Each and every year, E3 offers up a truckload of new game announcements, gameplay trailers, and release dates that send hype levels through the roof for the next 12 months. It’s one of the most exciting weeks in the industry calendar, but for some games, an appearance at E3 is more important than simply bolstering anticipation for their eventual release.
E3 is a platform to put games back on the map. Despite developers’ best efforts to stick to a schedule and release games by set dates, sometimes things happen. Developers leave, visions don’t come to fruition, and performance problems can send games into development hell, and we won’t hear anything from them for years.
For these four games, E3 2021 is the perfect opportunity to remind players that they are, in fact, coming. Perhaps the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S’ enhanced horsepower is enough for developers’ to fully realize their true vision, or staffing issues have been revolved. Or perhaps Miyamoto has finally decided he doesn’t want to toy with my heart anymore (I hope so. Whatever the reason, here are 4 games we’ve love to see show back up and steal the limelight at E3 2021.
WiLD
Honestly, we’re at the point of completely discounting WiLD as mere vaporware and losing any hope of it ever releasing. The game has been knocking around since 2014, and despite a handful of images released back in April 2020, there haven’t been many promising signs of life since.
Even more damning for WiLD, its lead designer Michel Ancel announced his departure from the industry in September 2020. Despite Ancel claiming that both WiLD and Beyond Good & Evil 2 are in good hands, after seven years in development, it’s understandable some fans have concerns over the former.
Exactly what the cause was for the extended development time remains to be seen, and with no gameplay trailers or in-depth demos in six years, there’s ample reason to wonder exactly what the current state of the game is.
Whether or not we see it show up at E3 2021 will largely depend on whether or not Sony choose to do a showcase in or around the industry event’s weeklong duration. As the game is to be published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, it seems this is the most likely place the game would show up.
Perhaps Wild Sheep Studio just needed all the extra horsepower and technical capabilities of the PS5 to realize its true vision for WiLD. We hope so, as it’s had us intrigued ever since its first trailer all those years ago.
Pikmin 4
Miyamoto has been toying with my heart for a solid six years now. All the way back in September 2015, Miyamoto stated Pikmin was “in development and very close to completion,” when talking to Eurogamer.
The following year, Miyamoto shared with Game Rant (via Nintendo Life) that Pikmin 4 was still being worked on, and a few months after that Hey! Pikmin released on 3DS. Everyone was confused. Was this Pikmin 4? And if not, what happened to the next numbered title in the series?
In 2017, Miyamoto once again mentioned that Pikmin 4 was “progressing” but he didn’t share any other details.
Now almost four years later, we’ve still not heard a word about its release. Pikmin 3 Deluxe’s release on Switch last year appears to have laid the foundations for a new release in the series, but with so many massive games on the horizon — including Breath of the Wild 2, Bayonetta 3 and Metroid Prime 4 for the Switch — there’s only so long Pikmin will remain relevant and at the forefront of fans’ minds.
Please, Miyamoto, now’s the time to put us Pikmin fans out of our misery. We’ve hoovered up all that Deluxe goodness, but it’s time for a new adventure with Olimar and his colorful pals.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2
When you read about the story of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines’ release, it almost comes as no surprise that its sequel should be facing a similar tumultuous development cycle.
While the original title’s woes stemmed from its choice of the Source engine which resulted in a literal decade-long process of creating fixes for all of its performance problems, Bloodlines 2’s comes instead from a huge overhaul of the development team.
It all started with the return of Brian Mitsoda — the original game’s lead writer — when Paradox Interactive obtained the rights and announced that a sequel was on the way in March 2019. However, just under 18 months later, Mitsoda was laid off and his entire team was confirmed to no longer be working on the game as part of “organizational changes.”
That wasn’t the end of the heads on the chopping block, however, as Paradox Interactive announced in February 2021, that the entire development team at Hardsuit Labs’ would no longer be working on the title and a new developer would take their place. At the same time, Paradox confirmed that the game would no longer hit its 2021 release window, but a new one wasn’t provided.
Given the complete change of development team, a quick trailer or gameplay demo would certainly go a ways in alleviating some fans’ concerns regarding the state of Bloodlines 2. Even a confirmation of the new team that’s taken control of the development process would be nice, but whether or not we do actually see or hear anything of the game in the remainder of this year — let alone E3 — remains to be seen.
Beyond Good & Evil 2
Beyond Good & Evil 2 seemed to be off to a great start when it was first properly revealed with a trailer back at E3 2017, but since then things have also gone a little quiet.
Alongside Ancel’s departure as the game’s director — who some of the development team claim was partly responsible for the game’s “development hell” — the most recent Ubisoft earnings call simply mentioned the game was “progressing well” but had no further information to share on it at that time.
Given it’s been a few years since we saw anything from Beyond Good & Evil 2, it doesn’t bode well for the title. Those members of the development team who lodged complains regarding Ancel’s leadership claimed it resulted in numerous restarts and scrapped ideas, and with a new director coming in, the vision and design of the game are sure to have changed from Ancel’s.
It’s not likely fans will get a release date or even a vertical slice of gameplay, but an in-engine trailer or just a reminder that the game is still progressing in development would be enough to get fans suitably re-hyped for the game, and alleviate any fears that Ancel’s departure have thrown the game way off-course.
About the author
