The E3 press conference gauntlet is nearly over now that Ubisoft's own press conference has wrapped up. There were a surprising amount of announcements this year, what with Ubisoft finally showing gameplay of the recently announced Watch Dogs Legion, teasing Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, and unveiling an entirely new roller derby game that's now available in alpha. So let's break down the biggest news.
You can find the full E3 2019 press conference schedule here.
Watch Dogs Legion looks incredible
Watch Dogs Legion started off Ubisoft's press conference with a remarkable gameplay trailer that provided an indepth look into Legion's surprising and exciting new features. First off, you won't be playing as one single character in Legion but, like we already reported, be able able to recruit any NPC you find on the street to join your secret resistance group to help free London from an authoritarian government.
During the gameplay reveal, the player swapped between a rough-around-the-edges brawler to an athletic assassin to—yes, you're about to read this correctly—a hacker grandma with a gun. It all seems very ambitious and exciting, but this is E3 and trailers like this are often extremely doctored and not necessarily representative of the final experience. Fortunately, Sam got a chance to play Legion for himself and still walked away floored at just how complex Legion and its NPC recruitment system really is.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint beta arrives September 5
In addition to showing some more footage, Ubisoft announced that Ghost Recon Breakpoint's beta begins on September 5. The game itself releases a month later on October 5. Other than that, Ubisoft didn't have more to show. Actor Jon Bernthal took the stage to talk about playing the wolfish villain and explain some of the story, which you can read about here.
Ubisoft has a new PvP roller derby game that you can play right now
It's called Roller Champions and you can play it right now for free during E3 week. The full game is expected sometime next year.
Ubisoft announces another subscription service
As if Origin Access and Xbox Game Pass weren't enough, now Ubisoft is joining the fray with their own subscription service that gets you access to more than 100 games. It's coming in September and for $15 a month you can play Ubisoft's new games at launch and access its library of already released games and DLC.
The Always Sunny in Philadelphia folks are making a TV show about MMO developers
I honestly don't understand why this was shown off at Ubisoft's press conference, but Rob McElhenney, who helped created It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, announced that he and its cast are making a new TV show about a group of developers who made the world's most popular MMO. You can watch the trailer above to see it for yourself.
Honestly, though I love It's Always Sunny, this just doesn't resonate with me. It clearly wants to be satire of the games industry but this trailer feels like it spent so much time setting up the premise and then missing the mark with its main joke: That McElhenney is supposed to be an egotistical creative director. It's a shame too, because I got real excited that this might be Silicon Valley but for gaming. Hopefully the show itself is much funnier.
The Division 2 returns to Manhattan next year
Along with getting a Netflix movie, The Division 2 will return to the location of the first game in its third free episode due in early 2020. Before then, players can battle through two other free episodes that will take place in the outskirts of D.C. and the Pentagon, the latter of which will also include a new eight-player raid.
AC Odyssey's creators have a new game coming
If you enjoyed the way Assassin's Creed Odyssey explored Greek mythology, you'll hopefully enjoy Gods & Monsters, a "storybook" adventure game from the same team that dives even deeper into Grecian mythos. It looks really cute.
That's most of the big news from Ubisoft's E3 press conference. If you're a fan of Brawlhalla, there's a new Adventure Time crossover update that's out today and the Assassin's Creed Odyssey team also released new mod tools that let you design your own quests, which is also out today. Ubisoft didn't show off its new Rainbow Six Quarantine PvE mode but did confirm it was coming early next year, and For Honor has a new in-game event. Though we dearly wished there was news about our old friend Sam Fisher (we're going to pretend this mobile announcement never happened), this was a surprisingly packed press conference with some cool surprises in it.
Let us know what you thought in the comments.
