E3 2019: All the release dates you need to know

So another E3 has come and gone, leaving behind a confusion of cinematic trailers and vague premonitions of future DLC. But beyond the big console non-reveals and the games with release brackets in place of dates, we got a plethora of games with actual launch dates. Here’s everything you need to know so you can schedule your days off accordingly.

(Note: I’m not including anything going into Early Access on a certain day — that feels like cheating. Also, I didn’t include games for which we already knew the release date. I’m trying to help you cut through the noise — I’m not running a charity here.)

Out now

A few games revealed during the show are playable immediately now that the show has wrapped. It’s always nice when the presenters do this: it’s like a little reward for having sat through the droning of so many shows. There wasn’t very much of this at this year’s E3, but there are a few things you’ll be able to play now: The Last Remnant Remastered launched on Switch at the end of the Nintendo show, as well as the Collection of Mana — a collection of games including Trials of Mana, which has never before been released in the West. Also, Cadence of Hyrule, the crossover between Legend of Zelda and Crypt of the Necrodancer, will be out by the end of the week.

If you’re interested in mobile games, the surreal Mosaic, revealed during the PC Gaming show, is free on the App and Play Stores. Also, Devolver Digital revealed its Bootleg collection, a series of games that obviously rip off some of their most famous titles — which sounds like a very Devolver thing to do. It’s currently available on Steam at a whopping 1 percent discount.

Later this year

Even if we aren’t getting them immediately, we are getting quite a large number of games in the second half of 2019. September in particular is looking jammed: the biggest release of the month is undoubtedly Gears of War 5, which comes out on the 10th. Other than that, we’ve got the adorable Conan Chop Chop (September 3), Daemon X Machina for the Switch (September 13), the remake of Link’s Awakening (September 20), and the surprise revival of the Contra series, Rogue Corps (September 24).

An intriguing game based on the Blair Witch movies is due on August 30, and hopefully it can teach all these Slenders and Outlasts how it’s done (considering whose material they swiped the concept from in the first place). Also in August, the 22nd specifically, the creators of I Am Setsuna and Lost Sphear release their latest action-RPG, Oninaki. We also discovered the Wolfenstein VR game, Cyberpilot, will release on July 26 alongside the latest entry in the series, Youngblood.

As for the end of the year, it’s only got three major entries listed (alongside all the others who just have a vague bracket of “this year”), but they’re doozies. For starters, Obsidian’s latest game The Outer Worlds — which looks like the game the company’s wanted to make for several years — releases on October 25, 2019. It’s hitting the Microsoft Store in addition to the Epic Games Store, so if you don’t want to buy from the latter you don’t need to. The second major release is the profoundly metal Doom:Eternal on November 22 and… yes, please. And finally, Just Dance 2020 is coming November 5 to many platforms, including the Wii, for some reason.

The new year

Most of the games revealed for 2020 were given vague release brackets, so there are supposed to be a lot of games coming in 2020 at vague times. But we did get a few solid release dates in there.

The first of the year is Ori and the Will of the Wisps, a sequel to Ori and the Blind Forest, which releases on February 11. It looks like more of the same, but I loved Ori 1 to pieces, so I’m not mad. Shortly after comes the mysterious Gods & Monsters, a Zelda-style game based on stylized Greek mythology Ubisoft revealed during its conference. It’s supposed to come out February 25, which makes me wonder why the company hasn’t released more information about it before now.

March is another month that jammed. On March 3, the first episode of the long-awaited Final Fantasy VII Remake drops, while the epic Watch Dogs Legion hits on March 6. That is going to be a busy week. You’d better get them both finished by March 20, because Animal Crossing: New Horizons drops then, and once you start an AC game it’s basically “good-bye, life as you know it.”

Still, if you can poke your head out of the sand long enough, you can play the neon-drenched Keanu Reeves-starring Cyberpunk 2077 is finally coming out on April 16 — anyone else remember that the original teaser was released in 2013? That’s a long time to wait for anything, so the game had better live up to all this hype. Also, if you have any room left on your credit card and time schedule, Square Enix’s Marvel’s Avengers drops on May 15.

That’s about everything that got a release date. See y’all next year!