(Scroll to the bottom for the tl;dr. I have charts that give this info in a condensed version.)

With all the hoopla surrounding E3 currently, I’ve been my normal inquisitive self lately. I’ve watched gamers debate and discuss the merits of each individual conference, as well as conferences of yesteryear. Of course I have some colorful opinions about what I’ve witnessed, but the main thing I noticed is that we as gamers don’t have great memories. We love to romanticize our gaming pasts, as well as those of our favorite gaming companies. Due to this, I’ve watched a lot of you let your imagination run wild when trying to convince others of who really “won” E3 in different years. So I’m here to present the facts. What I am not here to do is decide who won anything. I just want to create a body of work that will help you properly remember what the hell happened at E3 this week, and in past events. So let’s get started.

I’m going to track a few things. First and foremost, I’m going to list everything FEATURED for the Big 3 (Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.) This means only games with their own segment. I’m not going to track down those 12 games we saw in the quick indie montage. But any indie game with it’s own presentation counts (think Ori and the Blind Forest for example.) I’m not going to list things for any other conference, so don’t ask me to. I’m going to list the games, their eventual release date, Metacritic score (for whatever system’s conference it appeared in) if it’s been released, and estimated sales based on VGchartz. I believe VGChartz only shows sales for physical copies, but I don’t have a better way to track sales. What I hope to show with this data is…..

• How soon games are released after E3 reveals for each company
• Sales for the games they choose to showcase
• Critical reception for the games they choose to showcase

I’ll also keep a list of exclusives. They will be listed apart from multi-platform games so they are easy to differentiate. I’ll do my best to note timed exclusives, because I feel credit should be given for those. So three categories, timed exclusives, exclusives, and multi-platform games. PC and handheld releases will not count against exclusive status, a title only has to be console exclusive to count. That’s my personal rule, you can apply your own rules to the data as you wish. The time frame I’m researching is from E3 2014 to now, since 2014 was the first E3 after the PS4 and XB1 were on the market. So let’s go! Today we will examine E3 2014.

Microsoft E3 2014

Multi-platform

• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – 11/03/2014, 9.64 million (XB1 and 360 combined) 81 Metacritic
• Assassin’s Creed: Unity – 11/11/2014, 3.58 million, 72 Metacritic
• Dragon Age: Inquisition: 11/18/2014, 1.5 million (XB1 and 360 combined), 85 Metacritic
• Evolve – 2/10/2015, 0.66 million, 74 Metacritic
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – 5/19/2015, 1.41 million, 91 Metacritic
• The Division – 3/08/2016, 2.47 million, 80 Metacritic

Exclusives

• Forza 5 – 11/22/2013, 2.3 million, 79 Metacritic
• Dead Rising 3 – 11/22/2013, 1.58 million, 78 Metacritic
• Project Spark – 3/04/2014, 0.17 million, 73 Metacritic
• Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha – 6/9/2014, no sales info, 75 Metacritic
• Dance Central: Spotlight – 9/02/2014, 0.19 million, 74 Metacritic
• Killer Instinct Season 2 – 9/23/2014, no sales info, 85 Metacritic
• Forza Horizon 2 – 9/30/2014, 2.24 million (XB1 and 360 combined), 86 Metacritic
• Fantasia: Music Evolved – 10/21/2014, 0.16 million, 77 Metacritic
• Sunset Overdrive – 10/28/2014, 1.16 million, 81 Metacritic
• Halo: Master Chief Collection – 11/11/2014, 3.38 million, 85 Metacritic
• Ori and the Blind Forest – 3/11/2015, no sales info, 88 Metacritic
• Halo 5 – 10/27/2015, 4.74 million, 84 Metacritic
• Phantom Dust – 5/16/2017, no sales info, 73 Metacritic
• Fable Legends – Cancelled
• Scalebound – Cancelled
• Crackdown – Still in development

Timed Exclusives

• Rise of the Tomb Raider – 11/10/2015, 1.85 million (XB1 and 360 combined), 86 Metacritic
• Inside – 6/29/2016, no sales info, 93 Metacritic

 

Sony E3 2014

Multi-platform

• Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition – 8/19/2014, 4.02 million (PS4 and PS3 combined), 90 Metacritic
• Destiny – 9/9/2014, 7.31 million (PS4 and PS3 combined), 76 Metacritic score
• Disney Infinity 2.0 – 9/23/2014, 1.77 million (PS4, Vita and PS3 combined), 71 Metacritic
• GTA V Remastered – 11/18/2014, 15.37 million, 97 Metacritic
• Far Cry 4 – 11/18/2014, 5.42 million (PS4 and PS3 combined), 85 Metacritic
• Battlefield: Hardline – 3/17/2015, 2.55 million (PS4 and PS3 combined), 73 Metacritic
• Mortal Kombat X – 4/14/2015, 3.03 million, 83 Metacritic
• Batman: Arkham Knight – 6/23/2015, 4.2 million, 87 Metacritic
• MGS V: The Phantom Pain – 9/1/2015, 4.13 million (PS4, Vita and PS3 combined), 93 Metacritic
• Dead Island 2 – Still not released, said to still be in development

Exclusives

• Entwined – 6/9/2014, no sales info, 59 Metacritic
• Last of Us Remastered – 7/29/2014, 5.51 million, 95 Metacritic
• Infamous: First Light DLC – 8/26/2014, no sales info, 73 Metacritic
• Little Big Planet 3 – 11/18/2014, 2.62 million (PS4 and PS3 combined), 79 Metacritic
• Grim Fandango Remastered – 1/27/2015, no sales info, 84 Metacritic
• The Order – 2/20/2015, 1.75 million, 63 Metacritic
• Bloodborne – 3/24/2015, 2.71 million, 92 Metacritic
• Magicka 2 – 5/26/2015, no sales info, 72 Metacritic
• The Talos Principle – 10/13/2015, no sales info, 88 Metacritic
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – 5/10/2016, 9.18 million, 93 Metacritic
• No Man’s Sky – 8/09/2016, 1.9 million, 71 Metacritic
• Let It Die – 12/3/2016, no sales info, 72 Metacritic

Timed Exclusives

• Abzu – 8/02/2016, no sales info, 78 Metacritic

 

Nintendo E3 2014

Exclusives

• Bayonetta 2 – 9/20/2014, 0.8 million, 91 Metacritic
• Hyrule Warriors – 9/26/2014, 1.24 million, 74 Metacritic
• Super Smash Bros 3DS – 10/03/2014, 7.79 million, 85 Metacritic
• Pokemon Alpha/Omega – 11/21/2014, 12.35 million combined, 82/83 Metacritic
• Super Smash Bros Wii U – 11/21/2014, 5.02 million, 92 Metacritic
• Captain Toad Treasure Tracker – 12/05/2014, 1.32 million, 81 Metacritic
• Kirby and the Rainbow Curse – 2/20/2015, 0.58 million, 73 Metacritic
• Splatoon – 5/29/2015, 4.67 million, 81 Metacritic
• Super Mario Maker – 9/11/2015, 5.64 million, 88 Metacritic
• Yoshi’s Woolly World – 10/16/2015, 1.42 million, 78 Metacritic
• Xenoblade Chronicles X – 12/04/2015, 0.9 million, 85 Metacritic
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 3/03/2017, 1 million, 96 Metacritic

 

TL:DR version

E3 2014 Release Info

	Microsoft	Sony	Nintendo
Games released before E3	3	0	0
Games released same year	10	9	6
Games released next year (before E3)	3	6	2
Games released next year (after E3)	5	7	4
Games still not released/Cancelled	3	1	0

 

E3 2014 Sales Info

	Microsoft	Sony	Nintendo
Games under 1 million sold	4	0	3
Games 1-3 million sold	8	5	4
Games 3-5 million sold	3	5	1
Games over 5 million sold	1	5	5 (Counting Pokemon games separately)
Games with no sales data	8	8	0

 

E3 Metacritic Info

Multi-Platform

	Microsoft	Sony
Games rated 90 and above	2	3
Games rated between 80 and 89	4	3
Games rated between 70 and 79	2	4
Games rated below 70	0	0

Exclusive

	Microsoft	Sony	Nintendo
Games rated 90 and above	0	3	3
Games rated between 80 and 89	6	2	3
Games rated between 70 and 79	7	5	7
Games rated below 70	0	2	0

 

Well, for those who are still here, there you have it. I don’t know how much reach this article will have, but I’m interested to see what this info means to those who do read it. I wonder if this data backs their opinions about E3 in general, as well as this particular one. Without getting into specifics, I can easily say I did not expect things to look like this based on what I remember. I suspect it will be the same for others. Check back next time when I tackle E3 2015. Happy gaming!