EA, E3, GamingWe’re on the ground for the Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known to the world as E3. The festivities kicked off Monday morning with a barrage of press conferences prior to the opening of the main floor. With the PS4 and Xbox One finally on the market this year promised to be dull in terms of hardware but software looked huge, for most, but not EA.

Other than the usual suspects, a re-up for Madden starring Richard Sherman on the cover, The Sims, UFC and Golf (with some extra bells and whistles) the rest of 2014 looks kind of meek.

Without much focus on 2014 EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson stood in front of a packed house of reporters at LA’s Shrine Auditorium showing off what to expect from EA, in the future. Are we talking 2015, actually, probably not. EA showed off a series of games in their earliest stages, most we won’t even see until 2016.

EA’s Dice Studio in Sweden was first out of the gate with Star Wars. The studio went deep into location and authenticity to make a game experience that Star Wars fans who were exposed to the series at any stage, would truly enjoy. EA decided to show some very early video of the in game engine but not much more than that. Although no street date was even suggested at the press conference, many feel this could be the first of these “future” titles we see and it could be close to December 2015 to coincide with the release of Star Wars Episode VII.

Bioware showed off their RPG Dragon Age: Inquisition. They also showed off what were called “conceptual prototypes” of the next game in the Mass Effect series, again without even a breath of when to expect it.

EA also touched on the follow up to Mirrors Edge. First announced at E3 last year, the company still only showed a conceptual prototype with very early rough building block levels. This title looked nowhere near ready.

Finally EA tipped reporters on a new game from Criterion the creators of the Burnout series. It’ll be a first-person game with helicopters, motorcycles, skydiving — not just cars. But it’s doesn’t have a title or anything more than very early prototype footage. Patrick Soderlund, EVP of EA Studios said.

So evidently the far off future looks great, but it appears we may even get to see if the Madden curse effects Richard Sherman’s career before we see any of these games.