E3 is over, so what’s next?

It’s the Super Bowl, Champion’s League Final or World Series of the gaming community. But now that E3 is over, what can we expect for the next twelve months?

Here are our takeaways.

Zelda set to dominate the news

 

Whether or not the Breath of the Wild sequel is fantastic or terrible, it is sure to be the most talked about gaming sequel of the next year. The original may have been the most important title for the Nintendo Switch launch and will go down as one of the most beloved games in the iconic franchise.

 

By announcing the game at E3, Nintendo essentially locked themselves into publishing this game and will be held to those standards by their customers.

 

Is this the year streaming finally takes off?

While people watching E3 2019 in a vacuum will feel as if streaming is the future of gaming, they should be reminded that streaming has been the “future of gaming” for ages.

 

What is interesting about streaming in the context of games is that it is a crucial part of the industry, but it has followed the ‘slow and steady’ model. Whether it is Steam, Switch, Stadia or social media these platforms have slowly morphed into go-to platforms that leverage streaming for various reasons.

But will it have its “Pokémon Go moment” whereby it dominates popular culture for a few months? Who knows. That would be impossible to predict, but it would be huge for the industry.

 

Pokémon Go transformed the augmented reality industry, so hopefully streaming can experience a similar type of moment.

 

Avengers fans can relive the movies

 

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is in the middle of the most important transition phase of the company’s young history. Will Spiderman be the next Iron Man? What happens with Guardians? Can the company figure out Captain Marvel?

 

Thankfully, gamers don’t have to answer these questions. Next May, Square Enix is set to release a new Avengers game is sure to break internal budgets.

 

The long-term strategy seems to be a copy-paste of the MCU script, whereby Square Enix launches individual games focussed on specific characters (Captain America for example) and then brings them together in an Avengers blockbuster.

 

Animal Crossing delayed

In the pantheon of dumb-games-that-are-extremely-popular, Animal Crossing might own the top spot. Unfortunately for Switch owners, they won’t be playing the game any time soon. It has long been in the queue for famous titles set drive revenue for Switch.

Unfortunately for fans, all they got was a new trailer as the game will be delayed to March, 2020. To be fair, it does seem like the new timetable is reasonable to see a launch.

 

Why isn’t Pigeon Simulator featured at E3?

 

This game looks amazing!!!