This year’s E3, the yearly show for PC, video games and hardware held in Los Angeles, is fast approaching. If you want to know what to watch out for and when, this handy guide can point you in the right direction.
We’ll have coverage throughout E3, including livestreams and all the news from the show. Microsoft’s Project Scorpio is expected to take centre stage at the event, while Sony want to show off their forthcoming new IPs and possibly raise the PS4 Pro’s profile in light of the new competition. Nintendo will be having a 30 minute event broadcast to the show, rather than live, followed by some events on the show floor dedicated to their up-coming games like Mario Odyssey and the just-announced Pokkén Tournament DX on Switch.
The schedule for the show takes us across 3 days (4 if you include the time difference for us in the UK) with all the major publishers and console companies involved, plus PC gamers are catered for by the PC Gaming Show.
Saturday 10th June 2017
With the show underway it’s left to EA to provide the one single Press Conference of the day. The rest of Saturday will be left for those walking the floor to take in the sights and for developers and smaller publishers to show off their new games.
EA – 8pm BST (UK), 12pm PDT (US)
EA have traditionally used this slot to show off their new sports titles and this year will be no exception, with FIFA 18 just announced there are bound to be famous footballers on hand to kick off the show.
Other recent announcements should be making an appearance, too, from Star Wars Battlefield 2 to the new Need For Speed game. Casual fans will be hoping for some Sims news, since the last game, Sims 4, came out in 2014, so a sequel is long overdue.
Sunday 11th June 2017
Sunday is, arguably, the biggest day of the show and Microsoft takes top billing here with new hardware to show off. Elsewhere, we have Bethesda and Devolver Digital doing their stuff on stage.
Microsoft/Xbox – 10pm BST (UK), 2pm PDT (US)
It seems like an age since Project Scorpio was announced, but a year on and we’re hopefully going to finally see and hear all the details of Microsoft’s mid-generation 4K console.
With only a few big exclusives, including the long awaited Crackdown 3, we’ll be hoping for a few surprises from the Microsoft E3 conference this year.
Bethesda – 5am BST Monday (UK), 9pm PDT (US)
Besthesda have already hinted at the Evil Within sequel, so we may get to see this and, perhaps, the Switch version of Skyrim so heavily featured in the launch trailers for Nintendo’s console.
Devolver Digital – 6am BST Monday (UK), 10pm PDT (US)
Devolver have only just released a trailer for their latest game, The Swords of Ditto, so we’ll likely see more of this cartoon RPG in action at their show.
Monday 12th June 2017
For UK viewers, we’re already deep into Monday as the time difference means that those able to stay awake will have seen both Bethesda and Devolver show off their new games. For the US, though, the day is just beginning with PC gaming, Ubisoft and Sony to look forward to. Will Shenmue 3 make another appearance after a spell of silence?
PC Gaming Show – 6pm BST (UK), 10am PDT (US)
More special guest PC developers are likely, as are showings from Nvidia, keen to get their new CPU and GPU ranges seen.
Ubisoft – 9pm BST (UK), 1pm PDT (US)
We already know most of what we’re getting from Ubisoft, as they’ve announced the big games already over the last few weeks. Expect more news and videos of Far Cry 5, Just Dance, Assassin’s Creed and The Crew 2, all the sequels to the big franchises from the French Publisher. But we might also get a few more surprises, with the company yet to fully announce details of the Mario and Rabbids team up and possibly some more VR support for Sony’s PSVR.
Sony – 2am BST Tuesday (UK), 6pm PDT (US)
The one show to stay up for in Europe, Sony always seems to be able to provide a show worth watching and the pressure will be on this year to try and trump Microsoft’s Scorpio reveal. Will we see more God of War and Shenmue news and video? New IPs? More on Hideo Kojima’s weird and wonderful Death Stranding, perhaps?
Tuesday 13th June 2017
Nintendo – 5pm BST (UK), 9am PDT (US)
Mario Odyssey looks like a certainty for Nintendo’s livestream (they won’t have a show live from E3, as with the last few years) but we’re not sure what else will be on show. Pokkén Tournament DX on Switch and the Pokemon Ultra games on 3DS may get a bit more time, but the running time for the show is only 30 minutes, so it will likely be down to the Tree House event afterwards for more on those.
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