Ubisoft opened their E3 2017 press conference with one of the biggest names in gaming: Shigeru Miyamoto. Miyamoto and the CEO of Ubisoft unveiled Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Together, they spent some time talking about the relationship between Nintendo and Ubisoft, both as collaborators and competitors. They also revealed during the conference that Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle will be exclusive to the Nintendo Switch and will come out this year on August 29th.
Next, the producer for the game came on stage to discuss gameplay for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. The combat is turn-based and tactical and seems like a kid-friendly version of an XCOM game. Each player in your party gets a certain amount of space that they can move in, and they can also attack enemies in the same turn. The environment was also revealed to be destructible.
Next, Assassin's Creed Origins was briefly showcased during the conference. A new trailer for the game played that showed more of the Ancient Egypt setting but didn't show much gameplay. Next, the game director came up to introduce a gameplay demo, but the demo only lasted about a minute before Ubisoft announced that the rest of the demo will actually be played after the conference. A full demo of the game was played during Microsoft's conference yesterday.
Then, The Crew 2 was finally showcased for the first time during Ubisoft's conference. First, a trailer was showed off that revealed that the game will include planes and boats, something that wasn't in the original game. Next, another trailer played and the game's creative director said that the game will take place in the United States like the first game, and also talked more about some of the vehicles in the game and things you can do. The game is coming out early 2018 and you can register for the beta now. It will be on most current generation consoles and PC, but not the Switch.
After, a brief trailer was shown for South Park: The Fractured But Whole. This new trailer didn't really give us any new information, however. It reiterated that the game is coming out on October 17th of this year.
Elijah Wood (Frodo in the Lord of the Rings movies) made an appearance during the press conference. The actor played the creative director on an upcoming VR game. The game is titled Transference, and the story seems to take place after scientists discover the ability to upload a recorded consciousness of someone, and you enter into that person's consciousness.
Transference will come out spring 2018 according to the trailer. The trailer seems to be breaking the fourth wall, so it's hard to tell what to take away from the trailer. It did not, however, reveal what platforms the VR game will come to.
Skull & Bones was the next game revealed, and it is a brand new IP being developed by Ubisoft Singapore. Skull & Bones is a multiplayer naval combat game. The PvP game's combat looks very similar to the naval combat in past Ubisoft's games like Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. However, in this game, you can link up with a team and battle other crews. Each person in the fleet controlled a different ship in the demo, and each ship performed a different role.
The demo also showed that you can board other ships, but it doesn't seem that you actually get to control what happens when you board. The demo showed many different phases in a match, and the developers promised more game modes will be included when the game comes out.
Skull & Bones is slated for a fall 2018 release, and it will be coming to the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Next up in the conference, Just Dance 2018. People danced, Bebe Rexha sang, and then that was pretty much it. Just Dance 2018 will come out on all platforms after the original Wii. Yes, including the Wii U.
Another brief announcement was South Park: Phone Destroyer. The trailer revealing this mobile game didn't show any extensive gameplay clips, so it's hard to tell right now what the game actually consists of.
Then, another new IP took the stage in the form of Starlink: Battle for Atlas. Starlink is a toys-to-life game that will be available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Starlink seems to be a space-combat game, but you actually have to build a spaceship in real life and attach it to your controller. This gives you the ability to modify your ship on the fly while playing by attaching and removing different pieces from your real-life spaceship.
This new IP is being developed by Ubisoft Toronto.
Ubisoft has made a habit of announcing DLC for one of their games over the past couple of E3s, and this year turned out to be no different. Steep will be receiving an Olympics expansion on December 5th of this year. The trailer announcing the expansion showed a plethora of different Winter Olympics events. The expansion is officially titled Steep: Road to the Olympics.
We already knew that Far Cry 5 would be showed off at this year's E3, and Ubisoft definitely delivered with a full gameplay trailer showed during their conference. The trailer showcased more of the game's Hope County, Montana setting, but also revealed some new information.
First, we saw that you are followed by companions for some missions in the game. In the trailer, we saw the main character send his companion to a vantage point so that she can provide you with sniper cover. Later in the trailer, we also saw that you have a dog that helps you by attacking enemies and you can also call upon a man flying a plane to help you out in sticky situations.
The game also mentioned again that co-op will be available in Far Cry 5, and you can even play the entire game in co-op. Far Cry 5 comes out next year on February 27th.
And lastly, to close out the conference, Ubisoft revealed the long-anticipated Beyond Good and Evil 2. The cinematic trailer didn't show off any gameplay, but it did show a couple of characters, abilities, and settings that could find their way into the actual game. The narrative director revealed that you can register for the Space Monkey Program today, while the creative director shed a couple of tears on stage after finally being able to reveal his game almost 15 years in the making.
If you want to know more about this and other announcements happening at E3 then be sure to check out our E3 2017 Coverage Hub.
