E3 2016: What to expect from EA — Battlefield, Mass Effect, Star Wars, and more

Electronic Arts does not have a booth on the show floor at next week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, but it’s still coming to Los Angeles with a ton of games for fans to try out.

EA Play kicks off on Sunday as a satelite gathering outside of the E3 trade show that brings the industry together to look at upcoming products. EA has confirmed what you can expect from it next week. The Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1 shooters and a lineup of EA Sports games will headline the event, but you should also expect some special surprises. EA Play is open to the public as one of gaming’s most successful companies aims to establish a more direct line of promotion and marketing with the audience that has helped turned this business into a $99.6 billion industry.

To give people an understanding of what to expect, EA released an announcement today detailing what will happen at Play.

EA Play’s confirmed games

The following games will have hands-on kiosks:

• Battlefield 1
• Titanfall 2
• FIFA 17
• Madden NFL 17
• NHL 17
• Bejeweled Stars
• Madden NFL Mobile

You can also look forward to these other activities:

• Battlefield 1 multiplayer livestream: Two 32-person-teams comprised of YouTube personalities, Twitch streamers, and celebrities will compete on Sunday at 2 p.m. Pacific time.
• Madden Championship and other competitive livestreams: EA will broadcast players competing in its games live from EA Play.
• Spawn creator Todd McFarlane will autograph a limited-edition Titanfall 2 poster on Monday.
• Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley will sign autographs on Sunday.
• Pin trading: EA will hand out six special-event pins that fans can try to collect.
• Battlefield 1 dog tags: EA will have a kiosk that creates custom WWI-era military dog tags.

Star Wars, Mass Effect, and virtual reality

When it comes to the playable games, EA is emphasizing its 2016 releases. But it is also promising “a few surprises from games beyond” the end of this calendar year. That could include more information on Star Wars games and the next Mass Effect, which is due out in early 2017 following the launch of its theme park attraction.

Mass Effect: Andromeda developer BioWare has said it will show off the game in some form as part of EA Play. With the game coming before next year’s E3, we can likely expect to EA to touch on it in some major way since this is one of its most important franchises.

As for Star Wars, EA is working on a number of intiatives. Most recently, the company’s new Motive Studios has grown to 65 people in Montreal as it oversees a couple of projects related to the galaxy far, far away. EA also confirmed that Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is coming in 2017, followed by the action game from Dead Space developer Visceral in 2018. On top of those games, Titanfall studio Respawn is working on its own Star Wars action game. EA will not let E3 go by without mentioning Star Wars, so expect to learn more about all of these games next week.

Finally, it’s possible EA may even hold some announcements if it plans to join Microsoft or Sony onstage for their media briefings. We know that EA has said it is working on a VR version of Star Wars: Battlefront for PlayStation 4, and maybe it’ll have that on stage as part of Sony’s PSVR roster.