing extremely well when it released in 2016. That said, Battlefield is looking to face an extremely crowded October this year, with Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII and Red Dead Redemption 2 both launching within weeks of each other. While an early October release date would likely still be okay, it’s not hard to imagine Battlefield moving to late September instead.
Nicholas: There’s no doubt this will have a big debut, and it’s the biggest game EA will be showing aside from Anthem. Whether it ends up taking on a past setting or a modern one, a big marketing campaign should ensure its success. After the backlash Star Wars Battlefront II faced over its lootboxes, I don’t think microtransactions are an issue we need to worry about, although that might just be me being too optimistic.
Anthem
Nicholas: Let’s just be honest here: the rumored delay wasn’t that shocking. A 2018 release date for Anthem was never realistic, not with the insanely crowded fall and BioWare needing to deliver a very high-quality title. I’m very curious how they roll out any long-term monetization in light of the outcries that have been ongoing for some time. Hopefully they’ll step back from anything like lootboxes or microtransactions.
Samuel: A release window of March 2019 definitely seems likely, with a beta shortly beforehand. Anthem has big challenges to overcome, as the market for service games is beginning to get a little crowded. With that said, there’s absolutely a lot of potential, especially if they capitalize on the mistakes that have been made with Destiny 2 and draw in that audience.
What is Respawn Entertainment up to?Â
Samuel: Respawn Entertainment has been working on some sort of new Star Wars game since before they were acquired by EA. Teasing whatever game they working on would be a good way to drum up some Star Wars hype, especially since Star Wars Battlefront II has somewhat deflated. While we know a new one is coming at some point, I doubt we’ll see anything regarding Titanfall 3 this year.
Nicholas: I definitely think we could at least see game engine footage, they’ve been working on this game for a while now. EA has shown that they’re willing to talk about games way before they’ll ever come out and beyond Anthem, Battlefield and the usual sports titles, they don’t really have anything major to show. With the now-defunct Visceral Games Star Wars title on ice, fans need something to get excited over there.
Summary
So, all in all, that’s our thoughts on what we might see at the EA Play 2018 show. If you agree or disagree, we’d love to hear from you.
For our previous E3 2018 predictions, check out our thoughts here:
