Electronic Arts will show off “new projects” from a number of studios at its E3 2014 press conference, and among those listed is Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare.
EA’s press conference is set for noon PDT on Monday, and according to a press release, it’ll feature “the first look at the all-new Battlefield Hardline from Visceral Games, the latest from EA SPORTS FIFA 15, Madden NFL 15, EA SPORTS UFC, NHL 15, Dragon Age: Inquisition, The Sims 4 and more. EA will also give fans a behind-the-scenes look on new projects in development from DICE, BioWare, Criterion, and Waystone Games.”
Time for lots of speculation for everyone.
We already know BioWare is actively at work on Mass Effect 4, so it seems strange that if EA intends to share new details on the project, it wouldn’t refer to the title by name — but then again, the next Mass Effect installment is yet “unannounced” in an official capacity, and it’s high time for that to happen. If EA means to show off a new entry in that universe, E3 would be just the boisterous occasion to drop new screens, scenario details, and probably most importantly, an official title. We don’t have one yet, and that might explain why there’s no mention of Mass Effect on the press release.
Then again, recent trends among other publishers suggest that maybe development for new games in big, money-making series is going slow, and perhaps the whole new generation console transition isn’t going quite as well as was hoped. Seems like we’re seeing publishers announcing games that are fairly close to release, or smaller games in big franchises, like Tales from the Borderlands or the Witcher adventure game.
Then again, BioWare has Dragon Age: Inquisition set to drop in October. Depending on Mass Effect’s state of completion, it seems reasonable EA could want to talk about that at E3 for a release in 2015; then again, I wouldn’t be shocked to hear about some sort of side project coming out between Dragon Age and Mass Effect to fill the gap between.
Also among the items mentioned on EA’s list are new games from usually Battlefield dev DICE, Burnout and Need for Speed developer Criterion, and Waystone, the maker of free-to-play MMO Dawngate. We already know DICE is working on Star Wars Battlefront, which also isn’t mentioned by name, and there have been rumblings that Mirror’s Edge 2 could pop up at E3 as well.
Criterion lost about 80 percent of its staff late last year, as around 60 developers moved on to Ghost Games to continue work on Need for Speed titles, as well as co-founders Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry. Before his departure, Ward said Criterion was moving away from racing to work in other genres, so who knows what we might see from the studio. Another Star Wars game feels pretty likely, though.
And as for Waystone — well, who knows.
Oh, and expect some new info on Titanfall as Respawn continues to roll out features that probably should have shipped with the boxed product at launch, like Titan customization features and a new game mode.
You can watch the EA press conference live stream at ea.com/e3. Let us know what you idly speculate EA will announce in the comments.
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