E3 is upon us! Next week, the video game industry puts their best foot forward and try to entice us with the promise of fantastic games and whatnot. But what’s almost as fun as watching the big reveals, hype and trailers is the speculation as to what they’re going to show us! So, as E3 is just happening in a few days and us geeks just love to try and guess what they’re going to do, we over here at 3rd World Geeks are going to give our own predictions on what to reveal. Robin is going to give her predictions for Sony as she’s mostly interested in the PlayStation side of things. Al is the resident Nintendo nerd so he’ll be handling that end. Me? Well, I’m a general all-arounder so I’m tasked to do all the rest!

Here are my predictions for what breaking news Microsoft, Bethesda, EA and Ubisoft has in store for us at next week’s E3! These are all my best guesses based on the information I have gleaned from websites and “leaks” as well as my gut feeling. So, take these predictions with a grain of salt.

On the Microsoft side of things…

Now, I’m more of a PlayStation guy myself but I have been keeping up with the general news regarding the Xbox One. It’s fair to say that Sony’s PlayStation 4 is outselling Microsoft’s Xbox One. But the Xbox One X, the beefier version of Microsoft’s current gen console, has been a little more successful compared the PlayStation 4 Pro sales-wise, even if it is $499, a whole $100 more expensive than Sony’s 4K console. I’m predicting that Microsoft will announce a price cut on the Xbox One X at E3 this year to make it all that much more enticing.

But a video game console, even one as powerful as the Xbox One X, is only as good as the games it can play. Microsoft will reveal some of their heavy hitters this E3. It’s been three years since we’ve seen a new Halo game, Microsoft’s flagship franchise. It seems as if we’re due for another one so I’m predicting they’ll show a trailer for Halo 6 next week at E3. The Gears of War franchise will also make a huge splash. Not only will they show a trailer for the fifth installment of the series, Microsoft will be sharing the news that they’ll be expanding the franchise with a new real-time strategy type game as well.

On the Bethesda side of things…

Bethesda’s E3’s offerings will be really hit-or-miss this year. A lot of it will deal with the upcoming Fallout 76. The teaser to the upcoming game has definitely lit a fire under the gaming community but there are some rumors regarding Fallout 76 that have sprouted up that have the hardcore Fallout community up in arms.

First, the good news. There are a lot of rumors that Fallout 76 will be some kind of MMORPG, a first for the franchise but a major deviation from the previous entries. This has a lot of fans upset as this would mean it’s going to be an “always online” affair but I think all of these fears are overblown in a sense. I believe Bethesda won’t leave Fallout fans who just want a single player experience in the dust and Fallout 76 will have a surprisingly deep single player campaign as well as the MMORPG component.

The bad news is Bethesda will take this opportunity to make it much more difficult to mod the game. Previous Fallout games have been a fan favorite of the modding community but the times are changing and Bethesda are looking at all the other game publishers who make a killing selling mods with envy. They’ve made attempts before with the Steam store and their very own Creation Club to very lackluster results. Bethesda will use the excuse that Fallout 76 has an online component and will only allow “official” mods to be installed. Of course, this is just their excuse to make them more palatable. It still won’t sit well with fans such as myself.

But Bethesda will have one more reveal up their sleeve: a new Elder Scrolls game. They’ll show a teaser for it at the very end of the show with a release date for next year. Hopefully, that’ll end the show on a high note but the talk of the town will still be the banning of mods.

On EA’s side of things…

EA has accumulated a lot of bad press last year because of the loot box controversy, hasn’t it? Well, EA is going to try to redeem itself with this year’s E3. One of the things they will directly address is how they will be doing paid DLC in the future. In fact, they will specifically mention the loot box issue by pledging that they will not be adding loot boxes to any of their games. How long they’ll stick to this promise is unknown… but they will stop inserting them into their products for a while, at least.

Another thing EA will be trying to make up for would be Mass Effect Andromeda. A lot of people are betting that Anthem is their answer to the disappointing latest (and possibly last?) entry to the Mass Effect saga. But they actually have an ace up their sleeve and it’s going to be another Bioware franchise. I’m predicting EA will show a teaser for the next Dragon Age game. It’s been four years since the release of Dragon Age Inquisition and I believe we’re due for another one soon. What better place to reveal a teaser trailer for it but at E3? Sadly, it’ll just be a teaser, with no gameplay to speak of at all. Nor will their be a concrete release date. But the hype for a new Dragon Age game may just be the thing EA needs to make the fans forget about their past transgressions.

Onto Ubisoft…

May I be frank here? I have always felt underwhelmed after watching a Ubisoft E3 press conference. I already know they’ll have one big game from their franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Watch_Dogs or Far Cry in there. Those games have never been a huge deal for me, which is why I find Ubisoft’s presentations boring. However, I am rather optimistic that they will have one or two surprises for this year’s E3. Based on the rumors that have been floating around, Ubisoft will have one surprise games shown at E3 next week. That game would be a new Splinter Cell.

This wouldn’t be a big surprise but I have a sneaking suspicion that Ubisoft will not have you controlling protagonist Sam Fisher. Instead, you’ll be put into the stealthy shoes of a totally new hero. I don’t think people will react to this the same way they did with Raiden being the main character in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, which is a good thing.Sam Fisher will still be in the game in a supporting role but this will be the game where he’ll pass the night-vision goggles to someone else.

What do you think Microsoft, Bethesda, EA and Ubisoft will do next week at E3? Let me know in the comments section below!