E3 2014 Games & Schedule: 5 Gaming Trends to Watch Out For

In a couple of hours, the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo will start at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Techies and gaming buffs are now squirming in their seats, beds, or gaming dens about what's new and hot coming out of E3 2014.

It can be recalled that last year's E3 witnessed the simultaneous unveiling of rival gaming consoles PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, causing tidal waves of interest all around the two devices. Will a similar thing happen at this year's exhibit? Or will we be seeing new and exciting clues of gaming trends to come? Here are 5 things to expect, notes Mashable.

Virtual Reality

Although this is nothing new (some of them were featured at last year's expo), things are bound to get exciting with the fact that Sony has just introduced its own VR headset prototype and that Facebook has just acquired Oculus VR.

"Suddenly the potential of VR is becoming a bit more actual," the tech news site observed. "At this year's Game Developers Conference at San Francisco, which occurred even before the Facebook buyout, we saw more virtual reality game prototypes than ever."

"That rush is due to Oculus VR reported selling more than 85,000 of the Oculus VR development kits - prototypes for developers to start creating virtual reality experiences. Those developers have had their headsets for more than a year now, and we're starting to see more sophisticated experiences all the time," Mashable added.

It's a shame, however, that E3 happens a month before the second-gen Oculus development kit will be released.

NFC Gaming Devices

The "Skylanders" franchise has reportedly raked in huge revenues due to Activision. Disney has even cashed in on this opportunity by releasing its own NFC-enabled game. As such, other tech and gaming firms are expected to follow suit and release more NFC toys.

Indie Games

"Flappy Bird" is one of the more popular examples of the rise of the indie game developer. Once a marginal group, this crop of game makers may soon be considered mainstream and compelling players revenue-wise in the gaming industry.

"We're going to see a lot of indies that were only on Steam being elevated by first party publishers. People want to see indie games. The footprint is expanding and there are far more than just a couple big name indie games," revealed Casey Lynch, vice president of indie games publisher Midnight City and former editor-in-chief of IGN.

Sony has apparently seen the merits of indie games as it has released 9 different ones in 2013.

More Free-to-Play Options

"While we've seen free-to-play dominate mobile, and explode thanks to the MOBA genre and games like League of Legends, other bigger games companies haven't jumped on the bandwagon," Mashable observed. However, this year may be different as there may be more "free-to-play titles."

Sneak Peeks

Trust gaming companies to tease their new offerings way in advance. Expect to see many give fans a glimpse of what's to come in 2015 or announcing release dates of games that have been pushed back to next year. But why the delay?

"With the new consoles come new challenges, mainly the rising cost of developing games and the time it takes. The expectations of consumers are growing, too. They want better graphics, stories, more complex gameplay, layered on top of of things like systems of achievements and interaction," explained Trendy Games CEO Darrell Rodriguez, also the former CEO of LucasArts.