E3, the biggest gaming media event of the year is upon us! Following the Summer Game Fest Kickoff Live, the extended Traxion team discusses what to expect as racing game fans from the event.
Sure, the Covid-19 pandemic has clipped its wings a bit, no press or public within giant theatres celebrating gaming robs us of some atmosphere, but there will still be a long weekend packed full of livestreams, updates, DLC and fresh game reveals.
We cover Koch Media, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Nintendo and more, plus the NACON Connect and EA Play Live which are happening in July.
What racing games do we expect? Will there or won’t there be a new Forza? What about Mario Kart? Listen to the latest episode of The Traxion.GG Podcast and then see how wrong, or right, we are next week.
Let us know in the comments below what you’re anticipating.
Hosted by Thomas Harrison-Lord, with guests John Munro, Justin Sutton, Rich Hutson and Justin Melillo.
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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Tom Harrison-Lord (00:06):
Hello and welcome to today’s special bonus episode of the Traxion GG podcast, where we’re going to discuss E3 2021. And in particular, our sort of hopes and dreams and predictions for those who don’t know, E3 is a big gaming convention. Previous years it was big press conferences and lots of journalists went there to play games that were not yet released. And those at home could watch live streams of games being released. So a big, exciting thing, we’re just going to talk about the racing games, of course, and the event this year runs virtually online from the 12th of June to the 15th of June with a few events before and after. So we’re going to go through each of the main publishers. I’m going to have a new guest for each of the publisher or game that we’re going to talk about. So first of all, is John, how you doing John?
John Munro (00:48):
I’m very well. Thanks, Tom. How are you?
Tom Harrison-Lord (00:50):
Very good. Thank you for joining us today. And we’re going to be talking first of all, about Ubisoft, because Ubisoft’s big press conference it’s called Ubisoft Forward. It’s on the 12th of June, which is Saturday. That’s 3:00 PM, Eastern 12:00 PM, Pacific and 8:00 PM BST for those in the UK. Before we jump to that though, very, very quickly on Friday, the 4th of June is Koch Primetime. Have you ever heard of Koch Primetime before John?
John Munro (01:16):
I hadn’t. Before you told me we’re going to mention it in the podcast, but yeah, I’ve heard of the company, obviously. So.
Tom Harrison-Lord (01:22):
Yes. So Koch Media, those who don’t know they own THQ Nordic and Deep Silver, and they’ve got this, stream of announcements of games, which I could be wrong, but I think it’s the first time I’ve ever done it and we know nothing about it, but what I would say is they also own Milestone. So, this is a little challenge for you, John. Can you mention, can you name all five of the recently released Milestone racing games? No pressure and no worries if you can’t
John Munro (01:52):
Probably not, but I’m going to say the MX 21 or MX GP 21, if that’s even what it’s called.
Tom Harrison-Lord (01:59):
Oh yeah. I’ll give you that. It’s MX GP 2020, but it did come out in 2021 just to confuse everybody.
John Munro (02:04):
Yeah. Yeah. We’ve got the MotoGP game. The most recent MotoGP title. We’ve got the most recent world Superbike title?
Tom Harrison-Lord (02:13):
Oh nearly, but no.
John Munro (02:13):
No.
Tom Harrison-Lord (02:13):
That’s two, do you have another guess?
John Munro (02:16):
I do. I’m not going to bash myself. That’s got some other ideas. I’ll let you take it away.
Tom Harrison-Lord (02:21):
Well, Milestone release a million games. There on at least four yearly franchise games. So there was also, Supercross 4, which is like a mixed GP, but indoors, they used to do World Superbike, but no more so fair, fair point on that one. And they also did Ride 4 all, all four of those came out this year on next gen console. So crazy work rate. And later this year they’ve got Hot Wheels unleashed. Now, have you seen some of that, John and are you excited for it?
John Munro (02:43):
Yes, I have four wheels is maybe slightly more my forte, as much as I enjoy it. As much as I enjoy two wheels, I fall off them a lot. So yeah, Hot Wheels is definitely sounding really good. It actually looking at the trailers and stuff, it kind of reminds me of an old game. I used to play on PlayStation 2 called Groove Rider, which is kind of based on Scalextric’s and slot cars and stuff. And it was like, it was a track indoor. So you’d be driving around your living room and your kitchen and this Hot Wheel trailers really gave me those kinds of vibes. Obviously you’re not stuck in a particular lane you can drive around. So I’m very excited about it. I think something needs to come up and bring the game to Mario Kart and the likes free arcade racer.
Tom Harrison-Lord (03:15):
Right? Exactly. There’s definitely a gap in the market. That’s a very, very good point. So we’re purely speculating that you might see a bit more of that during Koch Primetime. We don’t know. It might build Deep Silver related non-racing games, but tuning just to see if there’s more Hot Wheels, not all the venues for the game have been announced yet. There’s going to be over 60 cars and only maybe about 20 are being revealed at this point. So our prediction kind of is, see the final, final bit of the game before it comes out. I think in September, so on with Ubisoft then very quickly, John, are you excited for Just Dance 2021?
John Munro (03:50):
Oh, you know me so well, well, I mean, to be honest, personally, not super excited, but I know that millions of people listening are probably a lot of people listening to this podcast are excited because it’s clearly a very popular game. I might use the dance mat stuff for something else, but we’ll leave it at that.
Tom Harrison-Lord (04:03):
Yeah. The reason I mentioned Just Dance because Ubisoft Forward is either covers all the games that they make. You know, Assassin’s creed is probably going to be the new Rainbow Six there this year. They’ve got For Honor, they’ve got Watchdogs all these big franchises we are only interested in the racing game ones, but a significant portion of the presentation each year is about Just Dance with people dressed up. And that does they’re out of the stage, gaming fans get annoyed, but ultimately probably Just Dance sells more than any other Ubisoft game. So there’s a reason that it’s in there. So we know for sure, for certain, I should say that the current Trackmania game is going to be in this presentation. So John, could you just briefly explain what the current Trackmania game is because at the minute it is only on PC, correct?
John Munro (04:47):
Yeah, correct. So, the most recent version of Trackmania is just titled Trackmania, but it was actually, I think it was the last game Ubisoft released before last year’s convention or Ubisoft Forward event. So they were talking about it a lot at the start of last year’s event. But this time, obviously we’re going to be seeing some updates of some kind to the game. We know that’s going to be coming. They have confirmed it. We don’t quite know what those are going to be yet. Trackmania itself has kind of, an arcade racer. It’s very hard to explain Trackmania. Maybe you need to go on Youtube, we’ve actually got video on Traction, not going to plug that too hard, but you can go and see what it’s all about, but basically, you’ve got a strange kind of subscription model with this game where you can either play the starter version for free, which includes a few little features, nothing too exciting, or you can pay money on a yearly basis for either a standards, a subscription, or a club subscription. You can pay up to three years at a time. So I think it’s $60 is the most expensive for three years of the club subscription, a $30 for one year or $10 for the kind of standard edition, which gives you a few things, but not the whole game. So it’s a bit of a strange one.
Tom Harrison-Lord (05:47):
It is a bit of a strange one. It’s like a full reboot for the series. And for those who don’t know, you’re in like these little cars, futuristic looking cars, and it’s almost like time trials is the main sort of basis. Like you have these weird levels and you’d all try to beat the time, get the gold and above gold. There’s another one that’s like secret current with the name of it. And the new one adds an online element. Correct. So there’s a tournament mode where you can race online.
John Munro (06:10):
It’s a difficult game to explain in words, because it’s quite funny, but Tom summed up pretty well. Yeah. And there is there’s tournament modes. They have a new daily tournament, daily cup modes where I think this year 2000 people enter and then the top 64 go into knockouts. And that’s a really, really cool feature. So there’s a lot of exciting stuff with this game. It’s yet to be kind of completed, I guess. And we’re going to see if there’s anything more to be added to that I’d be quite interested to see.
Tom Harrison-Lord (06:32):
Yeah. One weird thing that’s just comes to me now is that it seems to be very popular with a new kind of esports. Cause it’s ghost racing, you’re racing against, you can’t contact to the people, but it’s all time-based. And with these tournament modes, you all racing online, I’m wondering if they announced some sort of esports league or something like that, but that almost seems not big enough news for Ubisoft forward. Right. So you mentioned that you can get up to a three-year subscription, but at some point, the game, they’ll never, they won’t support that game forever. Right. So we do know though, at least from that, they’re going to support it for another three years. Right. I mean, could they ever stop the subscription model? I mean, that might be a bit difficult, right?
John Munro (07:09):
Well, it’s going to, I think doing that, it’s going to anger, maybe some people that have already paid for their three years and thinking, well, I could have got away with less money. I mean, maybe there’ll be a solution for that, but we’ll have to wait and see, I don’t think it’ll be an esports thing if I was being honest, my own personal opinion. Cause they’ve already got, they’ve already kind of got their, you know, world cup type modes, grand league and stuff like that. I don’t know too much about them, but they’ve got that side of things covered. I think you’re right. I don’t think this is the kind of thing they would announce. And so I’m thinking maybe we haven’t seen a console version of Trackmania since Trackmania Turbo back in 2015 when that was launched. So I’m thinking much more along the lines of, you know, is there gonna be a next gen version of Trackmania coming? Cause I think that’s where the speculation lies at the moment.
Tom Harrison-Lord (07:46):
Oh, I’d love that. I mean, yeah, like you say, it’s been five or six years since Trackmania Turbo. I played it a lot on the PlayStation for example, PS4. And I really enjoyed it and I think for many that was actually the Trackmania series has been around for a while, been very popular, but the console versions of the Trackmania Turbo introduced a new audience to it. And I think if they really want this game to sort of take to the next level with these new next gen consoles, with the extra power, I think they could easily run Trackmania. And I, I would love to see that. And it would make sense for the announcement of that sort.s Of that magnitude to be in a press conference.
John Munro (08:22):
Exactly. Right. Exactly. And also Trackmania is perfectly suited to console game play because it’s a controller game effectively. I mean, I tried it on the wheel would not recommend stick to the controller and, but yeah, it is a perfect game for console. It’s a perfect game for kicking back with your friends racing online. And it does require pretty heavy hardware because there’s so much customization with the maps and everything happens very quickly. So this would be perfect to me. I don’t see any downside to this and I kind of hope that is what’s implemented, but let’s wait and see.
Tom Harrison-Lord (08:48):
Okay. Yeah. So looking forward to it, but our prediction there, and I think we both agreed in that is a next gen console version of the current Trackmania, please. And thank you. So before we wrap up with the Ubisoft element of this podcast, we’ll talk about, Microsoft and Bethesda, Nintendo, with a new, another guest soon. If you keep listing, we’re just going to touch very briefly on the Crew 2. A game, that’s been out for a number of years now that it was often forgotten. But seemingly there is a big appetite for the DLC. I think that comes mainly from the car customization. Would you like to see some more Crew w DLC John?
John Munro (09:26):
Yeah. Why not? I mean, it’s, it’s proving to be very popular and it seems to every time we think it’s done, it seems to get back up again and fight back even stronger. So maybe the harder you kick it, the stronger it comes back. I don’t see any issue with that until people are still enjoying it. Bring it on. Why not?
Tom Harrison-Lord (09:40):
Yeah. I think that would be nice. They have committed to, at least more content coming towards the game until the end of 2021. And it was featured in last year’s briefly Ubisoft presentation as well. The only weird thing is it sort of midway through a big content update it’s already come out. So the timing might be weird to announce the next one. It might be a bit too far away, so maybe we will, maybe we won’t see it. Another game I’d love a next gen console version of though please, because the loading times are a bit intense. So.
John Munro (10:13):
That would be good.
Tom Harrison-Lord (10:15):
Yeah. That would be great. Didn’t even need like a big, revision or new textures or shadows just make use of the SSD please Ubisoft, but not sure. We’ll see that. All right. So that’s about it for Ubisoft.
Tom Harrison-Lord (10:27):
Thanks for joining us, John. We’re saying that there’s probably not going to be much for the Crew 2, even though we’d like an extra version, but we’re going to go out on a limb and predict a next gen version for consoles of Trackmania. All right. So next we’re going to talk Microsoft or more specifically Microsoft and Bethesda because this is the first E3 since the settled tech giant did buy cinemax media for $7.5 billion. And they’re going to have this, E3 these stream together as opposed to two separate ones on the Sunday, the 13th of June at 10:00 AM, Eastern time for those in America and 3:00 PM BST for those in the UK, joining us to talk about this is Justin Sutton. How are you doing Justin?
Justin Sutton (11:04):
I’m doing fantastic. How are you?
Tom Harrison-Lord (11:06):
Yeah. Good. Thanks. Ready to talk about some, E3 for Microsoft. Yeah, absolutely.
Justin Sutton (11:11):
I think certainly we’re going to be talking more about Microsoft and Xbox than we will about Bethesda.
Tom Harrison-Lord (11:18):
So just to be clear, we don’t think that, Bethesda will do any racing games as an aside about general video games in general, though, it will be interesting to see what they show because Deathloop and GhostWire: Tokyo. The next Bethesda games are not coming to the Microsoft store or XBox additionally, so that’s a bit awkward. But anyway, aside from that, we’re gonna talk about Microsoft because we might, we, we think that there might be some racing games there. So first of all, Justin, do you think that the next Forza Motorsport will be at this E3 showcase?
Justin Sutton (11:49):
So that’s a tough one. There’s been talk about this and we’ve talked about it even on our website and on our social media and stuff like that. And it’s, it’s the next one that’s due. So for those, for those that are unaware, that are uninitiated when it comes to Forza Motorsport slash Horizon and their tick tock alternating schedule, tick tock like the clock, not the app. Then it’s Horizon 4 was the last title, which would mean that Motorsport 8, which it won’t be called that. But the next Motorsport title is due next. Do I think? I don’t know if it’s going to, if it’s, if they’re going to show it, it’s going to be, I think not gameplay, it’s going to be very much a teaser trailer to kind of give you the vibe of it. It’s not going to give you details.
Tom Harrison-Lord (12:36):
Yeah. The interesting thing with this game is, so they recently came out on a Forza monthly stream and confirmed that it’s definitely called Forza Motorsport. Yeah. It’s a reboot. And they talked about also all sorts of new things for it. So, new tyre models and things like this, they have previously showed the game, but again, it was like, you’ve said not game play. Yeah. So at this point, people will be anticipating what it must be coming out soon. Right. But I also think that potentially the pandemic has maybe hindered track and cars scanning maybe, maybe not. It depends on how, how they operate as a business, but if it’s a complete reboot, it might be further away than we think the title suggests that it’s a full reboot though. Right.
Justin Sutton (13:21):
Right. And I mean, this is the perfect time to kind of do that as well because people are already, not expecting anything right away because of the pandemic and everything like that. So, if Microsoft does want to, and clearly they do, if they want to completely start over from scratch, sort of with, with Motorsport and the changes sound fantastic, by the way, I will say, as somebody who really did recently in a podcast episode said that they should just do away with Motorsport entirely. It does sound like they are steering the ship down the right path. That they’re heading, they’re heading in a new direction. That sounds very interesting.
Tom Harrison-Lord (13:59):
Yeah. So we know that they have been doing some play tests because anyone could sign up to the play test, but then only a select few in there. So there is something playable already in some form. We don’t know what shape or form. How good it is, how bad, how far into development. And we know that there’s going to be a new tyre model, which is, which is when they’re talking about tyre models in previous Forza Motorsport games when they’ve had like a 2017 on E3, they had like the Porsche 911 G2 coming from the stage with dry ice around it. And they were talking about it’s the best of game ever, but they were never actually saying, Oh, because of X, Y, Z, it was more about there’s all these cars in the game and you can play online now that the phraseology is very different, it’s more serious. And we know that it’s going to be different tyre compounds, field strategies, things that have been, solely missing from the motorsport games of late but again. Hmm. I wonder if that’s further away than we think basically.
Justin Sutton (14:55):
Yeah. It’s certainly, it’s certainly possible just because, it has something playable does not. Yeah. It doesn’t mean that it’s anywhere, anywhere near ready or anything like that. And now is like, like I mentioned before now is the optimal time to kind of break that schedule that they’ve had going, and it really Motorsport is kind of the, you look at it and you go, why can’t you be more like your brother, you know, kind of situation. So I think it definitely needs more help than Horizon does. Horizon has found a formula and is fully prepared to stick with it much to the delight of everybody that’s played Forza games, whereas Motorsport I think needs that extra time. So yeah, I, it’s interesting. I think we could end up seeing both games at E3, potentially. But yeah, I think maybe potentially Horizon getting a little bit more attention.
Tom Harrison-Lord (15:50):
Yeah. So Let’s just, let’s just talk about that. So it’s also been a while since last Forza Horizon 4 in 2018, there’s been constant monthly DLC and free car updates for that game, which even as recently as this month that we’ll be talking about, there will be something for it. So then it might be perhaps surprising that we’re talking about a potential reveal of a new one. However, there have been many rumors out there first. It was Japan, then it’s Mexico, just quickly in one word, which do you think it is?
Justin Sutton (16:20):
I think Mexico, I agree with that. Yeah. I think Mexico, cause they said Japan for Forza Horizon 4, even I think, and that ended up not being true.
Tom Harrison-Lord (16:27):
That just seems very complicated to develop, the address of the tight packed Toyko for example.
Justin Sutton (16:32):
Tokyo.
Tom Harrison-Lord (16:34):
Recently, there were some die-cast models that were leaked, which looked to be complete Hot Wheels. hey had a background of a beach, these were cars branded Forza Horizon, and these cars were not in the current Forza Horizon game. That adds credence to the fact that there might be a new Horizon soon. I could be wrong, but I think these die-cast models were slated to be released later this year. So that would make sense. It’s like a nice marketing type. We know that Hot Wheels and Forza are very, worked very close together as well. So you also mentioned there that the Horizon series has its formula, so therefore would it, could it be potentially quicker to develop and get out Horizon before the next Motorsport, which is a complete redo?
Rich Hutson (17:15):
Yeah, certainly again, I especially think this because Horizon, the Horizon side of Forza is in a better place. It’s the most played racing game, of recent years? Certainly on Steam and stuff like that. It’s up there, it’s been played by so many, especially because of the Xbox game pass and stuff like that. It’s opened a lot of doors for that franchise. And they kind of kill off those games. So, it’s hard to like jump in the old Forza games. So it seems.
Tom Harrison-Lord (17:47):
Well it’s impossible. Let’s just put this way, unless you have a used physical copy, which is a bit of a shame, but that’s for another time.
Justin Sutton (17:53):
Exactly, exactly. So, yeah, certainly. And just to go back on the Hot Wheels thing, there are beaches in Japan.
Tom Harrison-Lord (18:00):
True.
Justin Sutton (18:00):
But I still think that it’s going to be Mexico.
Tom Harrison-Lord (18:03):
And Scotland.
Justin Sutton (18:06):
But I still, I still think it is going to be in Japan or excuse me in Mexico. And I think it’s a better location as well, too.
Tom Harrison-Lord (18:14):
Yeah. Yeah. So, are we, are you predicting a new Forza Horizon will be there just to get it in black and white and it’d be in Mexico and it’d be out this year.
Justin Sutton (18:22):
All, but the out this year part I would be, I, yeah, I would say there is a possibility that maybe it’s, for next year, but certainly that is what they’ve done historically is that they’ve announced the game at E3 for release that year, before the holiday season to get everybody buying it and everything like that. So, I’d say that’s very, very likely it’s also possible that maybe not, but I think almost definitely they’re going to talk about Forza Horizon. And I think almost definitely it’s going to be a Mexico. I just don’t know if it’s going to be this year or not, but I think it’s very likely,
Tom Harrison-Lord (18:58):
I agree with that. I’m going to say that Forza Horizon 5. We’ll just call it, we’ll call it that for now, the next one will be shown off. I think Microsoft is in need of a big sort of tent pole, exclusive game at the minute. We already know that Halo was going to be that launch game and it was delayed by a year or thereabouts. But I do, I’m also hesitant on releasing this year, which does seem to be banded about at the minute, if it is, that’s a really nice surprise, kinda smells like a March ’22 thing, even if they’ll see about this year, because all the games that Microsoft has showed off so far haven’t really come out yet. But each development team is separate to each other in many respects, right? So these guys could be going on it, but I would also mention that playground games is also working on a fable game, which uses a Forza game engine.
Tom Harrison-Lord (19:47):
They’re a busy, busy bunch of people. So we’ll see. So I think that just about wraps up our Microsoft thing. I would say though, that very quickly there could be some third party racing games announced at the show is, well, you never know, but if they’re talking about Forza that they probably won’t want those to sort of take away the limelight. So I think what we’re going to say is then we might see a little teaser trailer for both, which might confuse some people, but we’ll definitely see Forza Horizons. So be sure to check out that conference and thanks for joining us to talk about that Justin.
Justin Sutton (20:21):
Thank you for having me. I am thrilled to see E3.
Tom Harrison-Lord (20:23):
So far on this episode of the podcast, we’ve talked about Koch, Ubisoft and Microsoft. Now it’s the turn of Nintendo. Nintendo is at E3, 2021. Well, it’s not actually there, it’s got a stream during the weekend. That’s on Tuesday, the 15th of June at 12:00 PM Eastern time for those in America, 5pm BST for those in the UK. So joining us to discuss that is Rich. How are you doing Rich?
Rich Hutson (20:45):
I’m good. Thank you. How are you?
Tom Harrison-Lord (20:46):
Yeah. Very nice. Happy to have you along. You ready to talk some Nintendo?
Rich Hutson (20:49):
Absolutely.
Tom Harrison-Lord (20:51):
Good. So, it’s Nintendo Direct, so there’s going to be lots of lovely Switch games. There were some rumors about potential Switch hardware to be announced all coming later this year. But it seems that Nintendo has stamped out those rumors because they’ve said it will be focused exclusively on Nintendo Switch software. So, Rich, is it time for some new Switch hardware? Do you have any opinions about the hardware?
Rich Hutson (21:14):
Well, first of all, well, very quickly the Nintendo do this a lot. They say on Twitter that we’re not going to show this or that. And then they go and show this or that they’ve done that on multiple times in the past. So take any tweet by Nintendo of America with a pinch of salt, in, in terms of whether we want any new Switch hardware. Honestly, no, I think the idea of a Switch Pro because everyone’s throwing around 4k, which is very 2016. Nintendo have never been one to push for, trying to get to high resolutions, trying to get to high frame rates. They focus on the games. It’s why, you dig out the Wii or the Christmas like I did. And it looks terrible because it’s running 4 ATI, but it didn’t matter. Cause we sports and bowling was, was great to play.
Rich Hutson (21:57):
So Nintendo pushing for like a 4k system doesn’t seem much like them. And I think there’s still people trying to get their head around the Switch hardware. It’s been out for four years now. And I think even Nintendo are still getting their head around it. Cause they’ve had some titles that have wobbled on even the base Switch. If they try and push for 4k and stuff going from here, I think it’s a bit of a pointless endeavor. Basically I revise the Switch with maybe like a more agronomic of a controller or just generally better. Cause they hadn’t done a revision once, like fine, but a full Switch Pro is they’re rumoring it to be? Nah.
Tom Harrison-Lord (22:34):
Well I’ve got everybody boring and agree with you on that, on that front, which means we’re both going to be completely wrong and they’re gonna announce it.
Rich Hutson (22:39):
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord (22:39):
I don’t think it’s necessarily time for it. I know that, a lot of hardcore gamblers will want to see more resolution, from the Switch and a lots of people play the Switch a lot and would like to see more of that. But you’re right. It’s not the Nintendo way of things. Thinking about motion controls, the fact that they’re only basically the only people making potable hardware, that isn’t like a smartphone these days. So that, they’re going to do their own thing. And I’m fine. So we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled, but I think we’re predicting no Switch hardware there. Or certainly not in 4k. So in terms of games though, we’re I was going to be talking about racing games, because that’s what we do at Traxion, right? So the best-selling racing game of all time is Mario Kart 8. If you combine the, Wii U and the deluxe version of Switch together, but technically the base version of that game didn’t come out. Well, it came out in 2014. So it’s been seven years. Do you think the time is right for a Mario Kart 9?
Rich Hutson (23:40):
Oh, absolutely.
Rich Hutson (23:41):
I’ve been clamoring for it forever. It’s a, as you say, 2014 for the original version, 2017 because it launched alongside the Switch, four years ago and you know, eight deluxe is, is wonderful. I love it. I play it a lot, but you know, too much of a good thing. I would like something new.
Tom Harrison-Lord (24:00):
Same here. But do I think it will happen though? That’s that’s the second question. I think it won’t happen, unfortunately, just to let you know. What’d you think?
Rich Hutson (24:11):
Mario Kart and their sort of announcements that they, they don’t have much of a big fanfare Nintendo don’t really do that. Like literally as of recording, they’ve just announced Battlefield 2042 and they’re hyping that up for the big full reveal, Nintendo don’t do that. They just come out and go here’s the game. There It is, like you can pre, you can buy it from this point and off we go, they don’t build up to this. So things like, the last, the last official Mario Kart game we got was home circuit, which is very cool. I’ve played it once, but it’s cool. And that just came out of nowhere. So with something like Mario Kart, I think you just have to watch the direct and hope that there’ll never be any big buildup to it, but it does feel like the right time. The other thing is the idea of whether we’d get DLC for eight. And I think if we were we’d have had it by now.
Tom Harrison-Lord (25:04):
Yeah. It feels. So there was a patch recently for Mario Kart 8 out of nowhere and it fixed some sort of leaderboard bugs. And so I think we wrote the article even sugguesting, could this, could this be something more.
Rich Hutson (25:17):
Yeah, there’s a lot of buzz around that?
Tom Harrison-Lord (25:18):
Yeah. I mean, it is a weird time to patch the game after a very, very long time like that. And it would be nice to have some DLC for the game, but again, Oh, it’s Nintendo though. Who knows? I mean, would you settle for some DLC for it?
Rich Hutson (25:33):
I would, I be happy with some DLC, but I think I would be happier with a full game. I mean, you look at how Nintendo were catered to the Switch by porting a lot of things and charging full price for them again.
Tom Harrison-Lord (25:46):
Yeah.
Rich Hutson (25:47):
I think Nintendo is, I think it’s more in Nintendo’s interest on America side for a game that is four or seven years old, depending on which side, I guess you stand on, it’s more in their interest to sell another £50 game than selling a £12.99 DLC because they know that people will pay it. Me being one of those people.
Tom Harrison-Lord (26:07):
Yeah. And listen, Nintendo does do downloadable content, but as you said there it’s main business model. Is those physical, game cartridges from a supermarket. Actually, if you look at the physical sales for games, Nintendo is in the UK anyways in like five of the top 10 positions every week still.
Rich Hutson (26:27):
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord (26:27):
So they’ve got this younger audience as well. So, um, yeah, I would like some DLC, maybe some, Diddy Kong racing team DLC, right? Probably probably.
Rich Hutson (26:37):
Nintedo 64 on the next virtual consult thing. Yeah, with Diddy Kong racing and Mario Kart 64. That could happen. That could be a big one. I’m surprised. I’ve not heard people ask about that yet. I think people have forgotten about the, the backwards compatible stuff on the Switch. That could be a thing. It is E3.
Tom Harrison-Lord (26:54):
I think if we’re going to see something on this as Nintendo of America does say exclusively talking about software, so many 64 racing games on the Switch will be gangbusters and generate so much hype. A lot of people will be big fans. Like for me, for example, I’d like to see a new F-Zero game, but the hopes of that diminished by the day, even now. So having the N64 games on the Switch could, could be, could be a good prediction there, I think. Yeah, that’d be nice. Do you think Nintendo will ever do racing games other than Mario Kart? That’s a quite a big question ever again.
Rich Hutson (27:31):
I mean, as you say, F-Zero, maybe that was kind of a little resurgence. So things like Wipeout when that came back on the PS4 in the mega collection.
Tom Harrison-Lord (27:39):
Yep.
Rich Hutson (27:39):
But that, as far as I remember, didn’t really make as many waves as they’d hopes. So maybe because F-Zero always in that same kind of ballpark, maybe they’re not as keen, although, it was, it’s a Super RMX came out on the Switch around launch and that was really popular. So, but again, maybe if that was, if that was popular, then they would have done F-Zero on the Switch by now, but maybe they might turn around and do a brand new thing, although just ideally back to the Mario Kart thing. Yeah. Smash Brothers Ultimate was really successful. It’s really, really good. They just said, here’s everything, let’s put it in one game, you do the same for Mario Kart. That’s the kind of game you can leave for seven or more years and just leave. If you put everything, everything in it, then you can leave it alone.
Tom Harrison-Lord (28:22):
Right. So I think that just about covers what we’re going to say about Nintendo. This one, I would say that there might be non Nintendo games supported to Switch to our racing games. We recently saw Snow Runner to be released on there. It’s actually quite surprising it’s more of a serious game. So it could be worthwhile tuning into the Nintendo direct for non Nintendo games as well on the go. But also I think what we’re saying is maybe no Switch hardware, maybe no DLC for Mario Kart, maybe not Mario Kart 9, but may, but possibly some N64 games on other online subscription service and a Mario Kart package, which includes like loads of stuff from previous games.
Tom Harrison-Lord (29:00):
Yeah. I think so. All right. Well that’s what we’re looking forward to from Nintendo. Thanks Rich.
Rich Hutson (29:06):
Thank you.
Tom Harrison-Lord (29:07):
All right. So to wrap up this E3 episode of the Traxion GG podcast. Joining us is Justin Milliner to talk about all sorts of other weird and wonderful stuff. How you doing Justin?
Justin Melillo (29:16):
I’m doing great, Tom. Thanks for having me on.
Tom Harrison-Lord (29:18):
Nice. Okay. We’ll gonna rattle through all sorts of things here. Cause we’ve got, we’ve done a lot of speculation about sort of the main publishers, which we think will definitely have some racing games. Now we’re going to talk about some where. We’re not too sure, but hopefully they do. And also some events are going to be happening after E3, but it’s still kind of part of this. Summer gamesfest and summer period where they do lots of announcements and press releases and stuff. So a small mention to the SQUARE ENIX presentation, which everyone can watch live. That’s on Sunday, the 13th of June at 12:15 PM Eastern time for those in America and 5:15 PM PST for those in the UK. And the reason we’re going to talk about this very briefly is because, well, there’s going to be some Final Fantasy games there, right? But it’s SQUARE ENIX it’s also has this SQUARE ENIX collective, which is like an indie publishing division of SQUARE ENIX their currently for those who don’t know, working on Circuit Superstars, which is a cool top-down racer, which we’re coming to console late in the year. So we might see some more details for that. And also there doing a game with Justin is being investigated recently, which is.
Justin Melillo (30:19):
Power Wash Simulator, which is, it’s not a driving game or a simulator, but, uh, it is a good relaxing time. And it’s good for my OCD, which I probably spent about an hour and a half trying to get some dirt off of a blue van for, for the beginning stage. So very relaxing time.
Tom Harrison-Lord (30:37):
Yeah. And it’s got vehicles in it. So therefore that’s the tenuous link everybody. It’s also just a bit weird and interesting and I think that sets the template for what we might see amongst the Final Fantasy and get there’s a, an action adventure game by PlatinumGames are going to be talking about there. I think this’ll be like, Oh, here’s a sizzle reel with Power Wash Simulator, Circuit Superstars. And so we’re going to keep our eyes peeled for sort of, for some of that, especially cause Justin loves the power washing. Apparently.
Justin Melillo (31:05):
I’d love to do it in real life too.
Tom Harrison-Lord (31:08):
Well, there we go.
Justin Melillo (31:08):
I’m kidding. I’m kidding.
Tom Harrison-Lord (31:11):
Nice. So then it’s worth mentioning, there’s going to be a PC gaming show and the future game show. On the same day, the Sunday 2:30 PM is going to kick off the back-to-back Eastern time. That is for America and 7:30 PM for those in the UK BST. Ah, I mean, usually there’s not too much here. Often there can be even repeated trailers from other showcases just to say, Hey, don’t forget it’s on PC, everybody. So I don’t think we would expect like a new PC racing simulators to be announced there. If that’s fair, Justin doesn’t seem to be the trend.
Justin Melillo (31:43):
Nah, I’m not really feeling like we’re going to have a, anything from that or anything from the indie game show either it’s. Indie games are great though. I mean some of the best games like Among Us and Rocket League have come from indie developers. So, we could get a surprise this year. I’ll keep my eyes out, but I’m not really expecting too much of it.
Tom Harrison-Lord (32:02):
All right. So we basically don’t know anything that’s going to becoming there, ahead of time. I guess you mentioned the indie game to showcase that good point. That’s on Monday the 14th of June 12:00 PM Eastern and 5:00 PM BST. There could be some nice little small games to play that are in the racing genre. And so we’ll definitely keep our eyes peeled and speaking of which it’s worth mentioning the Steam-next Fest, which I find very difficult to say, it’s not about you Justin what’s it called?
Justin Melillo (32:29):
Next Fest, Next Fest Next Fest. There we go.
Tom Harrison-Lord (32:33):
And this is, well, there’s going to be some videos and stuff and maybe some streams, but it’s not a technically an E3 broadcast, but it happens the day after E3 ends, right? So starting from the 16th of June for a limited period, till the 22nd of June, those with a PC and Steam will be able to download hundreds of game demos. Now on the website, none of them are racing games at the minute, but we do know that there are going to be at least a couple of racing games in there, which we can’t say at minute and there’ll be lots of smaller indie titles already. So will you be checking out some of these, limited time demos?
Justin Melillo (33:06):
Oh, absolutely. It’s um, it’s racing games and I’m really getting the liking on the different things that I’ve been able to see in the short time that I’ve been here. The, I wish it was a hundred racing games just to wet my whistle for the entire week, but, what we get is what we get and I won’t get upset and I’m looking forward to seeing what Steam’s got in store for us.
Tom Harrison-Lord (33:28):
Yeah. We will have coverage on any of the games are racing related, or vehicle related in this, in the, in the days and weeks that follow. So we will be trying to try them out. All of them. And for those with a PC, we would definitely recommend dipping into this and trying something that’s not normally in your wheelhouse, because it might surprise you. And for those on console, don’t worry, some of these games will most likely be coming to console at a later date. This is almost like an early preview for those who are really into it. So it’s also still worth checking out to see what’s there and watching and following our coverage because it might be coming to your device soon. So there sort of the ones that are smaller for us let’s say, well, we will be watching, but we don’t know what’s there, but let’s move on to. I don’t know how to say this, is it Nacon or Nacon Justin? What’s the official word on this?
Justin Melillo (34:15):
It’s Nacon. I watched last year’s video just to make sure. Nacon like the horse, neigh.
Tom Harrison-Lord (34:22):
Nacon. Thank you. Yeah. Good analogy there with the horse. I’ll still probably get it wrong before the end of this channel. So this is Tuesday, the 6th of July 1:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM. BST, live on their YouTube channel. It was last year anyway. And it’s worth tuning in because the teaser for the event or the image has a car on it. So straight away, that’s a good side. It’s an Aston Martin, which I think is from a game that we’ve talked about previously. What do you think Justin?
Justin Melillo (34:47):
Yeah, definitely. I mean, we know that a trailer dropped in April for Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown. So that’s probably what it is. They did say in that trailer that the next chapter was coming in July and Nacon Connect happens to be in July. So.
Tom Harrison-Lord (35:06):
Oh, funny that.
Justin Melillo (35:07):
It works out pretty well, doesn’t it?
Tom Harrison-Lord (35:09):
Yeah, it does. Now. So far, there’s been zero game play for this game. We also do not know what the ETA, when it’s going to be released. Right. So I think the time is right to show some, some gameplay. I don’t know if you agree or disagree with that, but everything we’ve seen so far is just like CGI at the minute.
Justin Melillo (35:24):
Right? Yeah. It’ll be good to see. I’ve never honestly played the test drive games, but just from what I’ve seen in the trailers, and from what I’ve seen online, in the little bit of research that I’d done, it is popular and, people are all over the place where, yeah, it’s, I’d like to see it, personally in like, if it takes place in like Las Vegas or something like that, honestly, but, probably not.
Tom Harrison-Lord (35:51):
Well, you know, it could be a good shout because a big part of the teaser trailer and what we know so far is there’s going to be a gambling element to the game and it has footage in a casino how that actually works. I don’t know. Maybe it’s gonna be like pink slips where you beat people and you win that you gamble the car. Right. I think in a teaser trailer, they put the keys down on top of the chips.
Justin Melillo (36:07):
Yeah.
Tom Harrison-Lord (36:09):
So bit cheesy, but it insinuates that you’re gonna have to be, battling for other people’s cars. All right. So I think we’re both looking forward to it, tentative, but pretty confident in saying that Nacon connect. We’ll have at least more on this game and we hope it’s gameplay, Nacon can also publish his other racing games. So there’s WRC 10, which we know is coming out as being revealed and Rims Racing, which is like a weird different alternative, taken a motorcycle game. Would you be interested in seeing any more of these games in particular as they approach release.
Justin Melillo (36:46):
Hey, any love to racing games in general? I’m totally down for, I don’t know anything about either of those. I don’t know anything about motorcycle racing. I don’t know anything about anything with WRC, but, I’m learning to love. And, if they’ve got anything for us, I’m all ears and all that.
Tom Harrison-Lord (37:05):
Yeah. That’s kind of why you’re in this segment of the game, right. Because especially for Rims Racing, lots of all new franchise, which I’m fairly certain in the podcast so far, we have not touched upon at all. And that just shows how the industry is reliant on like reboots and sequels or remasters of remakes and DLC. And basically that’s kind of all we’ve mentioned so far. So this is about the minute the outlier is the only sort of all new game. It almost focuses less on the, on track action and more on the parts and the tuning as like an educational tool. I think. So, as you said, that you don’t necessarily know too much about motorcycle games, right. So, but would you be interested in a game that teaches you more about the motorcycles, but I think this game could be that.
Justin Melillo (37:47):
Yeah, definitely. And, even, starting back when I started, I got into that, indie game motorcycle, Motorbike Simulator, something like that. And that teaches you, just kind of the mechanics. So if this teaches me more, the racing side of things, then definitely I would love to learn more about it.
Tom Harrison-Lord (38:05):
It’s going to teach you all about the past too. So, Hey, if that gives you extra context for other games, the future, I would recommend checking out Nacon connect and Rims Racing. So that, that covers that one that is relatively soon after E3. Further out to that. And this is where we really are going to speculate now is EA Play Live. So normally this is within the time of E3 in fact, going back before COVID-19. EA would have a giant stage with a crowd and they’d be like, FIFA, Madden, Need for Speed, uh, not this year, but it’s going to be like an online stream. Like it was last year for them. It’s on Thursday, the 22nd of July. So we are talking far out from this is that, you know, it’s, a month and a bit away. As we record this, they did just show though, just to sort of pull the rug out of the carpet from everyone, at the E3, the Battlefield footage, not that that’s racing games. So what do you think from a racing game point of view might be at the EA Play Live because we know that Need for Speed is delayed. So will it be there or not?
John Munro (39:11):
Yes, it’s delayed until 2022 now. And, with things starting to lean back to the side of normalcy after the pandemic and everything that happened, it’s, hopefully going to be. It’s coming out next year. We know that. So if it’s only a couple months into the year, why not release something now just to get everybody, you know, some sort of tease of what’s going on with it. I personally would Need for Speed. I played it a bunch during my childhood. I haven’t really played much in the new stuff that that’s been there, but.
Tom Harrison-Lord (39:45):
Your not alone with that as well. I was going to rudely interrupt and say, because of the recent ones are fine and solid, in my opinion, and they’re definitely loved by many people, but for me, they used to be even better. And so I mentioned Battlefield there because the criteria in the studio developing the next Need for Speed, the reason it’s delayed is because they’re helping out with Battlefield. Right.
Justin Melillo (40:07):
Right.
Tom Harrison-Lord (40:08):
So I, I agree with you. I think this is the time to show a teaser but game play might be too far away because they’re busy developing battlefield. Is that a fair compromise, do you think?
Justin Melillo (40:19):
Yeah, they haven’t really given us much. We don’t know. It’s all pure speculation at this point and it’s not going to be here for, for more than a month away being that it’s in the middle end of July. So, Criterion really hasn’t given us much to look forward to besides, a couple of screenshots, but I would love to see something. It would be great.
Tom Harrison-Lord (40:39):
It wouldn’t be great. So fingers crossed for at least the teaser. I think that’s what we’re saying as a prediction.
Justin Melillo (40:43):
Definitely.
Tom Harrison-Lord (40:44):
And the other thing, I guess, to finish off with the a and finish this segment of the podcast off quickly is that they bought, Codemasters, a British based racing game. The only racing game studio these days, for $1.2 billion, that’s not an insignificant amount of money. Right.
Justin Melillo (41:01):
That’s a huge acquisition.
Tom Harrison-Lord (41:03):
Yeah. So do you think as EA you have to sort of show why you’ve invested, therefore we’ll they mention Codemasters for the first time in one of the press conference?
Justin Melillo (41:14):
I don’t see why not? I mean, with it being out, it’ll be out for probably a little bit more than a week at that point, or just less than a week.
Tom Harrison-Lord (41:22):
Oh Formula 1, yeah.
Justin Melillo (41:23):
Yeah. The Formula 1 game that is, and if they want to boost some sales, they could, show off some of the gameplay there from the finished product. And, I mean, heck I kind of want to try the F1 game just from all the stuff that you guys have been doing.
Tom Harrison-Lord (41:39):
We talk about it a lot.
Justin Melillo (41:39):
Definitely. Codemasters too, they have Project Cars and there’s been rumblings about a Project Cars 4, so, that’s also a possibility that we might see something there aswell.
Tom Harrison-Lord (41:49):
Well. Yeah, that’s, that’s actually a good point. There were some tweets that were deleted, but there were out there by, as the studio head for the next Project Cars. It seems quite soon after the last one, but then the last one apart from DLC was basically not supported anymore. So clearly people are busy on something there, I would say. And I just think you’ve made this big acquisition. So I would agree. I think they might just mention F1 and say, by the way, this came out, I think it was, well, F1 is going to be out on the 16th of July and this show is on the 22nd. So you’ve got six days, in between, I think it’ll just touch it and go, by the way we’ve made this big investment. Here’s is a little sizzle reel for F1. With like to review scores or something.
Justin Melillo (42:32):
You can buy it right now.
Tom Harrison-Lord (42:33):
You can buy it right now. Exactly. They’ll love the sales pitch there, won’t they EA. But I’m wondering if we see like a little teaser for something else that Codemasters may or may not be working on, just to say, Hey, they’re doing other things, and this is going to be worth our time. And I wonder if it is Project Cars, all that, or the main studio for Codemaster, I forget where it’s located, but Formula One’s by the Birmingham subsidiary. Right? The main studio hasn’t released anything since DiRT Rally 2.0, which has been quite while I’m wondering if they’re working on something because their third studio has just released DiRT 5. So it’s too soon for them, I think.
Justin Melillo (43:10):
Right.
Tom Harrison-Lord (43:11):
So I, if I was to predict something, it’s going to be at least a logo for something to say, Hey, exists. What you think about that?
John Munro (43:18):
Either way I’m down for it. I just want to get something here. It’s, it’s my first E4 and EA Play and Nacon connect. That I’m going to be, covering as, as a esports and gaming journalists. So, definitely exciting times really looking forward to it. I’m going to have to get plenty of it. I’m sure.
Tom Harrison-Lord (43:41):
It sets a bit busy. And I just want to say generally this E3 is kind of weird. Obviously there’s no physical event for a second year in a row, but it also seems like companies are sort of looking at separating themselves a little bit like EA and Nacon, just to sort of make their announcements breathe a bit, but it still will be a big buzz. And it sounds like there’s going to be lots to talk about from a racing video games, point of view. So you’re right. To be excited Justin, I’m excited. I hope that listeners are, and I think that just about wraps up this special E3 prediction podcast, if that okay. I would say though, we probably got a load wrong. So when this is released and if stuff’s being released and announced or developed to these shows, I can only apologize, but be sure to comment and let us know because we’d love to hear it.
Tom Harrison-Lord (44:24):
And also this is going to be released just after the Summer Games Fest live, which we don’t know if generally there’s no racing games there. So we don’t know if there are going to be, but there is, there is Sony here, and I really hope that Gran Turismo 7’s not showcased, because that’s going to be after, before this podcast released. So I can only apologize for that, but anyway, thank you very much for this thing. Please do like, and subscribe. It really helps on audio and YouTube platforms to get the word out there for this podcast as ever visit the Traxion GG website for daily news, Justin will be writing loads of articles on there and be sure to follow Traxion GG on social media. Thanks for joining us, Justin, and thank you for listening.
Justin Melillo (45:04):
Thanks for having me.
