E3 2018

Electronic Arts ran a separate event near the Convention Center, rather than participating at the Expo. The EA Play 2018 event was held at the Hollywood Palladium from June 9 to June 11.[6] EA's press conference was held on June 9 at 11:00am,[7] and covered Battlefield V, and FIFA 19, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars Battlefront II, Unravel Two, Sea of Solitude, NBA Live 19, Madden NFL 19, Command & Conquer: Rivals, and Anthem. EA also announced that its Origin software service will expand to include a premium subscription service to provide access to titles prior to retail release, and support cloud gaming support later in the year.[8]

Microsoft's press conference was held on June 10 at the Microsoft Theater.[9] During Major Nelson's Podcast, Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Gaming Phil Spencer said Microsoft's press conference had made positive changes from prior years to be fun for everyone.[10][11] Fifty games were covered during the presentation, including Halo Infinite, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Fallout 76, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, Crackdown 3, Nier: Automata, Metro Exodus, Kingdom Hearts III, Sea of Thieves, Battlefield V, Forza Horizon 4, We Happy Few, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Tales of Vesperia, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Session, Black Desert Online, Devil May Cry 5, Cuphead, Tunic, Jump Force, Dying Light 2, Battletoads, Just Cause 4, Gears Pop!, Gears Tactics, Gears 5, and Cyberpunk 2077.[12]

Phil Spencer also affirmed that Microsoft Studios had acquired Undead Labs, Playground Games, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion Games, and had established a new in-house studio, The Initiative.[13]

Microsoft had an exhibitor space in the main convention floor, principally dedicated to its Mixer live streaming platform, while it hosted demos and other activities at the Microsoft Theater alongside the other exhibition days.[14]

Bethesda Softworks held its E3 presentation on June 10 at 6:30pm.[15] Games presented included Rage 2, The Elder Scrolls: Legends, The Elder Scrolls Online, Doom Eternal, Quake Champions, Prey, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot, Fallout 76, Fallout Shelter, The Elder Scrolls: Blades, Starfield, and The Elder Scrolls VI.

Devolver Digital held an E3 presentation via Twitch on June 10 at 8:00pm.[16] The presentation followed the satirical format of Devolver's E3 2017 presentation, a pre-recorded segment that poked fun at the state of E3 and video game marketing, and did not focus on the games. Actress Mahria Zook replayed her role as the fictional Devolver "Chief Synergy Officer" Nina Struthers.[17] Devolver revealed its titles Scum, My Friend Pedro, and Metal Wolf Chaos XD.

Square Enix held its pre-recorded press conference over streaming video on June 11 at 10:00am.[18] The media presentation covered Square Enix's upcoming games, including Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy XIV (including a crossover event with Capcom's Monster Hunter World), The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, Dragon Quest XI, Babylon's Fall, Nier: Automata, Octopath Traveler, Just Cause 4, The Quiet Man, and Kingdom Hearts III.

Ubisoft held its E3 press conference on June 11 at 1:00pm.[19] Ubisoft presented its upcoming games, including Just Dance 2019, Beyond Good and Evil 2, Trials Rising, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Skull & Bones, Transference, Starlink: Battle for Atlas (including the announcement that Fox McCloud from Nintendo's Star Fox franchise would be an exclusive character in the Switch version of the game), The Crew 2, and Assassin's Creed Odyssey. New DLC expansions for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Donkey Kong Adventure) and For Honor (Marching Fire) were also announced, as well as an upcoming documentary entitled Another Mindset, which focuses on competitive Rainbow Six Siege.[20]

PC Gamer hosted their PC Gaming Show on June 11 at 3:00pm.[21] The show included presentations from several publishers and developers including Sega, Square Enix, Crytek, Double Fine Productions, Hi-Rez Studios, Skydance Media, Digital Extremes, Raw Fury, Klei Entertainment, Modern Storyteller, tinyBuild, Cloud Imperium Games, Starbreeze, and 505 Games.[22]

Sony hosted their press conference on June 11 at 6:00pm.[23] Sony continued its "E3 Experience" where the event was simultaneously live-broadcast to a limited number of movie theaters.[24] Addressing criticism of some of its past E3 press conferences, Sony planned to have "deep dives" on a handful of first-party titles during its conference, rather than a large number of short teasers for games, though would still cover other third-party and indie games. Sony focused on Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man and The Last of Us Part II.[25] Further, instead of having a pre-show prior to the press conference to announce selected titles, Sony used daily live-streaming announcements of games in the week prior to the conference to reveal new titles Tetris Effect, Twin Mirror, and Ghost Giant, giving the announcements of these games "more time to breathe".[26]

As with previous conferences since 2013 (with the exception of the 2016 expo), Nintendo streamed a pre-recorded Nintendo Direct video presentation on June 12 at 9:00am.[27] This presentation focused on Nintendo Switch games releasing in 2018, with a specific focus on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.[28] Additional titles shown included Daemon X Machina,[29] Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!,[30] Super Mario Party,[31] Fire Emblem: Three Houses,[32] Fortnite: Battle Royale, Arena of Valor, Paladins, Minecraft, Overcooked 2, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, Dragon Ball FighterZ, ARK: Survival Evolved, Mario Tennis Aces,[33] Killer Queen Black, Hollow Knight, and Octopath Traveler.

E3 Colisseum, a side event designed around public interaction with the developers and publishers, returned to E3 this year from June 12 to June 14, 2018, as confirmed by Geoff Keighley via his Twitter account. Also confirmed by Geoff was that the event would be streamed live online.[5][34] The event included a reunion of the cast members and Tim Schafer of Grim Fandango celebrated the game's 20th anniversary. The reunion event also featured live music from the remastered games composer Peter McConnell and a live reading of select scenes that would also feature Jack Black.[35] Another game, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was also featured during the event, with TreyArch discussing the history of Zombies, its ravenous fan community, and what might be lurking around the corner next in the games series. It also featured Geoff Keighley, Joe Russo director of Avengers: Infinity War, Elijah Wood, Donald Mustard Worldwide Creative Director at Epic Games, Amy Hennig, 4 artists behind the game Cuphead, Hideo Kojima, Penn Jillette, Darren Aronofsky and Camilla Luddington along with the Shadow of the Tomb Raider Creative Team. The event took place at The Novo at L.A. Live, near the main convention center, and was available to all E3 attendees.[36]

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts held a special ceremony on June 11, 2018 at the London West Hollywood to honor voice actor Nolan North with a Special Award for his "outstanding contribution to performance in games".[37]

The Fortnite Battle Royale Pro-am event held at the Banc of California Stadium during the week of E3 2018.

The Los Angeles Convention Center, where the expo has been held.

Epic Games held Fortnite Battle Royale Celebrity Pro-am at E3 2018, featuring 50 celebrities and 50 top players who competed.[38] The event featured 50 pairs consisting of one streamer and celebrity, with the winning team receiving US$3 million to be donated to the winning team's charity of choice; announced participants include streamers Tyler "Ninja" Blevins and Markiplier, and celebrities Joel McHale, Paul George, and Marshmello.[39][40] This event was announced following a Twitch stream in March 2018 by Ninja, which featured the celebrities, Drake, Travis Scott, Kim DotCom, and JuJu Smith-Schuster who were all playing the game Fortnite Battle Royale. The winners of the event was the team with Marshmello and Tyler "Ninja" Blevins.[41]

Nintendo hosted live tournaments for both Splatoon 2 and the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The Splatoon 2 tournament, known as the Splatoon 2 World Championship 2018, featured the top teams from four regions—North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia—facing off in the first world championship for the game. The Super Smash Bros. tournament, known as the Super Smash Bros. Invitational 2018, was held at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles on June 12. Nintendo invited eight top Super Smash Bros. players with plans to invite more who would compete in the new game, following a similar format they used in the E3 2014 Super Smash Bros. Invitational event.[42][43]

Capcom hosted a Monster Hunter World tournament, where two-player teams would compete to complete a specific hunt in the fastest time possible. Capcom would stream the competition to online viewers.[44]

Capcom also hosted a Street Fighter V rubber match between professional wrestlers Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston & Big E of The New Day (representing WWE) vs. The new IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks of The Elite (representing NJPW).[45]

ESL Arena was a new arena space located in the South Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center that would be used to host various esports events. The arena stage was a 7,500-square-foot dynamic esports experience that seats over 200 fans. The main stage featured custom player experiences with analysts and casters and gave the audience up-close VIP access to the world of competitive esports. The first esports events in the new space took place at E3 2018.[46]