E3 2018 Live from the Convention Floor

Cosplay, gameplay, virtual reality, and giveaway madness mark the opening of E3 2018

Jun 12, 2018

E3 2018 kicked off to an exciting start with reimagined versions of your old favorites as well as some exciting new games that will have you anxiously awaiting their release dates. Sonic and Spider-man were there, along with a tennis-playing Super Mario, Kingdom Hearts with new Pixar and Disney chracters (Wreck-it Ralph and Big Hero 6 have a larger-than-life presence), new levels of Dragon Quest, awesome new songs and characters in Just Dance 2018, and hot new Forza Horizon cars. And attendees got to check out new games like Gal Metal, Vampyr, Necromunda, and an insane new four-person shooter featuring The Walking Dead, coming this fall from Overkill.

Just Dance 2018 with live dancers in costume

These VR shoes are made for virtual walking

The Fortnite booth

The latest Call of Duty Black Ops demo

Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man

What's hot and new for fall 2018

This year's lineup continues to see a lot of VR games, although the technology hasn't taken off yet like the industry would have hoped. Developers are still banking on the Nintendo Switch, adding more games for the platform and making them slightly more complex and interesting than when the console was first released. Playstation games still have a heavy presence this year, as well as cross-platform games and computer-based games.

Not just the big players

One interesting area to note was Indie Cade, a booth that features independent game developers who are looking to gain recognition, an audience, and sometimes funding for their pet projects. Many of the game developers at Indie Cade are actually university students and recent college graduates who designed their games in class and went on to produce them and get them recognized in the market. Ideal Meal, for example, is a life-sized collaborative game created by freshmen at USC, where players work together to build a giant bowl of "ramen". Another student team from USC showcased their VR puzzle game Kaisuo that uses Oculus Rift to perform fine motor skills that ultimately unlock a Chinese puzzle box.

There is much more to see and the show goes on for three days. Stay tuned for more exciting updates live from the floor of the Los Angeles Convention Center at E3 2018!

What is E3?

The Electronic Entertainment Expo started in 1995 as a trade show -- a convention open only to people in the video game industry. Now, the convention is open to media (including journalists, bloggers, vloggers, youtubers) AND the general public so everyone can get a sneak peak at what's coming up next in the world of gaming. Members of the media get free passes in order to spread the word to avid gamers everywhere, while everyone else has to pay a hefty fee to get in. And all attendees have to be over the age of 17 to enter. In the days leading up to the expo, gaming companies hold press conferences and stream them online with all their big announcements. At the expo itself, people lucky enough to attend get to play pre-release versions of the game and sometimes get cool swag (promotional giveaways featuring the game and company logo) for trying out the game.

Giveaways include t-shirts, tote bags, pins, cups, stickers, temporary tattoos, sunglasses, and squishy versions of weapons from the games, like a blowup bat from Ninjala or a Fortnite foam pickaxe.