Summer season Sport Fest 2024 is right here and the largest corporations from throughout the business have descended upon Los Angeles.
Whereas the hype and chaos of E3 hasn’t fairly returned, this weekend will nonetheless see dozens of recent bulletins and trailers for the largest video games of the yr. Whereas there can be some heavy hitters on the present, nonetheless, when the mud settles subsequent week we’ll realise there have been loads of video games that had been lacking in motion.
Whether or not that is because of the franchise themselves being on maintain, or the prolonged growth cycles of contemporary video video games, there are many titles that can discover their method onto Summer season Sport Fest prediction bingo playing cards however received’t make it to the present.
Under, we’ve listed a number of the titles we predict will miss the massive reveals, and a number of the the explanation why.
Venture 007 – IO Interactive
Final launch: Hitman 3 (2021)
When the world first discovered that IO, the staff behind the fantastic Hitman franchise, was making a James Bond recreation, the gaming viewers let loose a collective “that makes good sense”.
Whereas the Bond franchise usually isn’t as wacky because the exploits of Agent 47, IO has proven that it’s perfected the artwork of making vibrant, vibrant, camp playgrounds for gamers to sneak by and take down their enemies.
That is the precise marriage of a license and a developer that as quickly as you’re informed about it, the sport varieties in your head immediately. Whereas there are specific mechanical expectations from a Bond recreation (reminiscent of driving) that we’ve not seen from IO shortly, it’s definitely considered one of our most anticipated releases.
In line with IO’s monetary outcomes from 2023, nonetheless, we shouldn’t count on to see the sport launched till 2025, so whereas we’re in all probability not removed from the primary actual trailer and gameplay reveal of Venture 007, it’s doubtless a bit too early to be at this present.
Everwild – Uncommon
Final launch: Sea of Thieves (2018)
Everwild was revealed in 2020 and since then there was silence, at the very least formally.
In 2021, sources informed VGC that Everwild had been ‘fully rebooted’ following the departure of its inventive director.
In line with individuals with data of Everwild’s growth, the sport’s design was basically “restarted from scratch”, and with the size of contemporary growth, it’s potential we’re nonetheless a number of years from seeing it once more.
Xbox Sport Studios boss Matt Booty stated in 2021 that Xbox “will share extra on Everwild when the staff has bought some cool stuff to indicate”.
Whereas Uncommon’s final recreation, Sea of Thieves, bought off to a rocky begin earlier than discovering calmer water, we marvel if Everwild can share the identical destiny, or if we’ll ever see it once more.
Splinter Cell remake – Ubisoft
Final launch: Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist (2013)
Consider it or not, Ubisoft did truly announce this recreation. Following a teaser in 2021, nothing has been heard in regards to the remake of Sam Fisher’s first journey.
Splinter Cell followers have been ravenous for a decade now, and it looks as if that starvation will proceed.
It’s not like Ubisoft hasn’t been busy. In truth, it is likely one of the most prolific publishers round, with Murderer’s Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six, Cranium and Bones, Simply Dance and Star Wars Outlaws all chugging alongside, however the Echelon brokers have been left within the mud.
You’d suppose that after making Echelon one of many essential factions in XDefiant, Ubisoft can be eager to remind individuals the place these characters truly got here from, however we don’t count on to see it this weekend.
Maybe after the debut (and subsequent shunning) of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, Ubisoft is being a bit extra cautious.
Halo – 343
Final launch : Halo Infinite (2021)
The Halo franchise finds itself in an odd place. At first of the era, it felt like Microsoft is perhaps going all-in as soon as once more on the tales of Grasp Chief. It went as far as to slap his inexperienced helmet on the field of the Collection X, a transfer that would go away Microsoft with egg on its face after Halo Infinite was delayed till a yr after the console was on retailer cabinets.
However when Infinite did finally launch, there have been inexperienced shoots for the as soon as all-consuming shooter franchise. The multiplayer, which was launched without cost in a shrewd transfer by Microsoft, was met with a heat reception from gamers, resulting in a resurgence in recognition for the franchise in an area that had lengthy left it behind.
The marketing campaign, which was a departure from earlier titles whereby it threaded linear missions along with a big open-world, was equally effectively acquired. However then, as has befallen so many multiplayer video games because the explosion of reside service, issues began to go mistaken.
Shooter followers count on builders to react at a breakneck tempo to the slightest inconvenience, and on the similar time be capable of present new maps, weapons, cosmetics, and extra. It’s an expectation of content material that may be dealt with by a recreation like Fortnite or Name of Obligation, however Halo, like so many others, fell quick.
Neighborhood sentiment turned on the sport and a few after some damaged guarantees just like the abandoning of sofa co-op for single-player, Halo Infinite is now a recreation that limps on, moderately than confidently strides. The Halo franchise, as soon as a load-bearing launch in any calendar, arguably now has simply as many disappointing essential collection titles because it does seminal ones.
Whereas at the moment has introduced rumours that Microsoft is within the early phases of one other remaster of the unique Halo, and is even contemplating bringing it to PlayStation, there’s no signal of a brand new entry within the collection any time quickly.
Whereas Microsoft will clearly return to Halo at some point – in spite of everything, it has a TV present to advertise – Grasp Chief is as soon as once more in limbo. Different Gears are turning at Microsoft, that means that there might merely not be room for Halo within the present lineup, however we really feel there’s simply sufficient goodwill that at some point, that rating will swell, and gamers will imagine.
