E3 2015 was one of the best in recent memory. The hype levels were off the charts following several massive announcements. Huge franchises were updated, games considered impossible were revealed, and the yearly franchises continued on their steady pace. And unlike most E3s of the past, most of what was promised at the Los Angeles trade show in 2015 has actually come out. It is a good consistent time in the game’s industry.
But no E3 has a perfect track record. We can all remember the failures of the past. We all remember the legend of Vaporware itself, Duke Nukem Forever, which was first revealed in an E3 all the way back in 1997, not to be released for decades. Quite a few games were shown off at E3 2015. What has happened to those that we have not seen since? Should we be worried about the ones that have not yet been given a release date? Well, let’s give a quick review to the games of last E3 that fell out of the spotlight in the last year.
ReCore
What is it?
ReCore is a Microsoft exclusive under development by Comcept and Armature Studio. It was a complete surprise at E3 2015. Nobody knew what this thing was then, and nobody really knows what it is now.
The star name on the project is Keiji Inafune, a former Capcom producer responsible for such titles as Omnimusha, Dead Rising, and a little series you might have heard of called Mega Man. Inafune continues his obsession with robots with a more serious game set in a post-apocalyptic world about a girl named Jewel and her droid buddy, Mack. The game seems to be a survival title based around fighting evil robots and finding Mack bigger and better bodies.
Should You Be Worried?
There’s reason to be. In the past year, the only piece of news around ReCore was an announcement that it would also be available on the Windows Store. There are other warning signs as well. The trailer showed no gameplay, only pre-rendered footage of the game’s concept.
Likewise, ReCore is being developed by two unproven companies. Inafune’s Comcept has spent the last few years working on his Mega Man successor, Mighty No. 9. That is a far smaller game and even that has seen numerous delays. Armature Studio has several games under its belt. However the majority of them are Vita titles, such as Batman Arkham Origins: Blackgate and the Vita port of Injustice: Gods Among Us. Their most interesting title is the very arty adventure game, The Unfinished Swan. If any game is going to fall into “development hell,” it will be this one.
ReCore is currently scheduled for release sometime in 2016.
Horizon Zero Dawn
What is it?
Horizon Zero Dawn another new IP about post-apocalyptic survival with a female protagonist and robots. Only this time it’s a Sony exclusive, not a Microsoft one. In this open world game, you play as a red-haired cave girl who looks suspiciously a lot like Ygritte from Game of Thrones. As this Wildling, you fight against dinosaur robots with a gadgety bow.
The third-person action is made to give a juxtaposition between the beauty of the world map and the danger of the Dinobots. For anybody who thought Far Cry: Primal had potential but just didn’t feature enough primordial monsters or metal creatures, Horizon Zero Dawn is your game.
Should You Be Worried?
No. My only concern is that its developer, Guerilla Games, has never made an open world game before. The Killzone series they’ve created is nothing like Horizon Zero Dawn, not in gameplay or in tone. Luckily, the E3 reveal trailer showed some gameplay footage. The marketing hype at least is chugging right along.
Currently Horizon Zero Dawn is scheduled for release some time in 2016. But there are rumors that it’s been delayed until 2017.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
What is it?
The closest thing to a game adaptation of Clear and Present Danger we’ll ever get. Wildlands is a new title from political thriller author, Tom Clancy. Clancy has continued to release games from beyond the grave Tupac-style, lending his undead name recently to The Division and Rainbow Six: Siege.
Previous Ghost Recon games were serious tactical shooters based around stealth and strategy. Wildlands will be the first game in the series to feature an open world. The shift is not a huge surprise coming from Ubisoft, who now seem incapable of not making an open world game. In Wildlands, players will travel to Bolivia to fight a cocaine cartel in Ubisoft’s largest sandbox title yet.
Should You Be Worried?
No. Ubisoft has released a lot of games over the past year: two Tom Clancy titles, an Assassin’s Creed, and Far Cry: Primal. Unsurprisingly Wildlands has not seen a lot of press. The good news is that Ubisoft makes half a dozen AAA games a year, and has a proven track record of consistent production. This game is well into production.
Ubisoft seems committed to a late 2016 release for this game.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
What is it?
Well, here’s what it isn’t: Mass Effect 4. It will be an entirely new story set in the Mass Effect universe. The story of Commander Shepard is over, and BioWare is shifting the focus over to a whole new frontier of space exploration.
The title refers to the Andromeda Galaxy where this game takes place. It appears that after Mass Effect 3 the various factions have begun to colonize neighboring galaxies, including the Milky Way’s nearest neighbor, Andromeda. The Mass Effect franchise is expanding into a flagship Sci-fi RPG series for EA. One can expect several new Mass Effect games over the next few years.
Should You Be Worried?
Maybe. Two teaser trailers for Andromeda have come out over the last year. The E3 trailer showed nothing but a few environments. Then later in the year EA released an “N7 Day” trailer showing a lot of stock footage from 20th century space exploration but even less game footage. We simply have no idea what this game is.
Andromeda was also delayed into 2017 and there is no indication that the game is anywhere near a shippable state. In better news, this is EA. A product is going to ship and will ship according to their whims. Of course, EA also has ruined BioWare RPGs before by releasing them too early.
The Last Guardian
What is it?
The Last Guardian is among the legends of long-awaited titles. It’s up there with Half-Life 3 and Beyond Good and Evil 2 as one of the most anticipated, and delayed, productions in video games.
The Last Guardian was already a frequent E3 no-show after its 2009 reveal. The last seven years have seen this spiritual successor to Ico and Shadows of the Colossus go through every kind of development problem. The exact details of which have never been shared publicly. Apparently this enigmatic game about a boy and his giant chimera pet has proven to be a very difficult title to make.
Director Fumito Ueda left the Japan Studio, for reasons unknown, but continues to work on the game as a freelancer. It’s a weird story, but it seemed last year that it would have a happy ending when the game was finally given a new trailer.
Should You Be Worried?
Even with this game’s history? No.
In the last past year, Sony was largely silent about The Last Guardian. There was a trailer at E3 2015 showing off puzzles and platforming, but there was no demo. At the Tokyo Game Show 2015 the game was entirely absent, other than a bizarre tech experiment involving the PlayStation camera. Convention goers could stare at Trico, the rat-dog-bird creature, and it would react in real time to their actions. It is unclear if any of that technology will actually be featured in the game.
The The Last Guardian just recently confirmed it will hit that 2016 release date and plenty of info should become available later this year.
Fingers crossed.
Final Fantasy VII Remake
What is it?
It’s every JRPG fan’s dream game, that’s what! Fans have been begging Square Enix for a remake of the original Final Fantasy VII since 2005. That was when Square Enix remade the opening footage of one of the greatest JRPGs of all time to show off the graphical capabilities of the PlayStation 3. That technical demo caused a demand for a game Square Enix seemed to have no interest in actually making.
Instead fans received a Final Fantasy VII movie and a few action games set in the same world. That other content was alright for the fans, but they did not satiate the hunger for a true remake. A decade later the Final Fantasy VII Remake was but a rumor, a meme and a recurring fantasy. Finally at last year’s E3 Square Enix showed another technical demo, using the very same footage from 2005, only this time on PlayStation 4 hardware.
Should You Be Worried?
If it’s a Square Enix RPG, then the answer is yes.
Anybody that is eagerly awaiting Kingdom Hearts 3 and Nier 2 should also be worried. Never count your Square Enix chickens before they hatch. This is a company that set a record for longest game development time with Final Fantasy XII, got close to matching that record with Final Fantasy XIII, and have spent a decade trying to make Final Fantasy XV. They do not make games quickly.
There is some positive news though. The Final Fantasy VII Remake is going to feature action combat similar to Final Fantasy XV, so it can be an easy transition for the company to move their resources from one game to another.
Since this new Final Fantasy VII will release episodically, there is hope it will make its latest release date window, which is somewhere in spring 2017.
Shenmue III
What is It?
It’s the third Shenmue game… And um… that’s all anybody knows.
Should You Be Worried?
Absolutely.
Shenmue III’s story at E3 2015 is a very strange one. It was shown off at Sony’s press conference. However, it did not have a release date, and it wasn’t even fully funded. The reveal was actually a Kickstarter announcement.
Shenmue III quickly became the most heavily funded Kickstarter in history, rocketing past 6.6 million dollars of funding. As it turns out, Shenmue III is actually being partially funded by the fans and partially funded by Sony. Sega, the original producers of the project, are out, but Yu Suzuki, the old Shenmue I and II director is back in charge.
There is no lack of earnestness behind this project. Yu Suzuki had great dreams for the original Shenmue games, tut those were some of the most expensive games ever made and were financial failures. There’s definitely high fan buzz around Shenmue III but nothing has been shown to convince anybody that this game will be out in 2016, 2017 or even 2018. If Shenmue III does not appear at E3 2016 in any form, do not be surprised.