E3 2014: EA Press Conference Previews for 2015

E3 2014 is finally here. This is the most exciting time of year for gamers around the world, as major game announcements and trailers come by the hour. The press conferences the day before the event, however, are always the spotlight stealer.

This year, EA separated itself from its peers and showed off a slew of games, all centered around a central uniting message that came through loud and clear:

Our E3 2015 press conference is going to be awesome and these are the games we’ll be showing there.

The first game shown set the tone for the rest of the presentation. The Star Wars: Battlefront trailer consists of the game’s developers talking about how they were such big fans of Star Wars. There was also some footage shown of the game itself, but all of it was – as described by the text in the corner – “Early In-Engine Footage.” That means this was an example of what the engine is capable of handling and isn’t indicative of gameplay in the slightest. You’ll probably be seeing gameplay footage at E3 2015.

After Dragon Age: Inquisition, we scoot right along to a BioWare trailer showing (once again) devs talking about what big fans they are, this time of the Mass Effect community. The developers discuss how they’ve listened to the fans and are ready to introduce new characters and places. You’ll have to wait until E3 2015 for the characters, but there is a sneak peek of random new locations that may or may not be in the game since they’re marked as a “Conceptual Prototype.” They also introduced a brand new IP that is so new they don’t even have a name for it yet, but they do have some “Conceptual Prototype” landscapes to show you before the trailer ends.

That’s right, BioWare managed to preview two E3 2015 reveals in the same trailer.

I’m sure they’ll have a strong showing next year when they inevitably show off those much talked about new Mass Effect characters and put a name on that new IP.

The press conference comes to a lull period as The Sims 4 footage is shown and EA Sports talks about the minor tweaks in their latest sport titles. Sure EA has to talk about these games, but they’re all coming out this year with defined release dates! Where are the vague trailers that will help set up next year’s E3 lineup? We don’t have to wait long before the next big contender for E3 2015 Game of Show is introduced, Mirror’s Edge 2.

Now the interesting thing about previewing Mirror’s Edge 2 is that it’s hard to tell what stage the game is in thanks to the minimalistic art style. EA has thought ahead though and provided another “Conceptual Footage” tag to make sure we don’t think this game might come out anytime this year. The devs certainly seem excited talking about it in the trailer though, so I’m amped to see it on the E3 2015 show floor.

That’s all we get for an E3 2015 preview as EA decides to show off Battlefield Hardline and sign off with a closed beta announcement so epic it required its own smoke pyros.

I could be bitter that the majority of trailers for EA’s non-sports games were entirely hollow hype machines that literally told us nothing about the game they were attempting to show. I could be horribly disappointed that EA is so desperate to create a buzz that they’ll show “Conceptual Footage” of games that barely even exist like Criterion Games upcoming title. Instead of that, though, I choose to buy into EA’s style of spectacle over even a trace of substance.

E3 2015 is only 365 days away. Let the hype begin.