Game Bites: E3 Previews And NetherRealm’s Injustice 2 Mobile Pride Problem
Hello, Nerd Caliber fans, and welcome back to Game Bites, your weekly video game roundup. It’s June and thus Pride Month, so happy Pride to all. This week we are talking about lots of E3 news, another scandal in the world of video games and Guerrilla Collective’s presentation. E3 starts next week and a lot of news has dropped this week including the lineup for all attending companies.
As we know, E3 starts on Saturday the 12th and the first presentation is going to be a pre-show at 1 p.m. EDT/10 a.m. PDT from the hosts of E3. After that we start off with Ubisoft Forward at 3 p.m. EDT/12 p.m. Ubisoft will have a pre show before then talking about updates for current games like For Honor and The Crew 2. Some of the things we know Ubisoft will be featuring in their presentation is Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Far Cry 6 and some upcoming film and television projects.
On Sunday the 13th we have a bunch of shows starting with The PC Gaming Show at 11:45 am EDT/ 8:45 a.m. PDT. After that is the Xbox & Bethesda Showcase at 1 p.m. EDT/10 a.m. PDT. We aren’t sure what that merger is going to show off yet, but you can watch it on Twitch, YouTube, Twitter or Facebook live. After Xbox we get Square Enix Presents at 3:15 p.m. EDT/ 12:15 PDT. Square Enix’s presentation will be 40 minute long and it will have at least one new game and talk about updates for Marvel’s Avengers and a few other games. The PC Gaming Show will also start right after Square Enix wraps up. There is no official time as of yet for it.
The schedule for Monday the 14th is going to have presentations from Capcom, Mythical Games, Razer and some indie developers. Capcom is the big presentation for the day, currently with no exact start time but we can expect more Monster Hunter Rise updates during it. The other developers will also have presentations but have yet to announce when as well.
Tuesday the 15th, the last day of E3, is a bit of a different setup since Nintendo will hold its event that day. For those who have attended or watched previous E3s, it has always been a given that Nintendo goes first in presentations so this is already a major change. Nintendo will hold a 40 minute direct followed by a 3 hour Treehouse presentation that will start at 12 p.m. EDT/ 9 a.m. PDT. We aren’t sure what Nintendo will announce until the day of. Bandai Namco will also have a showcase after Nintendo but the start time is also unknown.
Sony and EA are among the companies that will not be attending E3 this year due to it being digital. EA is going to have a presentation later on in the month on the 22nd. All E3 footage will be streamed and free to watch but they do have fan verification which will give you free access to forums, virtual lounges and booths during the events that you can participate in.
In terms of news outside of E3, We had a recent controversy from NetherRealm, the makers of the Injustice 2 Mobile game. For Pride Month, the developers made a challenge called “Love Conquers All” in which players teamed up with Harley Quinn to take down Poison Ivy. This came as a shock to many fans since Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are canonically a queer couple. There was outrage as this was specifically the Pride event for the game and while there was a written apology, the event has yet to be taken down or replaced as of this article.
Guerilla Collective showcased some of their indie games on the 5th. The second part of their showcase will be on the 12th which, when combined with part one, will highlight more than 80 indie games coming to multiple platforms. The first showcase also had an added segment after the presentations called “Black Voices in Gaming” which highlighted some of the POC game developers and gave an in depth look at their gaming backgrounds and stories.
In terms of new releases we had a few titles come out in June. On the 1st we had Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection (PS4, Xbox One, PC), Operation: Tango (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, PC), Stonefly (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC), The Elder Scrolls Online: Gates of Oblivion (Stadia, PC), World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic (PC) and Wreckfest (PS5). On the 3rd we had Pro Cycling Manager 2021 (PC) and Tour de France 2021 (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, PC). We had five games on the 4th; Evergate (PS5), Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 (PS4, Xbox One, PC), The Last Kids on Earth and the Staff of Doom (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) and The Persistence (PS5, Xbox Series X/S). The last game released this week we’ll note was Mighty Goose (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)
As always, happy gaming this week and don’t forget to look forward to next week’s big news as we countdown the days until E3.
