It’s expected that some of the announcements coming at E3 are going to leak, but E3 2019 is looking to set a new record. Much of what’s to come at the various E3 press conferences over the next few days has already been spoiled, but Friday night saw a flurry of big upcoming announcements revealed ahead of time.
This particular batch concerns published Bandai Namco’s E3 lineup. The most significant of the bunch is undoubtedly the new game from From Software, reportedly called Elden Ring. A new From game would be big news under any circumstances, but this one is a collaboration with George RR Martin, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire–the basis for Game of Thrones. The Elden Ring name and accompanying art are new, but even this leak concerns something that had previously surfaced online; previous reports already stated that Martin and From were working together on a new game.
Bandai’s other leaks concerned a Ni no Kuni remaster and a new RPG in its Tales of series called Tales of Arise. It’s unclear how this occurred–the three leaks were in such rapid-fire succession that it seems as if the publisher had some kind of security issue. Whatever the particulars, Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada summed things up nicely:
All of this follows the very credible-looking leak of a video from Bleeding Edge, the new game from DMC: Devil May Cry and Hellblade developer Ninja Theory. And the retailer listing for Watch Dogs Legion, prompting Ubisoft to confirm the game ahead of its press conference. And Destiny 2 dataminers discovering cross-save support and a new Shadowkeep expansion that takes players back to the moon. And Baldur’s Gate III, the existence of which was buried in markup code on Larian Studio’s teaser website. And Death Stranding’s release date, published on PlayStation Taiwan’s Facebook account. And Call of Duty 2019 being a new Modern Warfare.
And so on.
This is to say nothing of other leaks that we’re still waiting for clearer confirmation of, such as the next-gen Xbox console, Fable 4, Ubisoft Play, and Ubisoft’s roller derby game. With more than a day to go before most of the press conferences get underway, there’s still time for even more to leak.
At this rate, don’t be surprised if there’s nothing left to be surprised by.
