E3 2024 Day One — Liveblog as it happens

Hello, and welcome to day one of PC Invasion’s liveblog. (Technically day two, but Summer Game Fest is its own thing, so that’s more day zero.) In this liveblog we’ll be covering all the E3 2024 announcements from the first day of the show as they happen. As ever, our crack news squad will be beavering away to get the stories up, but if you just need some bitesize bits or refreshers on what’s happened — maybe you went to the loo, or to get a drink, or perhaps you’re looking for a précis after the fact — then we’ve got you covered.

As ever, all times are in Eastern time, and you’ll get to watch my sanity dwindling with every passing minute. Perhaps I’ll start rambling about shoes or fashion again. Who knows where my mind will go? (Other than far, far away from where it should be.) No auto-refresh here so you’ll have to manually refresh the page to see the latest updates, and the newest updates will be at the very bottom. With that said, enjoy the show.

E3 2024 Pre-Show

1:30pm — I’m pretty sure this was meant to start 30 minutes ago, but we’re nearly there now. 15 seconds left on the stream’s countdown timer as I type these words. Stress levels rising.

1:32pm — The splash video at the start showed some Phoenix Wright, which heartens me, and mentioned T-Pain, which confuses me. Greg Miller and Jacki Ling are on stage hosting the pre-show. I’m popping to the oven to get some food, because I’m not expecting anything major just yet. Right now, they’re just explaining that this is a remote show, which you can tell on account of the fact that you’re watching it on the internet.

1:35pm — Alex Mendez is the third host, apparently, along with a bunch of people from sites that aren’t PC Invasion. So yeah, nothing yet. I may slip back into my role as gaming’s fashion commentator shortly. I will possibly hush for a bit while they talk about Things They Are Interested In. Nobody’s asked me what I’m interested in, but that’s probably for the best. That’s a dangerous question.

1:37pm — SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT AND SPECIAL GUEST? I wasn’t expecting that in the pre-show.

Still 1:37pm — Never mind, it’s the mayor of LA, Eric Garcetti, talking about how LA is great. The sighing and disappointment begins!

1:39pm — And now a reel of talking heads talking about how great E3 is, how you make friends there, and how it’s a magical experience. I’d say “I give up”, but I’m saving that for later. This is the pre-show, so 30 minutes of masturbatory self-congratulation and nothing else is to be expected.

1:52pm — I’ve taken to staring out of my window, and will update you on anything that happens there, because it’s infinitely more interesting than this pre-show.

BREAKING NEWS: There’s a family having a picnic on the beach.

1:56pm — Aw, they’re having a paddle in the sea. Which seems insane, because it’s not like I live in a tropical paradise or anything. I know it’s hot, but come on.

Oh, and the pre-show’s still just people laughing and yelling at each other. Which is also probably what’s happening at the picnic, but the picnic is actually kind of sweet.

Ubisoft Forward Pre-Show

2:01pm — From one pre-show to the next! We’re onto Ubisoft, which… is currently a countdown timer and trailers. I’m sure the trailers are just to start with, but if the “pre-show” is literally an hour of trailers and watching a timer tick down, I’m going to lose my mind. And I really don’t have much of it left.

2:04pm — From a For Honor trailer, to… oh, are you serious? Eivor from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla walking forward. Slowly. While the timer ticks down. Is this the entire pre-show? Is it just Eivor walking forward through pretty scenery for an hour? I really hope not. I can’t see it being that. But you never know.

You know what you could’ve done instead? Started the E3 stuff an hour later instead.

2:08pm — I was about to say “Hahaha, holy shit, it really is just Eivor walking for an hour” but after about five minutes of that, they moved on to a vid about accessibility in gaming. Which is a thing that actually matters. Ubi does pretty well on the accessibility front; their games don’t, for example, feature the exact flashing light patterns that trigger seizures. Generally some pretty good accessibility options in there, so for once this doesn’t feel entirely self-congratulatory.

2:12pm — Hahahaha. And we’re back to things-from-games slowly moving forward. This time it’s someone sat on a Watch Dogs Legion drone which is flying through London.

2:15pm — WHY DIDN’T YOU FUCKING START E3 AN HOUR LATER?! I can’t emphasise just how pissed off I am at this. Seriously, this is a complete waste of time, and the only reason I can assume the show started when it did is because they decided it had to start at that time. The E3 pre-show I can understand: they want to do that to introduce the show, and so on. But this Ubi pre-show? No. The E3 pre-show could’ve started one hour later, we could’ve removed everything from the Ubi pre-show so far, and nothing of value would’ve been lost.

Anyway, here’s the fucking drone.

2:17pm — The drone has gone away in favour of some vaguely trippy visuals. We’re currently taking bets in the PCI Slack on what’s next. Lauren’s guessing swimming, and… oh, no, it’s more flying! This time it’s The Crew 2.

Enjoying E3, everyone? Fucking magical, isn’t it, just like those talking heads said earlier?

I’m going to try to stop swearing so much, but good grief, this show is making it difficult.

2:20pm — The plane continues on its lonely journey across America, forever above people, but unable to touch them or their hearts. An analogy for life, clearly, and how we should make our efforts not just to go onward, but to partake. Or I’ve actually lost it already and this is just Ubisoft wasting my fucking time.

I’m going to start a swear jar.

2:22pm — Ubisoft is now explaining what a game “going gold” means. Hilariously, the person explaining this noted that it means “The game is fully playable. It’s stable. It’s got a decent level of performance.” Having played a lot of games that are in gold status, as well as released games, I can only assume they have different definitions of “stable” and “decent” than I do.

2:23pm — AND NOW SAILING THROUGH THE ICY WATERS OF ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA TO FILL MORE TIME

Did anyone have “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla sailing” on their Ubisoft’s Time-Wasting Bullshit Bingo Cards?

Cam is guessing that the next one will be Watch Dogs again, and it’ll be a taxi. If it turns out to be driving in Watch Dogs, I’ll give him that one. We’ve also got a guess of “Sam Fisher following a guard” from Kevin C, and I’ll give high odds on that guess. Ubi actually showing a Splinter Cell game? That hasn’t been done in a while. Bold move.

2:30pm — BREAKING NEWS! There’s a dog walking along the beach. The family remains unperturbed. They’ve stopped eating and are just chilling and enjoying the evening breeze, as it’s 7:30pm here.

Oh, and Ubisoft has stopped talking about the music in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and gone back to its trippy interstitial again.

Cam, what the hell?

2:33pm — It’s… it’s a taxi in Watch Dogs Legion. Cam nailed it. I have no idea how, and he’s promising he did not have insider information, which I actually believe. But the fact that he guessed the vehicle is actually killing me.

What the hell, Cam?

2:37pm — I’m actually still mind-blown by Cam getting that right. Oh right, it’s driving in The Crew 2 now, but… Cam? Seriously?

2:44pm — Huh, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are coming to Brawlhalla. That may be the first actual bit of news out of E3 so far. The Brawlhalla team teased that there was a new crossover event being announced today, so I guess that’s it! Coming June 16th, apparently. We may find out more during the show itself.

(Oh, and Eivor rode a horse for a few minutes.)

2:48pm — Now it’s someone stomping forward slowly in For Honor. Meanwhile, I’m wondering if the family having a picnic will look at this liveblog. If you were having a picnic on a beach during E3, it might be you.