E3 2021: Digital Edition, TGA's 2021 & other 2021 events

[Julius]

 

Spoiler

Figured it was time for a new general events thread for this year, even if what's going on with E3 is still up in the air: while the live event in LA is cancelled, but still nothing firm on what's going on with their digital plans, and I'll admit I took that recent headline the wrong way at first! But anyways, I think it'll be a very interesting year to see which direction Keighley takes his Game Fest plans in, how the whole deal with E3 shakes out, and of course how other third party and smaller developers and publishers continue to adjust their marketing strategies as a result of COVID. 

In the immediate future, the Future Games Show is set to return on 25th March 2021 featuring some pretty big publishers. 

Quote

The Future Games Show will be back on March 25 for a special spring showcase, featuring 40 games from more than 30 different publishers and developers, including SEGA, Team 17, Warner Bros. and EA.

You can watch the show on Thursday, March 25 at 14:45 PDT / 17:45 EDT / 21:45 GMT on Twitch, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and right here on GamesRadar.

Whatever your gaming platform of choice the Future Games Show has you covered, with titles for PS5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC, all hosted by stars of the Resident Evil 3 Remake - Jeff Schine (Carlos Oliveira) and Nicole Tompkins (Jill Valentine)

"I am thrilled to be presenting the Future Game Show: Spring Showcase alongside my talented Resident Evil 3 remake co-star Jeff Schine," said Tompkins. "It's bound to be a blast and I am so looking forward to showing the fans some of the amazing new games coming out this year! Join us March 25 live on Twitch."

Look forward to seeing what they've got coming up!

 

 

THE (major) EVENTS SCHEDULE

Pre-E3

Summer Game Fest Kick-Off - Thursday 10th June - 19:00 BST / 20:00 CEST / 11:00 PDT / 14:00 EDT

 

E3 2021

Saturday 12th June

Ubisoft Forward - 20:00 BST / 21:00 CEST / 12:00 PDT / 15:00 EDT

 

Devolver Digital E3 2021 - 21:30 BST / 22:30 CEST / 13:30 PDT / 16:30 EDT

 

Gearbox Showcase - 22:00 BST / 23:00 CEST / 14:00 PDT / 17:00 EDT

 

Sunday 13th June

Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase - 18:00 BST / 19:00 CEST / 10:00 PDT / 13:00 EDT

 

Square Enix Presents | Summer 2021 - 20:15 BST / 21:15 CEST / 12:15 PDT / 15:15 EDT

 

PC Gaming Show - 22:30 BST / 23:20 CEST / 14:00 PDT / 17:00 EDT

 

Monday 14th June

Future Games Show (directly follows PC Gaming Show) - 00:00 BST / 01:00 CEST / 16:00 PDT (13th June) / 19:00 EDT (13th June)

 

Limited Run Games - 21:00 BST / 22:00 CEST / 13:00 PDT / 16:00 EDT

Tuesday 15th June

Nintendo Direct | E3 2021 - 17:00 BST / 18:00 CEST / 09:00 PDT / 12:00 EDT

Edited November 11, 2021 by Julius

[Happenstance]

 

[Julius]

6 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

 

Hype reigns supreme! And quite a few big names are turning up...

Quote

E3 will return in 2021 as a “reimagined, all-virtual” event, organizers announced Tuesday. E3 2021 will take place June 12-15, and will feature content from Nintendo, Xbox, Capcom, Konami, Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive, Warner Bros. Games, and Koch Media, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) said in a news release.

Nintendo and Xbox is a welcome surprise, but having those big names is such a great get for them. Konami can only be turning up with some pachinko app and PES, though, right? I thought Ubisoft's own showings have been pretty lackluster in the last year, so hoping they've put some more time into this showing. 

No PlayStation, but that's not too much of a surprise. I'm more surprised Devolver aren't here, but hey, they could turn up anywhere and be welcome. Square Enix not being present isn't too much of a surprise considering their major IP are probably tied up in marketing exclusivity deals and will turn up elsewhere, and I'm glad they seem to have (for now) cut the dead weight that is EA, which always promised a pretty boring corporate start to the show in years past. 

I'm excited, because I hated everyone doing their own thing last year and the overwhelming feeling of missing things and having to be tuned in 24/7, but at the same time...the ESA still sucks, so we'll see how this turns out. 

[Dufniall]

Glad to see Nintendo (and some other big ones) making a return to E3. Mainly because this means Nintendo probably will host a Direct and have something to show.

The Summer Game Fest also makes a return this year:

 

[Julius]

14 minutes ago, Vileplume2000 said:

Glad to see Nintendo (and some other big ones) making a return to E3. Mainly because this means Nintendo probably will host a Direct and have something to show.

The Summer Game Fest also makes a return this year:

 

Yep, intrigued by what Keighley has lined up (wouldn't be surprised if Kojima Productions' next game is there), and curious to see if any of the E3 no-shows have something to show off with Geoff instead. 

Glad he seemed to hear the message loud and clear about not spreading things out over the whole summer, it just felt like many of the things shown last year weren't strong enough to stand proudly on their own two feet, so got a pretty lukewarm reception, when they could've made a bigger impact as part of a longer list of announcements. 

[Ronnie]

Nice to see E3 back, regardless of ESA being shit, and even better to see some big hitters involved. I do wonder if it'll just be a couple of trailers from the likes of Nintendo and Microsoft though for appearances sake, and then they do their own main thing separate.

[Dcubed]

Nice to see something more centralised this time (last year was just an embarrassment).

Still don't really see E3 surviving much longer, but hopefully we can at least get Digital Events centralised around the same time going forward.

[WackerJr]

It’ll be interesting to see how involved Nintendo are with this. Like has already been said, I predict a Direct, which is fine with me. They’ll get the audience that would usually watch a Direct, and should gain a few more who are looking at the offerings from E3.

I guess it also means they can show off glimpses of more games and then the developers can potentially show off more of their games in the days that follow.  I do miss the Treehouse demonstrations though. One of Nintendo’s better ideas.

[Julius]

The PC Gaming Show and the Future Games Show are returning on June 13th. 

Look, PlayStation don't need to have a State of Play the week of E3...but for the love of Shuhei please have the decency to hold it in June. 

[Julius]

Square Enix president and CEO Yosuke Matsuda has confirmed their presence at E3 2021 in an interview with Nikkei. Courtesy of Gematsu:

Quote

“Outriders, which was previously delayed, is due out on April 1, 2021, followed by NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… in April,” Matsuda said. “Then there is Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, which is due out in June. As for our lineup beyond that, we’ll make more announcements in the future, including at E3 in June, so please look forward to it.”

Good stuff. Don't know if this necessarily means having their own show at E3 or just being part of other conferences, but there are games like Babylon's Fall which we haven't heard about for years, and I imagine we'll be getting our next update on Final Fantasy XVI sooner rather than later (I still think they're aiming for it to be out by the end of March next year, so this would seem the right place to show it off again). There's also, of course, the question of when we'll see some Dragon Quest pop up too, as Yuji Horii teased that we'd be seeing all sorts of announcements this year for the 35th anniversary, and I would have to imagine that means some news on XII. As well as maybe some ports please? 

[Julius]

Hosts for this year's E3 have been revealed:

Quote

E3 has officially enlisted a trio of well-known video game industry personalities to host the all-virtual global event, taking place Saturday, June 12 through Tuesday, June 15. Greg Miller, Jacki Jing and Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez will guide the four-day broadcast, providing expert-level commentary, publisher and developer interviews and much more.

 

[Ronnie]

Nice. Big fan of Greg, he'll do a good job as ever

[Nicktendo]

19 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Nice. Big fan of Greg, he'll do a good job as ever

It's the opposite for me, unfortunately. Having Mr. Faux enthusiasm himself as the host of anything is a surefire way to make me ignore it. 

VIDEO GAMES !!! 

Edited April 28, 2021 by Nicktendo

[Hero-of-Time]

21 minutes ago, Nicktendo said:

It's the opposite for me, unfortunately. Having Mr. Faux enthusiasm himself as the host of anything is a surefire way to make me ignore it.

They should get Moriarty to host. The backlash would be glorious to behold.

Im thinking of taking the week off work for E3. It's been a couple of years since I've done so but with the Euro's being on as well it just makes sense to use some holidays.

[Ronnie]

27 minutes ago, Nicktendo said:

Having Mr. Faux enthusiasm himself as the host of anything is a surefire way to make me ignore it. 

Fair enough. He does lay it on thick when he hosts for EA or award shows. Watching him on Kinda Funny every week it's like a totally different person. He's good man though imo.

Edited April 28, 2021 by Ronnie

[Julius]

39 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Nice. Big fan of Greg, he'll do a good job as ever

I hope he does a good job, but I'm pretty mixed on Greg to be honest. Think he and the people over at Kinda Funny can have some good discussions on stuff that they're knowledgeable about, but they seem pretty clueless at times on other things. And his work at certain shows at E3's previously has been pretty...meh. 

Blessing is the main reason I watch any Kinda Funny stuff these days, because there's a genuine enthusiasm there to learn more about games and the industry.

Some of the other folks at KFG though, I'm not big fans of. Gary Whitta especially makes me want to bounce my head off a wall sometimes, he's Mr "I have zero bias but I only play on Xbox and will pull the most stupid arguments out of my ass to make PlayStation look silly when I don't play a lot of their games anyway". Sucks because obviously he worked on Rogue One and so as a Star Wars fan it's hard to not be envious of anyone who's worked on the franchise, but if you're covering games I think you have a responsibility to share your passions and interests - of course! - while being fair to others. Would he shout Star Trek down because he's worked on Star Wars? 

Also the guy swears more than all of the other KFG cast combined and I think detracts from the shows he's on greatly, even more so when the focus is on any of the platform holders other than Nintendo (which to be fair to him he does manage to stay level-headed about). 

33 minutes ago, Nicktendo said:

It's the opposite for me, unfortunately. Having Mr. Faux enthusiasm himself as the host of anything is a surefire way to make me ignore it. 

VIDEO GAMES !!! 

I know Greg plays it up for the shows, and I mean he's getting compensated to do it so fair enough to him, but Tim is the one who grinds my gears when it comes to this.

Other than a select few games for which you can tell he's actually excited, you can tell he plays up his opinions to be the hype man on their team, but unlike someone like Michael Huber from Easy Allies who clearly is genuinely hyped for just about everything but is honest and pure in doing so, it feels like Tim's lying half of the time, at least to me. It's super weird to watch. 

I probably sound like I'm hating on Kinda Funny, but it's just not for me. I soured on IGN somewhat to be fair too, so maybe it's just a through line from that, but there's a weird vibe to it sometimes that I just can't nail down. I think someone like Ben Hanson (Minnmax, formerly of Game Informer) deserves the success that we see these guys get, he's probably the only person in the industry I feel could walk into my favourite podcasts not in Easy Allies and is guaranteed to make it a better experience. 

15 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'm thinking of taking the week off work for E3. It's been a couple of years since I've done so but with the Euro's being on as well it just makes sense to use some holidays.

I've actually been thinking of doing the same lately, I'm mainly just holding off on confirmation of when the shows are going to air. 

Though, I'm working from home as it is now, at the moment my job has shifted as I'm on a projects team rather than customer-facing for the next few months, which is mainly meetings and then just sitting around waiting for email responses, and I finish mid-afternoon. So I guess I could always just stick it on in the background, but then I won't be as consumed by the hype, but unless they're changing things drastically, normally there aren't many conferences overlapping with work hours anyways. 

But now that I think about it that's normally because they can be held at stupid o'clock, PlayStation especially when they were showing up. With this year's event being all-digital and likely pre-recorded, my biggest hope would be that they schedule things so that it's relatively friendly to a worldwide audience rather than just the US. 

[Ronnie]

1 minute ago, Julius said:

I hope he does a good job, but I'm pretty mixed on Greg to be honest. Think he and the people over at Kinda Funny can have some good discussions on stuff that they're knowledgeable about, but they seem pretty clueless at times on other things. And his work at certain shows at E3's previously has been pretty...meh. 

Blessing is the main reason I watch any Kinda Funny stuff these days, because there's a genuine enthusiasm there to learn more about games and the industry.

The trouble I have with Blessing is he has no idea how to articulate his thoughts in a concise way, and when he does, his actual contribution doesn't really add up to much and way below that of others like Greg and Tim. I find I tune out when he waffles on about nothing in particular, but tbf I agree his enthusiasm and personality are great.

Also, when Kinda Funny aren't knowledgeable about an aspect of the industry I think they're good at saying so. They'll often hold their hands up and say they're not experts in a particular field.

Agree on Gary Whitta though, I don't watch any episode he's on. Shame for the man who helped give us Rogue One.

[Happenstance]

3 hours ago, Julius said:

Blessing is the main reason I watch any Kinda Funny stuff these days, because there's a genuine enthusiasm there to learn more about games and the industry.

Blessing is why I don’t tend to watch Kinda Funny’s gaming content. I don’t dislike the guy but to me he is just the most bland person I’ve ever seen and it brings down whatever show he is on.

I don’t really have a gaming channel or site I follow properly anymore. It used to be Giant Bomb religiously but the last few years that site really went downhill. Ben and Abby leaving will hopefully help but it’ll all depend on who they bring in to replace them. The site needs new blood with a real enthusiasm but not obnoxious like those two were. Getting Jeff Bakalar from CNET to work at GB and Gamespot should help at least.

[bob]

MFW I see the trio of well-known video game industry personalities:

[Glen-i]

3 hours ago, bob said:

MFW I see the trio of well-known video game industry personalities:

You and me should form a club of "People who don't recognise any 'Personalites'"

[Cube]

This definitely sounds like it's best to look at some trailers with game play footage and news articles about everything else the next day.

[Happenstance]

Speaking of Greg

 

[Julius]

Konami have confirmed that they won't be present at this year's E3 (after the ESA sharing that they would be previously), but it does sound like they at least have some things in the works. 

 

[Julius]

The more the merrier - Square Enix, Sega, Bandai Banco and more are coming to this year's E3:

Can't believe they used a Ghibli GIF. There's going to be a Ni no Kuni mobile game here, isn't there? 

Edited May 6, 2021 by Julius

[Julius]

EA Play Live is coming back Thursday 22nd July. 

Not like it was ever the highlight of E3 week if I'm being honest (remember when they managed to spin the Battlefront II screw up into a charity drive?), but with others seemingly in agreement that spreading things out too much wasn't great and many either turning up at or having events of their own next month...EA, come on guys. 

Hope we start getting the E3 schedule confirmed soon. I'm still on the fence about taking that week off for it, but knowing what's actually going to be there in terms of shows will probably sway me. Don't think we know anything concrete about the Summer Game Fest plans at this point either. 

Edited May 11, 2021 by Julius