Square Enix
Regardless of whether you’re a Final Fantasy fan or not, there was a lot to love during Square Enix’s presser. If you’ve enjoyed your fair share of the popular series, there are not one, but three incoming remastered Final Fantasy titles set to release over the coming year and that’s absolutely fantastic. And if you’re not a huge fan of Final Fantasy, Square Enix made sure to cover their bases with a healthy serving of other titles, including the very first look at the highly anticipated Marvel’s Avengers game and their big reveal of Outriders. On top of everything we actually got to see, their presentation was probably the most aesthetically appealing of the bunch and was executed with style. It was tasteful, colourful, and at the end, we had a full gallery of paintings for each of the announcements made to signify the show was over. Where they lose marks here though is for showing off such a long gameplay demo of the Final Fantasy VII remake, more than twenty minutes long, when the entire conference was less than an hour and a half. While it’s fantastic to get such an in-depth look at a game that many are happy to see, that’s almost a third for one game. Oh, and is anyone really going to listen to the Square Enix music app they announced? Yeah, me neither. At the end of it all though, hats off to them for an astronomically better E3 performance than last year.
Letter Grade: B+
Nintendo
It’s no secret that Nintendo is sometimes overlooked and underestimated when compared to its competition in Sony and Microsoft however Nintendo took the opportunity at E3 to let everyone who doubts them know that they are indeed a force to be reckoned with. Their entire press conference was full of entertaining announcements and though there were a lot of ports announced, we can’t really complain about how they’ve worked on beefing up their lineup for the Switch. Maybe there weren’t a whole bunch of surprises throughout the presser but one thing’s for sure, they closed out E3 with a bang. Despite all of the leaks prior to E3 this year Nintendo kept the lid on the biggest unveiling of not only their press conference but all of the others as well, with none other than a Breath of the Wild sequel. Ignoring the fact that we didn’t even receive a general release window for it, this announcement came out of left field and left everyone feeling great. Their Nintendo Direct at E3 was short, sweet, and completely action-packed. At the end of it all, can we really ask for anything more?
Letter Grade: A
Microsoft
Microsoft, much like previous years, took a ‘firing on all fronts’ type of approach to their press conference. Though this year may have been a little too similar in presentation to past years, they’ve decided to stick to a format that works for them and which offers a very well-rounded show. Not only were there a ton of world premiere trailers, but the presser was chock-full of fun and exciting content from beginning to end. They showcased some sweet AAA titles, like Halo Infinite…finally, as well as Cyberpunk 2077 which came complete with some major Keanu Reeves news and a release date this coming spring. They revealed some new indie titles. In total, they revealed a whopping 60 some games! They added more value to being a Game Pass subscriber with the addition of PC games. And taking a page from last year’s playbook, they added to their collection of developers. Despite the disappointment that a lot of the release dates are set for next year and their focus seemed to really be on the future, it’s always nice to see a bit of everything. With that said, it feels like a missed opportunity on their part to not drop a massive teaser trailer for Project Scarlett. There’s no doubt it’s going to be wicked powerful and it sounds absolutely fantastic from what they did announce about it, but we still don’t know what it’s going to look like. Are we really going to have to wait until next E3? Fingers crossed that isn’t the case.
Letter Grade: A
The Verdict
Though Nintendo put on a fantastic show and had the biggest surprise of the year, Microsoft is the winner of E3 2019 by a small margin. Unlike the last couple of years when there’s a clear winner, Microsoft takes the victory here because of the sheer volume of announcements alone. Their entire hour and a half conference was packed with exactly what E3 is all about: big game reveals, release date announcements and new hype-inducing trailers. Additionally, the pacing of their show felt the most well-rounded of the bunch, and being able to hold everyone’s attention the entire time is worth applauding.
Who do you think won E3 2019? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!