The gaming calendar’s biggest event is now upon us and as usual the hype train is stoked and ready to steam! Although the E3 show floor proper doesn’t open its doors until tomorrow, as has become customary, the big players in the industry are getting in early with their dedicated press events.
We know navigating this explosion of news and event can be a nightmare for readers, so we’ve cobbled together a summary of times and location on the web you can get your VR gaming news fix. These will all have a VR slant as is to be expected. And, as is customary around this time, we’ve also thrown in some thoughts on what we’re likely to see and a healthy dose of wild speculation for good measure. Please note, the breakdown only includes events where we think there’s a chance of some virtual reality related new occurring.
E3 Press Conference Timetable – Including Major Timezones For Easy Lookup
First up, the excellent fellows over at the NeoGaf gaming forum (many thanks to forum user Rösti and DeMatador) have put together a brilliant at-a-glance guide for gamers around the world including all major press conferences in all major timezones. Use this as your go to guide for Day Zero of the conference.
Press Conference Schedule and Where to Watch the Live Streams
Finally with E3 2014, we have a central respository for event video streaming as Twitch.TV has been nominated the official streaming partner of E3 2014. All the major players are using the service to broadcast their events live although much more will also be covered by Twitch over the coming days. We’ll be posting stories for each of the events with embedded streams for convenience on Road to VR a little later on.
Below we’ve broken down each event and what highlights might be expected, rumoured or what wild speculation we can concoct just for fun.
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Microsoft [9:30am PDT / 5:30pm BST] – 90 Minutes
Microsoft and their new Xbox One console have played catchup to it’s primary competitor, Sony’s Playstation 4 in both PR and Gamer Kudos since before it’s launch late last year. Sony’s lead was compounded earlier this year at GDC when their worst kept secret in gaming was finally unveiled, a VR Headset named Project Morpheus. Ever since, people have speculated if and when Microsoft would respond with a virtual reality headset of their own. E3 2014 would be the perfect time to announce and although the chances are slim MS will announce anything VR related, we’re hopeful regardless.
You can watch the Twitch stream here and via the official Microsoft hub page here.
Electronic Arts (EA) [12:00pm PDT / 8:00pm BST] – 60 Minutes
Big, bad Electronics Arts, one of the biggest publisher of games throughout the globe are large enough to warrant their own press 
conference alongside the platform manufacturers. Expect a slew of sports franchises and sequels then. So, why include them in this list? Well, quite some time back DICE, developers of Battlefield and the Frostbite engine said they were looking into supporting the Oculus Rift although nothing public ever came of that. Furthermore, long time VR wish-list participant Mirror’s Edge 2 has had concept art leaked recently, suggesting we’re likely to see more of this game at the show. Mirrors Edge 2 is thought to use Frostbite 2, EA’s engine of choice so it’s possible we may have an incredible VR announcement waiting for us. However, to temper this wild speculation (as that’s what it is), EA have already been clear the Oculus Rift would have to have sold significant numbers before it threw it’s hat in the VR ring.
So, perhaps skip this unless you already have an interest in what they’re likely to to show. We’ll of course let you know if these speculations become reality.
You can find the Twitch stream here and the official EA Hub page here.
Palmer Luckey Premieres New Oculus Rift Game [Immediately Following EA – approx. 1pm PDT / 9pm BST]
Gametrailers, the video streaming gaming news channel, are also providing interviews and commentary during the E3 2014 show. Of particular interest to virtual reality fans though is an appearance by none other than Palmer Luckey, who it’s reported will unveil a brand new title for the Oculus Rift – up to now unseen by the public. The game is likely to be the recently announced Oculus VR’s Co-Published Luckys Tale hopefully with a live demo of the game in action. Fingers crossed for even more gaming news from Luckey during the appearance.
Catch the Gametrailers / Spike TV stream here.
Sony [6:00pm PDT / 2:00am BST] – Up to 120 Mins
Sony became console land’s great white VR hope at GDC earlier this year when they announced the existence of Project Morpheus, a dedicated VR Headset for the Playstation 4. Along with a re-animation of the dorment Playstation Move controllers, Sony demo’d the system heavily throughout the show and it’s fair to say made a very good impression on us. And, although Sony has been very careful to emphasise the development / prototypical nature of Morpheus, it hasn’t escaped people’s attention that it looks an awful lot like a finished product. Combine that with their declaration they’d been working on the project for years and you start to wonder if Sony isn’t poised for a release of their VR entrant very soon, perhaps even this year.
We’re hoping to hear from Sony when Morpheus may go on sale and perhaps even a look at what they plan to release to consumer. In addition, look out for games made exclusively for Project Morpheus at the show and perhaps the appearance of standard games with VR functionality announced during the conference. None of the former of course is confirmed, but we’d be surprised Sony would make such a huge splash at GDC without following up on it at E3. We shall see.
Catch the Twitch feed here and Gametrailers’ coverage here
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And that’s your lot for Day Zero of E3 2014. We’ll of course be bringing you the stories as they break with as much detail as possible. Ben Lang and Reverend Kyle are both on the ground throughout the show to help bring you the latest VR news as we find it. Stay Tuned!
