Maybe Next Year

MIA

E3 can’t possibly include every game we want to hear more about. Whether it’s because they’re just not ready for a public demo (which is likely the case for Ken Levine’s new game), the publisher doesn’t want to reveal too much too soon (Rockstar is working on a Red Dead game, right?), or the game has just been lost in purgatory (whatever happened to Battlecry?) some games are always going to be left out.

In no particular order, here are 12 games we expected to see more of at E3 2016 but that never showed up.

No Man’s Sky

An event without No Man’s Sky seems bizarre at this point after seeing it appear so often, but the procedurally generated space exploration game was not present at E3 2016. But this is probably not reason to worry–No Man’s Sky was delayed to August a short time before the conference started, and Hello Games is probably working day and night to finish it up. It’s also been shown frequently enough that Hello Games is likely wary of saying too much about it. Thankfully, eager players will only have to wait a couple months more to get their hands on it.

Crackdown 3

Crackdown 3 likely didn’t show up at Microsoft’s press conference because of its delay to 2017, but it was still a glaring omission from the Xbox lineup. It’s also possible that Microsoft is saving the game for a big blowout at Gamescom later this year, but we’ll have to wait a bit longer to learn what direction the open-world game with its new destruction elements.

Kingdom Hearts III

Kingdom Heart III was a no show at E3 this year. But that’s hardly a surprise: there’s another Kingdom Hearts game coming out this year, so it would make sense that Square Enix would focus its marketing efforts on that one. And although Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue sounds interesting–you get a remastered KH 3D; a smaller game starring one of the only female characters, Aqua; and an hour-long prequel movie–it’s still not the Kingdom Hearts game we want. At the end of the latest trailer for KH 2.8, Square revealed they would share more details about KH 3 this winter, but that doesn’t diminish our disappointment that the game we’ve been waiting for skipped this year’s E3.

Dead Island 2

After a big showing at Sony’s E3 2014 briefing, where the project was officially announced, zombie game Dead Island 2 has gone through some big changes. Deep Silver removed Yager as the game’s developer, citing a “difference of vision.” Development has since resumed at Sumo Digital, though Dead Island 2 was nowhere to be seen at E3 this year. What state the game is in now remains to be seen. Zombie fans weren’t totally left out, however, as Microsoft announced State of Decay 2 and Sony revealed a biker/zombie game called Days Gone.

Beyond Good & Evil 2

At this point the only people that really believe Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still in development is Ubisoft. The last time we actually saw it was in 2008, and since then it’s been nothing but assurances that it is still in the works. E3 2016 was no different. Beyond Good & Evil 2 did not make an appearance at Ubisoft’s press conference, but the publisher’s CEO, Yves Guillemot, confirmed later on that it is still alive. On top of that, Michel Ancel—the creator of the original—is also working on it. Sure, Ubisoft, we’ll believe it when we see it.

Resident Evil 2 Remake

The Resident Evil 2 remake was announced last year, but it didn’t make an appearance at this year’s show. With Resident Evil 7‘s huge change in perspective making it barely recognizable as a game from the series, it would have been nice to see a more classic-looking Resident Evil game. Of course, we don’t actually know what the remake will look like, whether it sticks with the fixed camera angles, adopts Resident Evil 4‘s behind-the-back perspective, or even goes first person like Resident Evil 7. We’ll see a new game in the series soon (Resident Evil 7 releases in January), but we can’t wait to find out what producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi and his team at Capcom have been up to.

Wild

Wild is an upcoming PS4-exclusive open world survival game by Michel Ancel–the creator of Rayman–and his team at Wild Sheep Studio. The game was recently shown at last year’s Paris Games Week during Sony’s opening press conference. However, we’ve since heard little about the game, which has further increased our curiosity over the ambitious upcoming project. While it hasn’t been announced when we’ll see more of Wild, we’re hoping to hear more soon from Sony in the coming months.

Criterion Extreme Sports Game

Criterion’s extreme sports game was nowhere to be seen at E3 2016–and there may be a good reason for that. At E3, we learned that Criterion is also working on the Star Wars series for studio owner Electronic Arts. Given that the team is relatively small, it could be that the project, announced at E3 2014, is on hold, though this is not confirmed. Fans of action sports games weren’t totally left wanting at E3 2016, however, as Ubisoft announced an ambitious-looking game called Steep that looks like it could be what fans of the genre are looking for.

Deep Down

Capcom’s Dark Souls-inspired role-playing game was first revealed in 2013 alongside the debut of the PlayStation 4. Since then we’ve been fed a small trickle of news regarding the its development, including news that the game’s scope had been expanded to appeal to a larger audience, thus resulting in more delays. The public playable beta date has already been pushed back a few times; whether this free-to-play game will ever see the light of day again remains to be seen.

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

The reveal of Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom was one of the highlights of last year’s PlayStation Experience keynote, especially when JRPGs don’t often make appearance in press conferences these days. Given the standalone design of the first game, a sequel was a surprise to many. We know that its story involves a usurped king on a quest to reclaim his throne with the help of a visitor from another world. There’s little else we know, so E3 would’ve been an ideal platform to share more about the story, let alone any possible changes to the previous game’s divisive battle system. All signs point to an open world as expansive and content-rich as Wrath of the White Witch and we’re hoping that the creature summon system will be even more involving in this sequel. An appearance at E3 2016 would have made sense given the combined attendance enthusiasm for JRPGs and Studio Ghibli.

Vita Games

The Vita’s complete absence from Sony’s press conference and overall low profile at E3 aren’t surprising, but it does further cement the handheld as a niche system. It continues to faithfully serve the JRPG audience, and it’s a great way to play classic Sony games. However, E3 offered nothing but disappointment for fans hoping to hear about new Vita exclusives or, really, anything new about the console.

Mother 3

Last year at E3 we got Earthbound Beginnings. This year, the classic SNES Earthbound came out on 3DS, and Japan also got the cult-hit Mother 3 through Virtual Console. So not having any mention of a Mother 3 localization at E3 felt like something had been forgotten. Mother 3 has never been (officially) released in the US, though you can find a lot of resources for learning about the game through the amazing Mother 3 guide available from Fangamer or sites like Starmen.net. Nintendo mainly focused on Zelda for this year’s E3, and we got a few new game announcements, but there’s always going to be a Mother 3-shaped hole in our collective hearts until the game gets an official release.