EA gave tiny, disappointing peeks at the next-gen Dragon Age and Battlefield
Welp
Though the next generation of consoles is coming in a few months, Electronic Arts did not use their 'EA Play Live' notE3 pressblast to reveal a slew of shiny new games. No Battlefield 6 (or 0, or -4, or however this works), no Dragon Age 4, no Need For Speed: Pure Gasping For A Bit Of The Ol' Zoomy Stuff, no nothing. Buuut they did show a tiny hint of Dragon Age 4, some shiny cars, and a tech demo that may become part of the next Battlefield. Bit disappointing.
"Generation shifts are an opportunity to push beyond the boundaries of gaming as we know it today, and this time is no different," EA chief studios officer Laura Miele said. "Our studios are taking their crazy ambitious ideas and making them real."
So Burnout (and sometimes NFS) devs Criterion are making some shiny cars. BioWare are working on something with a big tree and a whole lot of red lyrium. The next Battlefield might have a whole lot of good-lookin' fellas scampering around the battlefield at once and some fancy, ahem, 'Levelution'. And Star Wars: Squadrons devs Motive are also making, er, is that like Garry's Mod?
EA have previously suggested that the next Battlefield would come in 2021 but I thought they might at least confirm a name or setting. You might guess from the models in that snippet of tech demo but it is just a tech demo. And mercy knows EA aren't unwilling to cancel or rescope games even after a proper public showing.
Dragon Age 4 has seemed to always be in the far distance (especially given they've supposedly already started over) but I thought they might at least reaffirm that it's coming. They didn't even refer to it by name. I wouldn't read too much into those three landscapes either. They showed as much of 'the game' as they did someone typing and moving their mouse.
It's a damp squib of a show this year from EA, and not what I expected. Even the closing surprise announcement of Skate 4 didn't seem much further along than the idea that it'd be nice to do one (I agree, it would). Consoles aren't my business but it might seem worrying that one of the main publishers are apparently so far away from bringing games to next-gen systems. Sony's show wasn't much better either. Microsoft have a stream of their own next-gen games coming up in July so maybe they'll have some good stuff to show.
Whatever you call it, hit our E3 2020 tag for more from this summer's blast of gaming announcements, trailers, and miscellaneous marketing. Check out the PC games at the PlayStation 5 show, everything at the PC Gaming Show, and all the trailers from the Xbox showcase, for starters.