The reaction to the first-ever PC Gaming Show last year was definitely met with a reaction that I would assume PC Gamer didn't particularly enjoy. The conference was way too long, full of what many considered superfluous information, and didn't have quite the impact in terms of announcements as some of the others. This year PC Gamer is looking to change that, keeping the conference to a 90-minute show and promising some great announcements.
The PC Gaming Show very nicely lists exactly who will be at the show, so speculating on what we may see isn't all that difficult. Here is the full list and possibly what each company could be talking about.
- AMD –Seeing as AMD is both a partner and listed as a presenter at the show, we can certainly expect to see something from them. Could we be seeing or hearing more of Polaris or Zen? Hard to tell at this point, but considering the details just came out a little less than two weeks ago, I'd imagine AMD is going to want to talk about it a little further, gearing it specifically towards gamers.
- Bohemia Interactive – They appeared at last year's show for an announcement regarding Arma III. It's very possible they may do just that again, or maybe they have something to say on DayZ. They also have their recently announced Ylands, a voxel-based sandbox game, to give more info on.
- Borealys – A new studio developing Mages of Mystralia. Also recently announced, we can expect some new information for sure. It's a game reminiscent of the top-down Zelda games with gameplay centered around creating your own spells.
- Boss Key Productions – We'll of course be seeing some LawBreakers here. Last year Cliff Bleszinski took to the stage to talk about Project BlueStreak, which turned out to be LawBreakers. Will this be where he announces a release date? Maybe. The first public alpha is to begin soon where Cliff said he'd announce the dates for that alpha during this show.
- Digital Extremes - The developers of Warframe, it seems as though this may be ripe for the announcement of a new game. Maybe that will be more of a Warframe expansion, or maybe something new altogether. They published Sword Coast Legends late last year, and they haven't said much of anything they could be working on next.
- Gameforge – This is an interesting one as Gameforge is largely a distributor of games around the world, providing things like MMOs the ability to publish their game in the U.S. and Europe. What they could be talking about is anyone's guess.
- Microsoft – Who knows. They'll likely expand on something they announced in their own press conference. Either that or they are listed solely due to them being a publisher for one of these other developers.
- New World Interactive - A fairly new studio, they've only put out Insurgency so far, a tactical shooter. Back in February, they announced a sequel, Insurgency: Sandstorm, so I'd imagine we may see some of that.
- Nexon – Nexon publishes quite a few things and may be listed here solely as the publisher of LawBreakers. However, they have other things going on with Maplestory 2, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – First Assault Online, and more. We may hear from some of those.
- Novaquark – An indie studio developing Dual Universe. This is an incredibly ambitious MMO that promises millions of planets to explore based on politics, trading, warfare, voxel building, and more, including the promise that the game will be "entirely editable." Definitely expect to see something on this.
- Oculus – Maybe they are there to make their own announcement, maybe they are there just as the company helping another with a VR game. The Rift just released back in March, so it's very plausible we'll see something regarding its future as well.
- Other Ocean Interactive – No idea whatsoever what they could be showing. Other Ocean is involved in a lot of licensed games for mobile, console, and handheld games. However, they recently released a trailer for a VR game, Giant Cop: Justice Above All, which is just as it sounds. Maybe they'll talk about that.
- Paradox Interactive – Paradox has quite a few franchises and publishes for many companies, so it could be their next grand strategy game, or just about anything else. Seeing as their publishing Obsidian's Tyranny, however, my bet is that we'll see some more of that.
- Razer – They could announce just about anything, from a new gaming laptop or desktop, to maybe another controller. Maybe they are doing something with AMD as well.
- Relic Entertainment – Definitely Dawn of War III. Someone will come on to talk about it, and they'll be showing some game footage for sure.
- Sega – Maybe listed because they are the publisher of Dawn of War III, Sega could also be talking about something from the new Yakuza game, Football Manager, or maybe announce something new.
- Square Enix – They have a lot going on at the moment, and seeing as this is a PC-centric show ... maybe we'll get the announcement of Final Fantasy XV coming to PC. Maybe. Other than that they could be talking World of Final Fantasy, the Final Fantasy VII Remake, I Am Setsuna, Kingdom Hearts III, and so much more. The Square Enix Collective is also listed, so we'll likely see something from their many projects or something entirely new.
- Studio Wildcard – They're still hammering away on ARK: Survival Evolved and they'll definitely be talking about it. Judging by this here, it seems many assume they'll be announcing treehouses and other features coming to the game. Maybe we'll get a release date too.
- TaleWorlds Entertainment – Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is something I'm personally looking forward to and definitely expect TaleWorlds to show some of it off at the show. With the game supposedly coming out sometime in 2016, I wouldn't be surprised to get the release date either.
- Torn Banner Studios – This is the team behind Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and they're early in development new title, Mirage: Arcane Warfare, has been making the rounds at very conventions. They will most assuredly be going more in-depth into the game and showing off something about it.
- Tripwire Interactive – Rising Storm 2: Vietnam was announced at last year's show, and it's been fairly quiet ever since. It's supposedly coming out in 2016, so maybe it will detail some more of the game and give us a better release window.
Well, that's all of the presenters listed on the PC Gaming Show's website. Of course, there will be some surprises in there, but the list above should cover just about anything we should expect to see. One can't help but also notice that it is a rather large list, coming in at 21 names, which only leaves about four minutes per presenter in the 90-minute show. Though, as I mentioned above, some may be listed solely because they are the publisher so some of the names could be combined with developers to shorten it some. Still, seems like a lot to go through.