The missing games of E3 2019

E3 2019 has already been an interesting show, with many fun surprises, but it’s also a year that feels a bit empty in general. Sony isn’t at E3 in any capacity, and many big games won’t be shown again until next year, closer to the launch of the next-generation systems.

That means a lot of big titles are sitting this year out, so let’s take a look at some of the games you might have been looking for during the many press conferences of the past few days to see what may be happening with these titles.

Beyond Good and Evil 2

Beyond Good and Evil 2 had a bit of a rough ride at E3 last year after going through a controversy about the amount Ubisoft was paying for work it was planning on using in the game, and this year the development team said that the game wouldn’t be at E3 in an official blog post.

“This year, as we are focusing on core development milestones, we will not be attending E3 2019,” the developers explained. “We will, however, continue our commitment to the Space Monkey Program and keep you updated on the game’s development and how we’re building the world of Beyond Good and Evil 2.”

Sony games like, as a whole thing

Sony didn’t have any kind of official presence at E3 2019, which meant that many big games like The Last of Us 2 and Ghost of Tsushima were missing from the show. There wasn’t any kind of off-site briefing or even new information given about any of Sony’s games, which means that the company effectively didn’t have any counter-programming to try to compete with Nintendo or Microsoft.

Whether or not this matters is a bigger question, but it definitely made E3 feel a little empty compared to previous years. This is the first time in E3’s 24-year history that Sony didn’t have any kind of booth or event at the show, and it definitely feels strange.

Bayonetta 3

The last, and only, time we saw anything about Bayonetta 3 was a brief teaser back in 2017 that consisted of a logo and the number three.

Nintendo has never been shy about keeping a game behind the curtain until it’s ready to show it off, and that seems to be the case here. On the other hand, we did get the announcement of a sequel to Breath of the Wild, so it all worked out.

Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6

Bethesda’s Todd Howard warned fans that neither game would be at E3 this year, so this wasn’t much of a surprise. It’s likely that both games are headed for next-generation consoles, so it makes sense that Bethesda may be waiting until next year to share more details about the games.

Gears Tactics

Gears Tactics is a turn-based strategy game set in the world of Gears of War that was announced last year, but thus far hasn’t been mentioned by Microsoft at all at E3. We saw Gears 5 gameplay and some footage of Gears Pop!, which is an inexeplicable mobile game that melds the characters of Gears of War with the design of Funko Pops, but no Gears Tactics.

Skull & Bones

Skull & Bones is Ubisoft’s open-world game of piracy, and the publisher recently announced that it has been delayed into 2020. This was after the initial delay to 2019, in fact. So, um, maybe development is hitting some snags?

The official account hasn’t tweeted since announcing the delay. It’s always possible that the game is being reworked for next year’s next-generation systems.

Metroid Prime 4

This is another Nintendo special. The game was announced in 2017 with a logo, and was then “restarted,” with development duties returning to Retro Studios.

“The current development progress has not reached the standards we seek in a sequel to the Metroid Prime series,” Shinya Takahashi, senior managing executive officer at Nintendo, said in a development update video posted to YouTube. “Nintendo always strives for the highest quality in our games; and in the development phase, we challenge ourselves and confront whether the game is living up to that quality on a daily basis.”

It may be awhile before we see anything solid on Metroid Prime 4.

Session

The skateboarding game Session was announced last year as an early access game on PC, and a part of the Xbox Game Preview program on the Xbox One. But instead of being released in any way for either the game dropped from view, with no updates coming until a Kickstarter message in May.

“Also, many of you have been asking lately if we’d be at E3 this year... We decided to not take part or going to E3 this year,” developer Vincent Da Silva wrote. “With early access getting closer every day, we knew it would have an impact on the development, so we decided to stay focused on developing session instead ... We’ve been purposely silent lately in order to work as hard as we can to offer you the best Early Access and Xbox Game Preview as we can.”

No news about when we may see anything, but at least we know they’re still supposedly working on it.

Babylon’s Fall

Babylon’s Fall is supposed to be released this year, but there hasn’t been much news since the game was announced last year. PlatinumGames is also supposed to be working on Bayonetta 3, which is another game on this very list, so maybe the studio is just a little overworked?