Every time E3 rolls around, a certain excitement is felt throughout the entire gaming industry. Studios are excited to show what they've been working on and gaming enthusiasts are able to see what the future of video games looks like. While that excitement is certainly felt across the board for anyone who loves games, there's also a little disappointment after E3 ends each year for those hoping to see a specific game that turned out to be nowhere to be found. There's plenty to be seen next week at E3 2021, but there's bound to be a few big games that skip the conference.
One game is notably missing from this list is Elden Ring. It seems like the general consensus for Elden Ring's E3 presence is so all over the place that it's hard to say whether or not it will make an appearance. Updates on the game have been few and far between over the last two years, and Bandai Namco already has two upcoming games with release dates to focus on for its showcase: Scarlet Nexus and Tales of Arise.
There have been plenty of rumors saying that Elden Ring will be appearing, albeit there have been rumors saying that about nearly every major industry showcase since the game's 2019 announcement. While just about everyone would love to get a glimpse at it, fans should keep their expectations in check regarding Elden Ring at E3 2021 as well as everything else on this list (below, in no particular order).
10 Hogwarts Legacy
One of the many games delayed into 2022, Hogwarts Legacy is unlikely to make an E3 2021 appearance. Despite initially planning to release later this year, it seems like there's still a ways to go in the game's development. There is a handful of Warner Bros. games that fans are itching to see including Hogwarts Legacy, Gotham Knights, and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, but the only game the studio will be showing at E3 2021 will be Back 4 Blood. Some fans might hope for another look at Hogwarts Legacy in the form of a "one more thing"-type announcement, but that seems unlikely.
9 Persona 6
Atlus has been riding high on the Persona series ever since the worldwide release of Persona 5 in 2017. Since then, it has released several spin-off games including Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, Persona 5 Strikers, and are rumored to be working on a Persona 5 fighting game. The big rumor surrounding Persona for E3 2021 is that Persona 5 Royal will be coming to Game Pass later this year. It's possible that a Persona-related announcement might come during the Microsoft show, but it's likely to be about Game Pass and not Persona 6.
8 Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate
Just last week, Square Enix held a Dragon Quest-centric live stream celebrating the series' 35th anniversary where it officially announced Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate. It's been known since 2020 that Square Enix has been working on a follow-up to Dragon Quest 11, but now it's received an official title. Because of its announcement last week, it's unlikely that Dragon Quest 12 will get any time at Square Enix's E3 showcase. The games it has confirmed to be showing include Babylon’s Fall, Life is Strange: True Colors, Life is Strange Remastered, and Marvel's Avengers. Unfortunately, Dragon Quest didn't make the list it seems.
7 Metroid Prime 4
As much as Nintendo fans might hope and pray, Metroid Prime 4 will most likely be absent from its 40-minute presentation on Tuesday. Metroid Prime 4 has had development issues that caused the entire project to be rebooted in 2020, so it's unlikely that the game will be ready to be shown off in its current state. Additionally, Nintendo clarified that its showcase will revolve primarily around games releasing later in 2021, so, despite many studios announcing things releasing over the next few years, Nintendo is focused on the rest of this year. If development is ahead of schedule, Metroid Prime 4 could potentially be showcased at a future Nintendo Direct towards the end of the year, but it probably won't surface at E3 2021.
6 Skull and Bones
Another game that's had its fair share of development issues, Skull and Bones generated plenty of excitement for its potential appearance at Ubisoft's E3 2021 showcase, but just last month the publisher announced another delay for the project. Because of the timing of the announcement, it seems like Ubisoft wanted to get ahead of the rumors surrounding Skull and Bones' appearance at E3 and temper expectations. The publisher has plenty of other games to talk about for its show, but it's a shame that it seems its highly anticipated pirate adventure won't be one of them. Skull and Bones has been pushed back to 2022 or 2023, so there's still much to be seen before the game finally releases.
5 Forspoken
Also formerly known as Project Athia, Forspoken is a new IP being developed exclusively for the PlayStation 5 by Luminous Productions and published by Square Enix. While Square Enix has a show, it has already been pretty clear about what exactly it'll be showcasing. While there's definitely room for surprises, because of Forspoken's existence as a PS5 exclusive, it doesn't seem like the title will be making an appearance. Sony has been notably absent from E3 for a few years now, but the company often times does its own events during the summer. It's much more likely that Forspoken will make its next appearance during a PlayStation event than at E3 2021.
4 The Elder Scrolls 6
Bethesda has come forward and said that its main focus is currently on Starfield and that The Elder Scrolls 6 will be taking a back seat until it's finished. For this reason, it's all but confirmed that the studio's follow-up to Skyrim will be absent from E3 2021. Since Microsoft's acquisition of Zenimax last year, plenty of attention has been on Bethesda and what it next big game will be. While Starfield will likely be the star of the show, fans of the Elder Scrolls series have been eager for any updates on the sixth mainline game in the series since its reveal in 2018. Because of how much excitement Starfield is going to generate, it doesn't make sense that the studio would want to split that up with more Elder Scrolls 6 news.
3 Fable 4
Similar to The Elder Scrolls 6, very little is known about Playground Game's upcoming Fable 4. The game was announced in a teaser trailer last summer; however, no news has surfaced on the game's development. So little concrete evidence is actually known about Fable 4 that its official title remains unannounced, so the game still seems to be in the early stages of development. Microsoft has plenty of upcoming games to talk about during its showcase and it's not entirely out of the question that Fable 4 might be one of them, but with how early the game still seems to be, it feels unlikely that any substantial news is coming.
2 BioShock 4
There have been plenty of rumors surrounding BioShock 4 in the past several weeks, mainly regarding its potential status as a PlayStation 5 exclusive. It was only recently announced that BioShock 4 was in development, but leaks and information deduced from job listings have already begun painting a picture of what the game might look like. If the rumors are to be believed and that BioShock 4 is a PS5 exclusive, it's likely that no news would come from E3 2021 about the game. Instead, it would be shown off during a PlayStation showcase completely unaffiliated with E3. Even if it's not an exclusive, BioShock 4 is still so early in development that seeing any footage of it would be highly suspect.
1 Beyond Good and Evil 2
Beyond Good and Evil 2 has become something of a white whale for gaming fans. Every so often, Ubisoft shows some footage or gives a development update on the project, and then it disappears for sometimes years at a time. While it's unclear exactly when its development started, Beyond Good and Evil 2 has been in the works for well over ten years at this point but still seems far from being finished. With the September 2020 departure of its director Michel Ancel as well as accusations of abuse in the workplace, Beyond Good and Evil 2 still appears to be struggling in its development.
The last anyone's seen of the game was a gameplay showcase in 2019, but little word on when the game will be done has come from the studio in quite some time. Ubisoft has plenty of other games already confirmed to be showcased, so, unfortunately, it doesn't look like there's much new information about Beyond Good and Evil 2 at E3 2021.