Third time’s the charm, hopefully. After a marathon three-hour debut at E3 2015 and then being bullied out of its time slot by Ubisoft for E3 2016, PC Gamer's PC Gaming Show is back for a hopefully drama-free E3 2017—though a change in sponsors adds a juicy bit of intrigue of its own.
This year’s iteration of the PC Gaming Show will take place on Monday, June 12 at 10 a.m. Pacific. In the past that would’ve put them in conflict with Microsoft’s conference, but Microsoft’s pulled a Bethesda and shuffled off to Sunday afternoon instead, leaving the PC Gaming Show, Ubisoft, and Sony to hold down Monday.
The first two PC Gaming Shows were funded primarily by AMD, but this year it’s “powered by Intel.” I’m not sure whether AMD bowed out amicably or Intel outbid, but either way it’s an interesting shake-up. AMD’s shown off new Radeon hardware at the show the last two years, and we might’ve expected to see the hotly anticipated Radeon Vega graphics cards make an appearance for 2017. Will Intel use the show as a forum for new hardware? Harder to say.
That’s mostly behind-the-scenes politicking though. Up front the show will be much the same as always, though presumably a bit more polished as it goes into its third year. Sean Plott a.k.a. Day9 will host again, and expect the same flood of trailers from PC-centric publishers like Bohemia, Tripwire, Nexon, and more.
If you’re in the Los Angeles area June 12 and want to swing by the Ace Hotel, you’re also welcome to attend the show in person. Tickets are available on the site free of charge, though I expect they’ll be gone before long. Best of luck, and see you in 39 days.
