What to expect from E3 2021’s live streams and press conferences

E3 2021 is practically upon us. All of the streams have finally been announced, and PR managers are anxiously refreshing internet pages to make sure that their closely guarded secrets haven’t just been splurged all over the internet.

Officially running from 12th June to 15th June, E3 2021 is effectively getting underway tonight at 7PM UK time with the Summer Game Fest Kickoff Live! stream. There are streams from Ubisoft, Xbox and Bethesda, Nintendo, Capcom and more to look forward to as well, but there’s also some peaks and troughs in the lineup and schedule. Thankfully for those in the UK and Europe, there is only one day that will keep you up after midnight.

We have a dedicated hub for all things E3 2021, and you can head here for the full schedule. We’ll keep that page updated with embedded videos for all of the live streams, but below you can find what we can all expect to see during the next five days.

Visit E3 2021 Hub

Summer Game Fest Kickoff Live!

Thursday 10th June – 11AM PDT / 2PM EDT / 7PM BST / 8PM CEST

E3 week is getting started this evening with a stream that’s not associated with E3! Where Geoff Keighley’s E3 replacement ran all summer long in 2020, this time around it seems to be much more focussed and has aligned itself much closer to E3.

Kickoff Live! will start things off with announcements from Activision, Capcom, EA, Epic Games, Gearbox, PlayStation, Xbox, Sega, Square Enix and more. Given that a fair few of those have their own showcases later in the week, expect more teasers than deep dives and outright announcements.

Guerrilla Collective

Saturday 12th June – 8AM PDT / 11AM EDT / 4PM BST / 5PM CEST

A scrappy upstart showcase created for indies in the wake of E3 2020’s cancellation, Guerrilla Collective actually had a stream last weekend! This saw the announcement of Omno, Aeon Drive, Alfred Hitchcock Vertigo, The Legend of Tianding and more. Saturday is Part 2 of their event, and will be just as full of indie games to peruse.

Ubisoft

Saturday 12th June – 12PM PDT / 3PM EDT / 8PM BST / 9PM CEST

Ubisoft is returning to E3 after last year’s independent Ubisoft Forward streams, and they’ll be bringing a bunch of big games with them. Expect there to be a lot of Far Cry 6, following on from the recent gameplay reveal and release date announcement. There will also be the emergence of Rainbow Six Extraction (formerly known as Rainbow Six Quarantine before everything went down over the last year and a half), and almost certainly a few surprises along the way.

Devolver Direct

Saturday 12th June – 1:30PM PDT / 4:30PM EDT / 10:30PM BST / 11:30PM CEST

Insanity. Expect insanity.

Gearbox E3 Showcase

Saturday 12th June – 2PM PDT / 5PM EDT / 10PM BST / 11PM CEST

One of a few mini-announcement streams, Gearbox is rocking up to E3 2021 with a lot of mystery. Rumours suggest there could be a Borderlands spin-off about to be announced, but who knows?

Xbox & Bethesda

Sunday 13th June – 10AM PDT / 1PM EDT / 6PM BST / 7PM CEST

The united forces of Xbox & Bethesda are sure to be the biggest show in town this weekend, and it feels like Microsoft still has an awful lot to do to win people over to their vision for the new generation. Three things are almost certain from the teasers we’ve already had: Halo Infinite will be there in a big way, likely with a multiplayer reveal; Bethesda’s sci-fi RPG Starfield will be revealed; EA will turn up with the gameplay reveal trailer for Battlefield 2042. We also expect the summer 2021 release window for Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox Series X|S to be narrowed.

While Microsoft announced a swathe of games last year – Fable, Forza Motorsport, Perfect Dark, Avowed and more – these all felt like very early announcements with games not expected to release for quite some time. Will they make any reappearances? We’d love some updates, but truthfully, it’s better for Microsoft to try and focus on the here and now.

Microsoft got one big story out of the way early, that they’re significantly upgrading and expanding Xbox Cloud Gaming, so that means there should be more time for games.

Square Enix

Sunday 13th June – 12:15PM PDT / 3:15PM EDT / 8:15PM BST / 9:15AM CEST

Square Enix will appear with the premiere of the new game from Eidos Montreal. With Square having gone all-in with their Marvel game licensing a few years ago – leading to the less than amazingly well-received Marvel’s Avengers last year – it’s rumoured that Eidos Montreal is hard at work on a Guardians of the Galaxy game. We can also hope for updates on other games like Life is Strange: True Colors in the 40 minutes show.

PC Gaming Show

Sunday 13th June – 2:30PM PDT / 5:30PM EDT / 10:30PM BST / 11:30PM CEST

The PC Gaming Show has grown in stature over the last few years, going from a bit of a sideshow to a more integral part of the E3 schedule.

For 2021, PC Gamer promise a 90-minute stream that will include a closer look at Dying Light 2, something new from New Blood Interactive, a trailer for Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong, a short appearance by Valve, and new stuff Frontier, Fellow Traveller, Tripwire Interactive, Humble Games, Ishtar Games, Alawar Games and more.

What on Earth could Valve be up to?

Future Games Show

Sunday 13th June – 4PM PDT / 7PM EDT / 12AM BST (14th June)/ 1AM BST (14th June)

Another games-site-turned-E3-stream, the Future Games Show will return for 2021 with over 40 games to show off. This includes games from Sega, Private Division, Team17, XSEED and more. This year’s show will be hosted by Troy Baker and Laura Bailey, two of the biggest actors in video games.

Capcom

Monday 14th June – 2:30PM PDT / 5:30PM EDT / 10:30PM BST / 11:30AM CEST

We know exactly what Capcom will be showing: The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, Monster Hunter Stories 2, Monster Hunter Rise and Resident Evil Village. Nothing more, nothing less, but fans of those four games should certainly tune in for updates.

Nintendo

Tuesday 15th June – 9AM PDT / 12PM EDT / 5PM BST / 6PM CEST

Nintendo is going to rock up to E3 2021 with video games and nothing more. That is to say, there will absolutely not be a Nintendo Switch Pro announcement at their 40-minute showcase. That was expected before E3, but… well, it hasn’t materialised.

The focus seems to be on games coming out in the next year or so, but that doesn’t really give us many hints. Could Metroid Prime 4 or Breath of the Wild 2 make an appearance?

Whatever is shown will then be picked over in the three-hour Nintendo Treehouse Live stream that traditionally followed the Nintendo E3 Direct. One possible new game is Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle 2, which was teased by a known leaker.

Bandai Namco

Tuesday 15th June – 2:25PM PDT / 5:25PM EDT / 10:25PM BST / 11:25PM CEST

Everyone really, really, really wants to see more Elden Ring, which was announced all the way back at E3 2019. Could E3 2021 be when it returns? We hope so – if only to give the poor souls putting out Elden Ring news videos every single day something to actually talk about.

Besides that, there’s the upcoming release of Scarlet Nexus (on 25th June) and Tales of Arise (on 10th September) which we’ll likely see more of here.


Already feeling a little overwhelmed? Well, just keep an eye out on TheSixthAxis.com. We’ll grab all the biggest news and stories from around the all-digital E3 2021 and proffer them up to you to have a read and watch at your leisure. 

Visit E3 2021 Hub

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1 Comment

  1. Just give me Village DLC to throw money at and I’ll be happy.

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