Skip to main content

‘Command & Conquer’ for mobile, Nintendo’s lack of games, and other E3 mistakes

This E3, we were pleasantly surprised by a number of games shown off during the major publishers’ conferences, including the excellent Resident Evil 2 remake, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.Yet not every choice made during E3 was a smart one. From messaging snafus to announcement-light events, these are the biggest mistakes made during E3 2018.

‘Beyond Good & Evil 2’ wants fan art, but will it pay?

During Ubisoft’s E3 press conference, we saw a gameplay preview of the long-awaited sequel Beyond Good & Evil 2, which is an extremely ambitious open-world game with enormous environments and a ton of customization options. It’s so ambitious that Ubisoft wants the community’s help in creating everything from art and music to written copy for in-game radio messages. With the help of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s company HitRecord, fans can have their work appear in Beyond Good & Evil 2 – a dream come true for those who have waited over a decade for the sequel.

Ubisoft and Gordon-Levitt failed to mention any details on compensation for user-submitted content, however, leading us to speculate if they would be soliciting this work for free. As it turns out, HitRecord will be paying those who get their work put in the game, but it remains unclear how much money is being allotted to this. Gordon-Levitt said $50,000 has been initially set aside with more possible in the future, but Ubisoft should be willing to pump far more cash into the program if they want quality work.

‘Command & Conquer: Rivals’ angers fans

There is little doubt that Electronic Arts’ upcoming mobile strategy game Command & Conquer: Rivals will make the publisher a ton of cash through microtransactions, as we’ve seen from other mobile spinoffs like Nintendo’s Fire Emblem Heroes.

However, the Command & Conquer series was basically dead before Rivals was announced, and no other mainline entry for PC or consoles was announced alongside the mobile game. This meant franchise fans had to sit and watch their beloved series reduced to a one-versus-one small-scale duel, with no promise of another game to follow.

Were Electronic Arts to even announce a remastered collection of the Red Alert games alongside Rivals, it would have given players the peace of mind that the publisher wasn’t reducing the series to a simple cash grab. As it stands, however, they aren’t happy, with the video’s “like” bar on YouTube almost impossible to see.

‘Starfield’ gets a logo, and not much else

Bethesda’s E3 2018 Showcase was one of the best of the entire event, if the not the best outright. Games like The Elder Scrolls VI and Doom Eternal were officially announced, with the latter releasing in 2019. Also announced was the much-rumor science-fiction game Starfield, which is the next title from Bethesda Game Studios and director Todd Howard.

All we saw from Starfield was a short clip of a satellite floating next to a planet before the game’s title appeared on-screen. This would have been perfectly fine as a teaser, but Howard later confirmed that Starfield is in a playable state. If that’s the case, why not show off a small bit during the Bethesda conference?

Square Enix holds a press conference to announce almost nothing

SQUARE ENIX E3 SHOWCASE 2018 - English

Square Enix usually skips its own press conference at E3, preferring to announce new games and details during the Xbox, Nintendo, and Sony shows — but after several years away, the company held its own event in 2018. We were hoping that meant several new game announcements were on the way, including news on the Final Fantasy VII remake, or additional Nintendo Switch games.

Instead, we got a whole lot of nothing. The majority of the trailers and gameplay we saw had already been introduced during Microsoft’s show, including the announcement of Just Cause 4 and the Xbox One port of Nier: Automata. An all-new look at Kingdom Hearts III’s Pirates of the Caribbean world wasn’t shown until Sony’s conference, and the two new game announcements – The Quiet Man and Babylon’s Fall — told us almost nothing about the titles aside from their developers.

‘Gears Tactics’ is skipping Xbox One

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has made a big deal about removing the barrier between players on different platforms, opening up multiplayer across different devices, and launching Xbox One games on PC. It’s a philosophy that lets more players enjoy Microsoft’s games — so it came as an unpleasant surprise when the company announced Gears Tactics would only be coming to PC.

Strategy games play best with a mouse and keyboard, sure, but they can be played on a console. XCOM 2 is perfectly serviceable with a game pad, and is turn-based just like Gears Tactics. Even the real-time Halo Wars 2 released on Xbox One. The decision to leave out console players – who made the Gears franchise successful – is downright bizarre.

Nintendo’s conference is light on new games

Nintendo Direct: E3 2018

An E3 press conference is meant to get players hyped to try out your new games, even if they won’t be releasing for a year or more. Microsoft and Bethesda clearly understood this with the massive number of new games they announced, but Nintendo instead chose to focus nearly its entire show on the many characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The company announced that every character from previous games would be coming to the game, and chose to detail them for over fifteen minutes.

Aside from a sizzle reel of a few indie games, Fortnite, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and Super Mario Party, Nintendo didn’t have anything to announce. It left us wondering what to expect from the Switch in future, as previously announced games like Bayonetta 3 and Metroid Prime 4 didn’t even get teasers. We also didn’t hear anything about brand-new franchises, and given the rapidly growing player-base for the Switch, Nintendo can afford to go in some weird directions. Consider us disappointed.

Editors' Recommendations

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
E3 returns to LA in 2023 thanks to the company behind PAX
Crowd of E3 attendees in front of the E3 logo and various game posters.

After being canceled both physically and digitally in 2022, E3 seemed all but finished. Several months after this year's cancellation was announced, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) stated that the event is far from dead, with plans to return with a physical show in the works for 2023. Now, we have confirmation on just how it plans to get back on its feet after the ESA announced a partnership with ReedPop, the company behind the PAX conventions.

E3 will return in 2023, according to its parent company | Interview

Read more
E3 isn’t dead just yet as ESA plans physical show for 2023
E3 logo

Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest, as well as other digital gaming showcase livestreams coming this summer, have proven that the gaming industry doesn't need E3, which was canceled this year for the second time in two years to reduce health risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is telling everyone not to count it out just yet. Gaming's governing body has announced that E3 will be returning in 2023.

ESA President and CEO Stan Pierre-Louis said in an interview with The Washington Post that E3 2023 will combine both in-person and digital elements. He attributed the success of last year's virtual E3 to the expanse of its reach to fans and journalists around the world who couldn't afford to fly to Los Angeles for the convention or couldn't attend it for other reasons. He added that people still want to connect and network with each other in person.

Read more
Xbox and Bethesda detail (non-E3) summer showcase
The Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase takes place on June 12.

With this year's E3 conference completely canceled, companies are taking the season for game reveals and showcases into their own hands. To that end, Xbox has revealed its own E3-season presentation, the purposefully-named Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase.

https://twitter.com/Xbox/status/1519662855892594689

Read more