EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
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As the three hour advertising event of a lifetime approaches, the always lovely shinobi602 and I decided to put together a running commentary on announcement rumours, what is/isn't likely, and keep it updated as the event approaches.
Update 8: Dying Light and Broke Age confirmed.
Update 7: The Division and South Park: The Stick of Truth confirmed.
Update 6: Thief confirmed.
Update 5: Quantum Break confirmed.
Update 4: Reggie teases Nintendo's presence, a first for the publisher.
Update 3: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt confirmed.
Update 2: Titanfall confirmed.
Update 1: Thread go go. First VGX tease tonight during the Xbox One launch countdown.
VGX 2013 is this year's rendition of what was formally known as the Spike Video Game Awards, or VGAs for short. Hosted by Geoff Keighley and the rest of the GameTrailers mob, the VGA/VGX event is known for its awkward celebrity guests, weird award handouts, obnoxious advertising, and...video games announcements.
"I hate the VGAs", I hear your say. That may be true, but this year promises to be a bit different. Due to annual decreases in viewers, Spike/GameTrailers have revised the event's structure, hence the rename to VGX, to something that should hopefully be more appealing to you and I. Put it this way: previous years, when it was called the VGAs, structured the event as a typical Hollywood-style awards ceremony. That meant a live stage event, with an audience, celebrity/band appearances, award handouts, and so on, and ran for about an hour and a half. It was streamed almost exclusively on SpikeTV in America, and until last year was a bit difficult to watch online. Previously, in order to watch the event, you had to find someone UStreaming the event from the US, or something like that, while Spike producers tried to shut channels down. Last year was the first official stream, across Xbox Live.
This year the event, now named VGX, has been restructured into a pre-recorded studio stream. Gone are the stage, the audience, the celebrity cameos, and Hollywood presentation (we hope). Instead of being an awards ceremony it's more like a...awards stream? Game event? I don't know. The focus has apparently shifted towards games themselves, spending more time on video game content, including developer interviews, extended gameplay sessions, and so on. VGX this year will run around three hours, twice that of previous years, and not screen at the same time on SpikeTV (I don't think?). The Spike broadcast will instead be a highlights recap later on. The event itself is an internet stream extravaganza.
So yeah. Previous years = 1.5 hour Hollywood award ceremony, live, focused on TV. This year = 3 hour pre-recorded game stream, internet first, TV later.
To get an idea of the caliber of games revealed and new trailers shown at the show, let’s look at history. Some notable world premiers and trailers in the past included:
- 2007:
Reveals: Borderlands, GT5 Prologue, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 - 2009:
Reveals: Batman: Arkham City, Halo: Reach, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, UFC 2010 Undisputed - 2010:
Reveals: Mass Effect 3, Prototype 2, Insane (Guillermo del Toro), Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
New Trailers: Mortal Kombat trailer featuring Kratos, Resistance 3, Portal 2, SSX: Deadly Descents, Forza 4, Batman: Arkham City, first Uncharted 3 trailer - 2011:
Reveals: Rainbow Six: Patriots, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Bioshock Infinite, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, The Last of Us, Fortnite, The Amazing Spiderman, Command & Conquer: Generals 2
New Trailers: Hitman: Absolution, Mass Effect 3 - 2012:
Reveals: Dark Souls 2, MGSV: The Phantom Pain
New trailers: The Last of Us, Gears of War: Judgement, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Castlevania: LoS 2, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, AC3: The Tyranny of King Washington, Halo 4: Spartan Ops
- What: Successor to Bethesda Game Studios' Fallout 3, and Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas. Bethesda Game Studios' next title from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
- Last Seen: Unannounced.
- Why? An OHIM trademark for Fallout 4 was filed recently by Bethesda Softworks LLC. Skyrim was released back in November 2011. If the company is on schedule for its pattern of releases, Fallout 4 in ~November 2014 would make sense, and follow in the footsteps of Skyrim's VGA reveal.
2002 May - Morrowind
2006 Mar - Oblivion
2008 Oct - Fallout 3
2011 Nov - Skyrim
2014 Nov - Fallout 4 - Media: Nope.
- What: Something, or somethings, from Nintendo. Smash? Zelda? Wii Fit U2?
- Last Seen: Reggie teasing on GameTrailers.
- Why? Speaking to Geoff on a GameTrailers stream, Reggie stated in regards to Nintendo appearing at the VGX: "We may be making an appearance. We may be doing something special. We'll see." Traditionally absent, this would be Nintendo's first showing of anything at VGX/VGA.
- Media: Not yet, my pretties.
- What: Remedy's next big game, following 2011's Alan Wake, exclusive to Xbox One.
- Last Seen: Revealed at Microsoft's pre-E3 2013 press conference, followed by a second reveal at E3 2013. Nothing since.
- Why? Teased by Phil Spencer in an interview with Polygon Quote unquote; "Maybe VGX would be a good place for that."
- Media: Pre-E3 2013 Teaser | E3 2013 Trailer
- What: BioWare Montreal's debut game, and next mainline entry in the Mass Effect series.
- Last Seen: Teased during N7 Day via off-screen concept art tweets.
- Why? On top of the unexpected and fairly significant concept art and game design hints of the new game just 2 weeks ago via Twitter, StickSkills apparently has learned that the new Mass Effect will indeed be revealed at the VGX next month. This isn't too surprising. BioWare first unveiled Mass Effect 3 at the 2010 VGAs, and also released a new trailer for ME3 at the 2011 VGAs. A schedule of VGX announcement, Q1/Q2 2014 magazines, E3 2014 reveal, early 2015 release would also fit the series' history.
0 months, Oct 2005 - Mass Effect announced.
+25 months, Nov 2007 - Mass Effect released.
+16 months, Mar 2009 - Mass Effect 2 announced.
+10 months, Jan 2010 - Mass Effect 2 released.
+11 months, Dec 2010 - Mass Effect 3 announced.
+15 months, Mar 2012 - Mass Effect 3 released.
+21 months, Dec 2013 - Mass Effect 4 announced.
+15 months, Mar 2015 - Mass Effect 4 released. - Media: Teaser images
- What: Xbox One / PlayStation 4 port of 2013's Tomb Raider for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, titled "Definitive Edition", likely containing all multiplayer DLC and improved visual effects.
- Last Seen: Unannounced. Kinda.
- Why: Square-Enix PR had this to say to an Amazon listing on a PS4/Xbox One listing of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition:
Tomb Raider on PC had many graphical effects that would make good use of next generation hardware, including tessellation, TressFX hair, detailed ambient occlusions, soft shadows, and more. Finally, something called Lara Croft: Reflections has been recently trademarked. - Media: Not from a next-gen build. But you can Google PC shots!
- What: Fifth major Uncharted game, fourth on a home console, currently without a numerical header and subtitle. For PlayStation 4.
- Last Seen: Teaser trailer during Sony's SpikeTV PlayStation 4 launch extravaganza.
- Why? With a teaser shown this early, a VGX reveal would be a logical follow-up and a major title from Sony. Naughty Dog is currently on an average of one new game every two years. The Last of Us was June 2013, so it's possible an Uncharted 4 reveal will wait until E3 2014 or beyond.
- Meida: Uncharted 4 Teaser
- What: PlayStation 4 exclusive from Sony Santa Monica, specifically the team behind God of War. New IP.
- Last Seen: Unannounced.
- Why? Rob Davis, designer working on the game, tweeted that he hopes the game will be shown soon. That's about it. Santa Monica's last significant game was God of War: Ascension in March 2013. The studio has multiple development teams, including one likely related to this project with Battlestar Galactica writer Michael Angeli, who has been working there for around two and a half years.
- Media: Nada.
- What: Ready At Dawn's The Order: 1886, exclusive to PlayStation 4.
- Last Seen: Recently in magazines.
- Why? With private demos, publicity for The Order: 1886 has been creeping along slowly since E3 2013. As more become aware of the project, VGX would be an ideal time to fully showcase the game.
- Media: E3 2013 Trailer
- What: Halo on Xbox One, sequel to 343's Halo 4 on Xbox 360 (2012)
- Last Seen: Debuted at E3 2013
- Why? Though there is no definite indication of something from the game being here, Halo's no stranger to the VGAs (VGX). Bungie debuted the first footage of Halo: Reach at the 2009 VGAs, as well as the first look at Halo 4: Spartan Ops. Given it's coming out next year, it wouldn't be surprising at all to debut the first real in-engine footage of it while saving some meaty gameplay for E3 2014.
- Media: E3 trailer
- What: New AAA shooter
- Last Seen: Not seen
- Why? This one's more speculation than rumor, but we know they're working on a new AAA shooter. They have a brand new engine to show off to the world with Unreal Engine 4. They've supposedly been working on this game for a while, and a big reveal at VGX makes plenty of sense. Epic has a habit of making games out of tech demos they've shown in the past, with the most recent being Gears of War. Could the Infiltrator demo shown earlier this year become the new game they're talking about?
- Media: Zilch
- What: New first party AAA shooter by Microsoft
- Last Seen: Debuted at E3 2013
- Why? Microsoft formed Black Tusk Studios over a year ago, when it was previously Microsoft Vancouver, so they were working on this new game before that. It was a nice surprise at E3. It didn't tell us much though, and Phil Spencer recently said they'll have some things to show at the VGX. Possible new trailer? Wouldn't be surprising.
- Media: E3 trailer
- What: Deus Ex 4, successor to Deus Ex: Human Revolution, developed by Eidos Montreal, and part of the umbrella "Deus Ex Universe".
- Last Seen: Teaser art revealed by Eidos Montreal back in October.
- Why? Due to Tomb Raider, Square-Enix will have a presence at VGX. Eidos Montreal's next game, Thief, is due out in February (and would be out already if not for delays). A very large studio, Montreal has long been rumoured to have three games in development: Thief, Deus Ex, and a new IP. Kotaku reported rumours that the studio scrapped its third game, and if true it's likely the staff were moved onto Deus Ex 4. With Human Revolution over two years old, VGX would be the ideal time to reveal the new game, followed by E3 2014 footage.
- Media: Deus Ex Universe blog post
