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Electronic Arts E3 Review/Highlights

Electronic Arts started their conference putting out the fires they started. For every game they announced, they also announced there weren’t any loot boxes. The rest of the conference was dedicated to some solid game presentations.

Anthem (Feb 22nd, 2019):

  • EA’s big competitor against Destiny
  • The game is a multiplayer, open-world game with an integrated storyline.
  • You can play the game solo
  • The game setting looks like a combination of Monster Hunter and Destiny. The robots look like Titans from Titanfall

https://gaming.youtube.com/watch?v=9TrdCtCkghg

Battlefield V:

  • WW2 setting FPS. It’s like we are going back in time because nobody can do a good future FPS except for Respawn Entertainment
  • Still heavily team and objective focused
  • Battle Royale mode, Grand Operations (multiple gameplay modes throughout the game)

EA’s Cloud Service Gaming

  • No release date but it’ll be for multiple devices
  • If you’re interested in hearing more, read my Friday article

Star Wars Battlefront 2:

  • They admitted they ruined fumbled the game
  • Solo DLC content which will definitely not bring people back
  • New Starfighter, multiplayer modes might bring people back
  • Clone Wars DLC characters –
    • Grievous
    • Obi-Wan
    • Count Dooku
    • Anakin Skywalker

Unravel 2 

  • Co-op platformer
  • Out now

Sports Games:

  • FIFA, NBA LIVE, Madden
  • I don’t play sports games

Respawn:

  • Working on a new Star Wars game: Jedi Fallen Order (Holiday 2019)
    • Takes place between Episode 3 and 4
    • Play as a Jedi which is great! Hopefully, it won’t be first person
    • No trailer, images, or gameplay shown
  • Respawn previously made the Titanfalls series but was acquired by EA earlier this year

Ubisoft defends itself from Vivendi and why its important

Despite creating amazing games and long-lasting franchises, you would be surprised to hear Ubisoft was trying to avoid a hostile takeover of their company for several years from Vivendi. Vivendi is a French multimedia company. They are active in music, television, film, and video games. They were the previous owners of the most shares for Blizzard Entertainment (World of Warcraft, OverWatch) before they became Activision Blizzard. Vivendi began to purchase shares of Gameloft and Ubisoft to own the companies. CEO of Ubisoft, Yves Guillemot and Michel Guillemot, viewed their acquirement as a hostile takeover and worked together to prevent Vivendi from purchasing more stocks.

What do Shareholders do?

Investors can purchase a majority of shares than others to have influence on the Board of Directors (BoD). The Board of Directors vote to determine which direction a company should move and they represent the shareholders. Depending on how much a person invests into shares determine the amount of power within their votes. Vivendi attempt to buy more shares was to own Ubisoft just like they bought most of the shares for Gameloft. Vivendi denied the accusations on December 2016. They had owned 27.5% prior to the current news. France laws states if a person owns more than 30%, they are obligated to offer to buy the company.

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Tencent’s portfolio in 2014

Yves worked with individuals to prevent Vivendi from purchasing more shares. Vivendi is now selling its 27% shares for 2 billion euros. Ubisoft and the Guillemot Brothers C.E. (Representative company of Ubisoft‘s founders Guillemot family) will acquire 15% of Vivendi‘s shares.  Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan — an independent organization that administers pensions for about 318,000 teachers in Canada’s most populous province- and Tencent (League of Legends, PUBG China), a Chinese conglomerate will purchase the 3.4% and 5% of the remaining stock but won’t have seat on the BoD. The rest will be sold through accelerated book building.

Why is this important?

The Board of Directors have huge influence on companies but they may not follow the same views as the CEO or how people want the company to act. Their biggest focus is on the companies to earn as much money as possible. With Ubisoft owning most of the shares and already setting plans for 2018 – 2020, they can choose their own business practice. Shareholders won’t have the influence to force Ubisoft to use “dirty” business strategies such as releasing more DLC, releasing unpolished games or creating more mobile games. We want gaming companies to choose their own business goals without compromising their principles because of the shareholders.

Sources:

Global News Wire

Polygon

Overclock

Invenstopedia 2

 

Microsoft changes E3 Prescence

E3 is coming and guest passes are finally out for a general audience to purchase. However, more gaming companies are stepping away from E3 to host their own events. Microsoft has announced that they will not have a dedicated booth at the LA Convention center. Instead, their E3 focus will be held in Microsoft Theater. It will be a separate venue: “a new booth completely dedicated to Mixer, where you can play, stream and interact with games and catch the latest E3 news live throughout the entire week.” The venue will be X-Box focused and have hands-on demos. What will be shown has still not been revealed or leak. Currently, the Xbox One’s Console total sales are $35 million. The PlayStation 4 has sold $70 million and the Switch is almost $10 million since its launch last year. Whether Xbox can surpass the PS4 remains unlikely for this generation. Maybe this E3, Microsoft will showcase exclusives that don’t disappoint longtime fans.

Schedule for their Stream:

Microsoft’s E3 part will begin on Monday, June 10th at 1pm.

Sources:

Polygon

 

Nintendo Switch 5.0 Update notes

While there are not huge features added to Patch 5.0 for the Switch, there are new features and fixes that are important for the system.

  • Playtime reset bug has been fixed. Many people who noticed that after a year’s worth of playtime on their games, the timer would state how many days since last played rather than how many hours played. Nintendo of America acknowledges it as an error before the fix.
  • You can now add friends through Facebook and Twitter. A useful feature that most the PS4 and the Xbox One have. It makes adding friends more convenient rather than adding them via codes.
  • Parents control have been changed. Instead of using a number pad, your parental control is done via the controller for privacy.
  • Purchasing and downloading games from your PC to the Nintendo Switch will start faster.

Sources:

ResetEra – Nintendo Playtime shifts

Nintendo 5.0 Patch