EA Conference Recap - E3 2017

After following a heavily edited trailer of clips from various EA IPs, the conference is underway with men in New England Patriots jerseys playing drums, one of them sporting the Madden 18 logo. This transitions into a trailer for the upcoming Madden NFL 18, focusing on the new story mode that will be present in the game dubbed “Longshot.” CEO Andrew Wilson comes on, claiming it will be the most innovative game in the series so far. After unveiling the space that conference attendees will be able to get hands-on time with upcoming games, mentioning there will be eight 'experiences' dealt with throughout the conference.

After mentioning that there will be a lot of Battlefront 2 info and gameplay upcoming, Battlefield 1 becomes the center of attention with an intro from DICE LA head Andrew Gulotta. A film plays with comments from some Twitch streamers of the game talking about their experiences and why they like it, set to the classic BF theme. Two night maps are announced to be coming to the game, as well as an upcoming 'In the Name of the Tsar' expansion that will have six new maps, the Russian army, and new vehicles and weapons. DICE also claims that deeper player progression is on the way, and that one of the new maps from this expansion will be playable at the conference. At the end of this, we get a trailer for the expansion showing snowy environments and lots of action.

Global development team lead Patrick Soderlund takes the stage next, saying that Battlefield is getting a new competitive 'experience,' but provides no real details. He announces a major FIFA eSports tournament is coming in the fall. A video plays with clips of participants in Madden and FIFA competitions. This transitions into a trailer of a soccer game, unsurprisingly turning out to be FIFA 18. The game will have some new movement tech but otherwise looks to be FIFA as usual. The 'Men in Blazers' take the stage, hosts of a popular footballing show with some rhetoric about the game series, hyping up Cristiano Ronaldo's involvement in the game. Alex Hunter, the protagonist from last year's FIFA 17 story mode, will be returning in FIFA 18's The Joruney, with a funny trailer of real people talking about the fictional character.

After this, YouTube creator Jesse Wellens is on to talk about Need for Speed: Payback, introducing Marcus Nilsson, executive producer on the game. There will be more vehicle customization, as well as abandoned classic cars that you can upgrade from scrap to become supercars. We then get a trailer for the upcoming racer, which indicates the game will be more story-driven than past entries, with gameplay showing a Mustang GT taking out enemy vehicles and chasing down a truck. Eventually the car catches up to the truck, and a cutscene shows the passenger jumping onto the truck, getting into a car inside and driving it right out. The player then takes control of this car and makes their escape.

Patrick returns to introduce a new story-driven game called 'A Way Out' from the developers of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. It looks to take place in a prison, turning out to be a co-op game that will involve attempting a break-out. It looks to have a mix of climbing, shooting, fist-fighting and conversations and is certainly the most intriguing announcement of the show thus far. Writer/director Josef Fares comes on next to talk about it, saying he had full creative control through the EA Originals program. He claims it will be an emotional journey for two-players, designed entirely around split-screen co-op though he confirms online co-op will also be possible. He confirms there will be a lot of gameplay variety, adding driving to the list of gameplay shown in the trailer. He introduces another gameplay video, showing some scenarios where one character might be in a cutscene while the other can be controlled, and saying each sequence will have unique gameplay. The game will be coming early in 2018.

Patrick comes back on the stage after this to talk about a new development team called 'Seed' who are exploring new experimental ideas such as deep learning for things like AI and customizing gameplay experiences. He then talks about the publisher's work on the upcoming Xbox Scorpio, showing off Madden screenshots. He then introduces a new IP that will be discussed more in the Microsoft Conference, a new project from BioWare. It looks to be another science-fiction game with men wearing space-armor and an overgrown planet, called Anthem, but that is all we learn for now.

Next up, Sean O'Brien comes on to talk about NBA Live 18. He hands things over to the Gameplay Director who shows some gameplay and talks about a new control method for dribbling. The game will have a free demo coming in August that will carry over progress to the full game. Sean introduces a trailer that talks about “The One,” some kind of new system that will connect player progression across gameplay modes.

Andrew Wilson returns, saying Star Wars stuff is coming after a brief talk about EA's partnership with some charities. As a byproduct of community involvement in this, he announces that several games will have free trials this week such as Madden 17 and Battlefront 1. With that, it's time for Battlefront 2. Janina Gavankar comes on to talk about the story mode that will be coming to the game, which will let you play with favorite and new Star Wars character that tells a story that will bridge the gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. The game will be much bigger than 2015's Battlefront, with allegedly three-time the amount of content and the return of local co-op. The game will have deeper customization and progression, with content from all eras of Star Wars.

In terms of gameplay, apparently some of the best (or at least most popular) Battlefront players in the world were invited for input in terms of gameplay direction. A video shows comments from this group dubbed the 'game changers.' There will be a class system in the game that will effect health and abilities. 'Battle Points' will be earned by players, letting them come in as heroes or vehicles after they earn enough. They introduce a premier of gameplay footage, revealing some impressive visuals from the Frostbite engine on a verdant urban map with lots of Star Wars action. The end of the trailer shows a few different environments and classic star wars characters including Yoda, with a few scripted sequences presumably from the story mode.

Janina returns to showcase an extended live multiplayer gameplay segment featuring the 'game changers.' First, John Boyega via pre-recorded clip says there will be free content updates to the game including Finn as a playable character after the game launches. New weapons and maps are confirmed to also be free in updates. This seems to mark the end of the conference proper and the start of the live gameplay segment from Battlefront 2.