E3 2013 Preview

With E3 just days away, I thought I’d check in to offer a few of my thoughts.

The Xbox One reveal was last month, so why haven’t I written about this yet? Am I as disappointed/burning with rage as the rest of the Internet appears to be?
No, is the short answer. I’ve pre-ordered my Xbox One. I think the console looks great and the features look very cool. With E3 coming up, I understood why they decided to use the console reveal to concentrate on the TV and entertainment aspects, leaving the games for the conference. I just wish they’d made that clear to the world before hand.
I also think they need to be clearer on their pre-owned games strategy and answer the myriad of other questions that have come up.

I think E3 will see Microsoft come out all guns blazing. I hope to get to see what those “15 year one exclusives” are.
There are seven of these that are from existing franchises and I can only account for a few of them.
Forza 5 we know about. I’m assuming Halo 5 will be one. I would have said Alan Wake 2, but that’s made by Remedy and they’re making Quantum Break. PGR 5 and Crackdown 3 perhaps? There are rumours that Mirror’s Edge 2 will be announced, but could it possibly be an Xbox exclusive?
And then there's Titanfall, the first game from Respawn Entertainment.

I’m also very interested to hear what this “big announcement” for the Xbox 360 will be that will apparently make it “relevant for years to come”.
It can’t be just a bunch of new games, cos that’s just making it relevant for 6 months or so for those waiting for the price of the Xbox One to drop. It can’t be something that will risk people not bothering upgrading to Xbox One either, so I’m thinking it is connected to the new console somehow. At first I thought it’s a backwards compatibility workaround, like you’ll link the two consoles somehow and be able to play 360 games on the new console. But then, how is that better than just firing up your old 360 for when you’re feeling nostalgic?
I don’t know. They’ve got something up their sleeve, I’m sure of it, and it isn’t as simple as “we’re still making some games for the 360”.

In the other camps, Sony will be revealing their console, but beyond that, I don’t know what their plans are. Nintendo, I can only assume are just going to walk out onto the stage and apologise.

All will be revealed on Monday.