Next week, the Electronic Entertainment Expo is upon us. But along with hundreds of games and several surprises, the show will also be home to some must-see panels at the E3 Coliseum.
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Taking place at the Novo from Tuesday through Thursday, the Coliseum will be the place to see a variety of gaming and media superstars talking about games in one capacity or another. And for those that don’t have an E3 2018 badge to attend, a majority of the panels will be broadcast online across Twitch, Mixer, Twitter and YouTube. We’ll provide the links as soon as they’re live.
As far as how this year’s schedule looks, here’s the rundown:
Tuesday, June 12
10:00 a.m. — Revenge of the NPC: Video Gaming’s Influence on Westworld
Jonathan Nolan, Creator/Showrunner/Director — “Westworld”
Lisa Joy, Creator/Showrunner/Director — “Westworld”
Tom Bissell, Author
11:00 a.m. — ‘The Last of Us Part II’
Neil Druckmann, Director/Writer — Naughty Dog
Anthony Newman, Co-Game Director — Naughty Dog
Kurt Margenau, Co-Game Director — Naughty Dog
12:15 p.m. — Interactive Magic with Penn Jillette and Randy Pitchford
Penn Jillette, Magician — Penn & Teller
Randy Pitchford, President — Gearbox
1:00 p.m. — The Music of ‘Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle’
Grant Kirkhope, Composer — “Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle”
1:45 p.m. — The Future of Narrative
Amy Hennig, Writer/Director
2:30 p.m. — Bandai Namco Entertainment’s Fighting Game Dojo
Katsuhiro Harada, Franchise Director — “Tekken”
Motohiro Okubo, Producer — “Tekken,” “Soul Calibur”
3:00 p.m. — Hideo Kojima in Conversation with Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Hideo Kojima, President — Kojima Productions
Jordan Vogt-Roberts, Director — “Kong: Skull Island”
4:00 p.m. — The Making of ‘Fallout 76’
Todd Howard, Designer/Director/Producer — Bethesda Game Studios
Danny O’Dwyer, Creator — NoClip
5:00 p.m. — ‘Transference’ with Elijah Wood
Elijah Wood, Actor
6:00 p.m. — ‘Grim Fandango’
Alan Blumenfeld, Actor
Tony Plana, Actor
Jim Ward, Actor
Tim Schafer, President — Double Fine Productions
Maria Canals-Barrera, Actor
Patrick Dollaghan, Actor
Out of all of these, the Westworld and Kojima panels look like absolute musts; and Fallout 76 could be a panel that fans shouldn’t miss.
Wednesday, June 13
11:30 a.m. — ‘World of Warcraft’ Storytelling: Bringing a Robust Universe to Life Through Different Mediums
Steve Danuser, Sr. Narrative Designer — Blizzard
Terran Gregory, Project Director — Blizzard
Christie Golden, Sr. Writer — Blizzard
12:00 p.m. — ‘LEGO DC Super-Villains’: An Inside Look at the Villain-centric Adventure Game
Arthur Parsons, Head of Design — TT Games
Ames Kirshen, VP, Interactive & Animation — DC Entertainment
Justin Ramsden, Designer, Super Heroes, The LEGO Group
Clancy Brown, Voice of Lex Luthor
Joshua Overnshire — Moderator
1:00 p.m. — ‘Ghost of Tsushima’
Chris Zimmerman, Founder/Programmer — Sucker Punch Productions
Nate Fox, Creative Director — Sucker Punch Productions
Jason Connell, Art/Creative Director — Sucker Punch Productions
Joanna Wang, Environments Lead — Sucker Punch Productions
1:45 p.m. — ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’
Jason Blundell, Co-Studio Head — TreyArch
2:30 p.m. — ILMxLAB: Pioneering Immersive Storytelling
Mohen Leo, Director of Content and Platform Strategy — ILMxLAB
Julie Peng, Sr Manager, Talent Acquisition — ILMxLAB
Matt Martin, Creative Executive — Lucasfilm Story Group
3:00 p.m. — Phil Spencer: Gaming for Everyone
Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox — Microsoft
Tina Summerford, Head of Programming — Xbox
3:30 p.m. — ‘Tomb Raider’
Camilla Luddington, Performance Artist for Lara Croft — “Shadow of the Tomb Raider”
Jill Murray, Lead Writer — Eidos Montreal
Darryl Purdy, Performance Director — “Shadow of the Tomb Raider”
Earl Baylon, Performance Artist for Jonah Maiava — “Shadow of the Tomb Raider”
4:00 p.m. — Inside the Web: A New Look at ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’ for PS4
Andrew Reiner, Executive Editor — Game Informer
Bryan Intihar, Creative Director — Insomniac Games
Jon Paquette, Lead Writer — Insomniac Games
Caninda Chew, Animation Director — Insomniac Games
Ryan Smith, Game Director — Insomniac Games
Bill Rosemann, Executive Creative Director — Marvel Games
6:00 p.m. — Worlds Collide
Donald Mustard, Worldwide Creative Director — Epic Games
Joe Russo, Director — “Avengers: Infinity War”
Geoff Keighley, Executive Producer — The Game Awards
6:30 p.m. — Vitamin String Quartet: ‘God of War’
The Spider-Man panel should be a huge hit on this day; and having Joe Russo speak about worlds colliding should be pretty sweet. Plus it’ll be interesting to hear what Phil Spencer has to say following Xbox’s E3 showcase.
Thursday, June 14
There’s not much happening this day, but you do get the following:
10:00 a.m. — Darren Aronofsky in Conversation
Darren Aronofsky, Filmmaker
10:45 a.m. — ‘Cuphead’
James Baxter, Animator
Maya Modelhauer, Executive Producer, Lead Inking Artist — Studio MDHR
Hanna Abi-Hanna, Lead Animator — Studio MDHR
We’re not sure what Aronofsky will have to say, but he’ll have a fascinating conversation nevertheless. And Cuphead is going to be an artist’s dream come true, as the team will be hosting a live animation session where they show you how much effort it takes to bring its 1930’s style to life.
Overall, there are quite a few sessions that make E3 Coliseum stand out this year. You might want to schedule ahead though, because a lot of these are going to fill up sooner rather than later. It never hurts to try and stand in line early.
E3 2018 takes place next week.
