Another Electronic Entertainment Expo is in the books, and we’re honored to recognize developers and publishers who worked tirelessly to make a lasting impression through their creativity and technical prowess at the annual trade show in Los Angeles.
The 80+ projects noted here represent a stellar sampling of today’s Unreal Engine games landscape. The teams behind them are telling the story of what it means to be an Unreal developer in entertainment software.
As players and fans, we’re stoked for what’s in store! As fellow game developers, we’re humbled at how so many talented people are achieving success with the engine, which we continue to evolve not just for Epic but you, the Unreal community.
Let’s begin with two events that happened prior to the doors opening at the expo.
XBOX MEDIA BRIEFING
The Xbox briefing kicked off with The Coalition’s Gears of War 4 to thunderous applause. The continuation of Marcus Fenix’s legacy through his son, J.D., along with new heroes Kait and Del, has us longing to experience the next chapter in this universe that will always hold a special place in our hearts.
As fans of Rare, we were beyond excited when they chose to take up UE4, and now after an absolutely amazing showing of Sea of Thieves, this game is at the top of our wishlist. Same goes for We Happy Few from Compulsion Games, which had everyone talking at the show as well. Look at the incredible diversity in these three game alone.
Bravo to PlatinumGames on the first look at Scalebound multiplayer co-op gameplay. Director Hideki Kamiya says it’s the largest game he’s ever made.
Yep, that looks big. And pretty, and thrilling. Additional Unreal highlights of the Xbox briefing include Keoken Interactive’s Deliver Us the Moon, Undead Labs’ State of Decay 2, Psyonix’s Rocket League, Xaviant’s The Culling, Red Barrels’ Outlast 2, Rockfish Games’ Everspace, Inti Creates’ Bloodstained, Hi Rez Studios’ SMITE, and even more titles featured in the Xbox sizzle reel.
Toward the close of the briefing we were treated to a new look at Bandai Namco’s TEKKEN 7 which is coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. Preview the raging battle between Heihachi and Akuma here.
PLAYSTATION PRESS CONFERENCE
The folks at PlayStation pull out the stops for their E3 presser every year, and 2016 was no exception! The section where our team was sitting erupted when they announced Bend Studio’s Days Gone, which looks phenomenal.
Unreal studios building games for PlayStation VR brought their A-game as well: Rocksteady with Batman: Arkham VR; Tarsier with Statik; Impulse Gear with Farpoint; Secret Sorcery with Tethered; Double Fine with Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin; The Tangentlemen with Here They Lie; and, naturally, CCP with EVE: Valkyrie.
Monday went out with a bang. And then, the LACC doors parted on Tuesday. Masses poured into West and South halls, where a sea of flashy lights and booming sounds formed wave upon wave of glorious sensory overload.
THE SHOW FLOOR AND BEYOND
NetherRealm and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment wowed crowds with new Injustice 2 gameplay featuring DC legends, and Activision revealed the new Ghostbusters game, powered by UE4 and coming to PC and console. ABZÛ from Giant Squid and 505 Games looks even more beautiful than last year, and many critics (including our GamesBeat Unreal E3 Awards judges) have crowned it the prettiest game at the show.
Plenty of awesome Unreal games were spotted at the PC Gaming Show event. Studio Wildcard introduced ARK: Primal Survival, a total conversion of ARK: Survival Evolved in which you can play, live and breed as any of the the game’s creatures. Lawbreakers from Boss Key was there with a debut of the new Santa Monica-inspired map via the “California Keys” trailer.
Tripwire was in the PC Gaming house to show off Killing Floor 2 and also to reveal Killing Floor Incursion, which had a commanding presence in the Oculus booth. We were also pleased to see Bulkhead Interactive featuring their new first-person puzzler The Turing Test.
Also spotted was Vampyr, the action RPG from Life Is Strange developer Dontnod. Vampyr is published by Focus Home Interactive, who - pardon the aside - had a massive booth in West packed with Unreal titles including Shiness, Space Hulk: Deathwing, Styx: Shards of Darkness, and, of course, Vampyr.
It’s always a good time when Chivalry: Medieval Warfare developer Torn Banner is in the room. The PC Gaming Show claimed an appearance from the team’s new magic-steeped melee game Mirage: Arcane Warfare coming this fall.
Hat tip to indie team High Horse Entertainment, whose game Disc Jam was Giant Bomb’s most-watched trailer of E3. Sony announced that the competitive multiplayer game is coming to PlayStation 4, and following that High Horse had a great showing at The MIX where they won Audience Top Pick. Jay and Tim also appeared on our "Live from E3!" Twitch stream.
The most watched trailer on Giant Bomb during E3 2016? Zelda? God of War? Persona 5? Titanfall? Nope. It was @HighHorseGames’ Disc Jam.
— Brad Lynch (@MarinoV1) June 17, 2016
Notable in the Devolver Digital lot was Absolver, a kickass online martial arts-style action game with gorgeous art from Sloclap, an indie studio made up of industry vets that’s been in stealth mode until now.
The Oculus booth had its share of Unreal action as well, with Sanzaru Games showing their Rift launch title VR Sports Challenge, which some have called “the Wii Sports of VR,” and Ripcoil, their new futuristic PvP game. Damaged Core from High Voltage was also on hand for Touch demonstrations, along with Tripwire’s co-op shooter Killing Floor: Incursion, as mentioned before.
Moving the highlights from VR to mobile, Nat Games, who a number of you met on our GDC 2015 stand, are shipping one of the first Unreal Engine 4 games using our Vulkan API support. HIT: Heroes of Incredible Tales, which was playable in Samsung’s booth, looks remarkable.
There are many other games we wish we could cover here. Props to all of the professionals - and students - who managed to make their way to LA and get their games in front of the captive audience. Keep scrolling for the comprehensive list of who we tracked down! But first, speaking of students...
E3 COLLEGE GAME COMPETITION
We were ecstatic to see four out of the five finalist teams in the E3 College Game Competition using Unreal Engine 4. Congrats to Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) for the triumphant showing of their VR game, Brobot Beat Down.
We won the @E3 College Game Competition with our #VR game #BrobotBeatDown made in @UnrealEngine pic.twitter.com/QS06uFelYf
— Justin Couchot (@JustinCouchot) June 16, 2016
#SCAD #ITGM just won #E32016 College Game Competition!Congratulations #Brobotbeatdown team!!! pic.twitter.com/gjHRLvecDc
— SuAnne Fu (@masterfudesign) June 16, 2016
#SCAD student-created 'Brobot Beat Down' wins the College Game Competition at @E3! #E32016 https://t.co/SsCUUEGgQS pic.twitter.com/YIkqNTBAkt
— SCAD (@SCADdotedu) June 22, 2016
UNREAL E3 AWARDS
Congrats again to all of our Unreal E3 Awards by GamesBeat nominees and winners. These teams caused hours of debate among the VentureBeat judges! We’ll soon announce who we’re sending to the GamesBeat Conference, and we are working to mail a slew of GTX 1080 boards as prizes thanks to NVIDIA.
The best Unreal Engine games of E3 2016, selected by GamesBeat https://t.co/dC1m1krIIL by @_boogs pic.twitter.com/vRQAhTISSN
— GamesBeat (@GamesBeat) June 17, 2016
Having a lot of fun handing out these @GamesBeat @EpicGames awards. The devs look so happy! pic.twitter.com/WJbUUgVZEI
— Giancarlo Valdes (@_boogs) June 16, 2016
#E3 #Myst @Obduction gets Unreal E3 Award nom! Ty @Cyan family for making this stunning #UE4 masterpiece! @indiecade pic.twitter.com/6k4bD9qCeA
— Martine Paris (@contentnow) June 17, 2016
IN CONCLUSION
To all of the Unreal devs we met at nonstop E3 events, expo floor showings and parties, we salute you! It’s an honor to work with so many incredible teams. Thank you for making what we do at Epic such a pleasure.
Here’s our comprehensive list of the 80+ games and VR experiences made with Unreal Engine at E3 2016 - at least, the ones we’re able to mention publicly.
If we missed you at the show, hit us up at [email protected], and we’ll update this post. To those who didn’t make it to E3, we’ll be looking out for you online and at future events.
Wishing everyone continued success.
Absolver; ABZÛ; ARK: Primal Survival; ARK: Survival Evolved; ARK: Survival of the Fittest; Astroneer; Batman: Arkham VR; Black Shield; Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night; Brobot Beat Down; Bullet Train; Damaged Core; Days Gone; Dead by Daylight; Deliver Us the Moon; Disc Jam; Dragon Front; Epsilon; EVE: Valkyrie; Everest VR; EVERSPACE; Farpoint; Final Fantasy VII Remake; Friday the 13th; Gears of War 4; Ghostbusters; Gravitas; Guinevere and the Fallen King; Here They Lie; HIT: Heroes of Incredible Tales; Hotel Blind; Injustice 2; Killing Floor 2; Killing Floor Incursion; Kingdom Hearts 3; Kismet VR; LawBreakers; Let it Die; The Long Journey Home; Magic Dance Mirror; Mirage: Arcane Warfare; Moto Racer; Obduction; Outlast 2; Paragon; Prominence Poker; Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin; Raw Data; Redout; Ripcoil; Road to BallHalla; Rock of Ages 2; Rocket League; ROKH; Scalebound; Sea of Thieves; Shattered Tale of the Forgotten King; Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter; Shiness; Skylar and Plux: The Adventure on Clover Island; SMITE; Snow Brawlers; Somnus; Space Hulk: Deathwing; State of Decay 2; State of Mind; Statik; Streamline; Street Fighter V; Sunborn Rising; Styx: Shards of Darkness; Tethered; TEKKEN 7; The Culling; The Turing Test; Vampyr; VR Funhouse; VR Sports Challenge; We Happy Few; XING: The Land Beyond.