Hello everyone, and welcome back to Colby’s Corner.

Following my usual pattern of discussing all things gay and video games, today we’re going to be sticking to the latter. Starting next week, the biggest event in gaming, E3, will be kicking off, and while Sony’s absence this year will certainly be noticed, there will sure to be many announcements and surprises throughout the main press conferences.

Today, we’ll be going over those press conferences and discussing my predictions and hopes for each of them. One general prediction, someone will bring out a rapper that doesn't want to be there and no journalist cares about. This will likely be Ubisoft. Anywho, without any further ado, let’s jump right into it.

EA Play: Probably nothing relevant will be happening this year at EA Play, we all know that. They’ve scaled back expectations largely, with the event being more of a celebration of the games they have currently, and won’t be filled with big reveals. I’m expecting little from this, save for them trying to make Anthem actually look like a fun game and some interesting Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order content.

Microsoft: Microsoft is an interesting case this year. We know that they have 14 games they’ll be showing off this year, but what those are could be just about anything. Forza is an obvious one, and we’ll likely be seeing Fable and Halo as well. Expect some new IPs to show up along the way.

The highlight of Microsoft’s show will certainly be details on their next generation console(s). How much info that they’ll be doling out is up in the air, but it is an absolute certainty that we will be getting at least some very general info. I expect lots of talk about system power, but not much beyond that. Either way, it will be interesting. Seeing Sony’s response (or lack thereof) will certainly be fun as well. Maybe they drop a State of Play sometime in the week?

Bethesda: I imagine that this year Bethesda’s show will be a bit low-key. We’ll get Doom and Wolfenstein, and beyond that, some DLC for existing games? I don’t think that they have much to show this year, with Elder Scrolls and Starfield already deconfirmed. One big surprise they could roll out would be making Fallout 76 a good game, but I don’t have high hopes.

Ubisoft: I think Ubisoft will be a strong show this year, as they tend to be. While I still miss Aisha Tyler, I expect Watch Dogs 3, some Ghost Recon, Skull and Bones for the 784th time (anytime, sir) and some surprises. Always expect some live-service games updates as well. I’m excited for some new titles that we’ll likely be seeing as well.

Square Enix: Square Enix will be focused largely on the Final Fantasy VII remake and the Avengers project they’re working on. I think we’ll learn some new info on FFVII, such as a possible release year (let’s not even pretend we’re getting a date), but I think Avengers will certainly steal the spotlight. They’ve already announced that the project will finally be unveiled during their conference, and with no info currently available on the project, we’ll likely learn a lot of new information. I’m hoping for an action-adventure style, story-driven game, but only time will tell what we're getting. I’ll say we see it Holiday 2019 or early 2020.

Nintendo: Like the little fanboy I am, I saved my favorite for last. Alright, prepare for weirdly detailed info compared to the others here, let’s jump in.

I think we’ll be getting a lot of information on 2019 titles, with little being shown beyond that. So we’ll definitely be getting Smash info, and if we didn’t learn who the new DLC fighter is, I’d be shocked. A shadow drop of the character isn’t completely out of the question either.Previously announced titles such as Luigi’s Mansion, Fire Emblem and Mario Maker are sure to be present. I don’t expect any news from Metroid Prime 4, and in light of the direct, probably just Treehouse content for Pokémon. A Cadence of Hyrule shadow drop is also a likely candidate.

What everyone is most excited to see is literally anything regarding Animal Crossing. Fans have been waiting wildly impatiently for that one, and I expect a huge amount of info to be dropped. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the focus of the Direct and the booth. However, Nintendo is always one for surprises, so I’d expect to see at least 1 or 2 big reveals we don't see coming at all. I'd love to hear news on some sort of GameCube virtual console, but let's be real, we'd be lucky to get SNES titles. A good Paper Mario game, please?

Those are my predictions for E3 this year. I don't expect anything earth-shattering, but I think we'll get lots of exciting new reveals we didn't see coming. Microsoft has a huge opportunity here to push their new console with Sony out of the way, so whether or not they manage to capitalize on that is up to them. Make sure to drop your predictions in the comments below, and I'll see you all next time.