EA’s Press Conference kicked off with a look at Battlefield V, DICE’s new shooter arriving this October. Following the tradition of the Battlefield franchise, environments and buildings are full destructible, with the company showing tanks driving through buildings, with it later reduced to rubble. Customization for characters was also touched up but not mentioned in great detail.
Perhaps one of the biggest announcements was that Battlefiled V would feature a new battle royale mode, following the footsteps of Battlefield’s competitior Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. More information regarding the game’s story titled Nordly’s War Story will be announced during Microsoft’s Press Conference tomorrow.
Afterwards, FIFA 19 took the stage where they announced that the UEFA Champions League would be joining the game’s several game modes at launch. They brought the actual UEFA trophy with them to the show. While not much else about the game was announced, they mentioned that the “Quality bar in gameplay was raised once again this year”. We should see more about FIFA 19 in the coming weeks.
FIFA 18 then had the spotlight, with a free trial announced for the Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC versions of the game. No end date for the trial has been announced, but players can enjoy the game for a limited time, today.
After this, EA announced a new Cloud service which enables gamers to play their “favorite titles” across a wide variety of platforms. No specific details were announced during the conference, but footage showed gamers playing games like FIFA 17 on the Xbox 360 and mobile devices.the company then announced Origin Access Premiere, a service for PC planned to bring unlimited access to FIFA 19 Battlefield V, Anthem, and, for the first time in years, Madden NFL 19. The service will act similarly to Xbox Live’s Game Pass, but pricing has yet to be announced.
Vince Zampella got some air time to announce that his studio, Respawn Entertainment, is developing a new Star Wars title named Star Jedi: The Fallen Order. Not much is known about the game besides it will be a dark and edgy experience with the game’s story taking place between Star Wars Ep. 3 and Ep 4. Movies. Afterwards, Battlefront II’s logo appeared on stage with announcements of a new content coming to the game later this year. New characters including General Grevious, Obiwan, Count Doku, and Anakin Skywalker are releasing along with a new Starfighter mode and new level. Release dates for this content has yet to be announced.
EA took some time to announce a new program called EA Originals. This program is intended to give Independent developers the resources and materials required to make a successful game. The first game announced for this program was Josef Fares’ A Way Out, released earlier this year. The second game for the program is a new title called Sea of Solitude. This is a unique game which hones in on the feeling of loneliness, but encapsulating on a player who transformed into a monster who is on a quest to become human again. Sea of Solitude launches early 2019 for Xbox One and Playstation 4.
Unravel’s creator took the stage to announce Unravel two, a new addition to EA’s Originals lineup. Featuring our old friend “Yarny”, with another “Yarny” friend joining the game. This introduces a new co-operative mode, which ties the players together with a single strand of string. It looks graphically pleasing, with lots of detail added into the game’s Terrain and landscapes. The best part of this announcement? It releases for Xbox One and Playstation 4 today.
In a suprise announcement, a new, competitive Command & Conquer game is headed to mobile devices titled Command & Conquer: Rivals. The game’s Pre-Alpha is available for Android devices now, with a full release date not mentioned at this time. It appears to be designed for quick 10-minute battles, with the objective of taking over your opponent’s base on a small space of land.
EA ended their press conference with a great look at Bioware’s Anthem. A trailer does it more justice (which we attached below for your viewing pleasure) but we got a look at Anthem’s combat system. Fans also got a look at Anthems customization options, showing off the Javelin’s different designs, including some from Bioware’s major franchises Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
Finally, Bioware’s Casey Hudson announced that Anthem would arrive on PC, Xbox One, and Playstation 4 on February 22nd, 2018.
Madden NFL 19 and NBA Live 19 also received trailers, with NBA receiving a release date of September 7th.
Overall, EA played it safe today, not announcing a bunch of new announcements, but rather, extrapolating on already announced titles. They appear to have a solid lineup of titles from Battlefield V to Anthem, as well as their entire lineup of sports titles. It will take a lot of fine-tuning to get their customers to trust them again, especially after the whole Star Wars: Battlefront II debacle with micro-transactions and loot boxes.
