E3 2012 rumors, gossip and hoaxes

Oh, the sometimes sweet and sometimes acrid spring smell of E3 rumors fills the air. We best collect these rumors and put them out for mass consumption before they spoil, because they go quick and they go spectacularly. It's a beautiful, yet tragic annual event.

The fanbase disappointment associated with a rumor gone bad is a terrible thing, but it's also what makes E3 so exciting. The outlandish anticipation, the collapse of expectations, the surprises that drill straight to your heart and remind you why you love following E3 and gaming news in the first place.

Let's not wait a second longer.

June 1 Updates:

• Dead Space 3 officially confirmed.
• Castlevania: Mirror of Fate teased.
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 officially revealed with a cinematic trailer.
• Star Wars: 1313 shown, full debut trailer on Monday.
• Zone of the Enders sequel was not shown or teased during the Konami event.
• Capcom, despite prior mention, was not involved in the Spike TV pre-E3 event.

May 31 Updates:

• Leaked images from an unknown Ubisoft title, early speculation is it's related to Splinter Cell: Blacklist or Prince of Persia.

Hard Truth

Rift expansion -- In the past week, certain (larger) press outlets received a mysterious box full of an assortment of items: 4 shoe soles,  5crystal prisms, two posters referencing "raids", a measuring level with a sticker labeled with 10, 6 rusty keys and one gold key labeled "Port Tempest," and a red hood. Status: Confirmed. Rift: Storm Legion was confirmed May 31.

Dead Space 3 -- Earlier this month, EA confirmed the development of Dead Space 3 in a quarterly investor's call. Shortly thereafter, rumors of cooperative play, new side-to-side evasive rolling, telekinesis skills and alt-fire options for weapons. Status: Unofficially confirmed. Screens, including Dead Space 3's logo, have leaked internet-wide. [Update] Officially confirmed. Expect to see a full Dead Space 3 unveiling during EA's E3 keynote.

Gears of War -- Surprisingly, rumors surrounding a new Gears of War game have been surprisingly quiet. They mostly amount to, "Why not?" Microsoft could get away with Halo 4 as far as big console exclusive news, but ... why not? Show us some Gears of War, show us some Fable. Status: Confirmed. GamInformer teasing a new Gears of War game as their July cover story. The new rumor... is it a spin-off or prequel to the main trilogy. A shadowy character in manacles referencing Marcus himself at the start of Gears of War, or it could be Epic creating parallel with new character.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted 2 -- This rumor started as most do, with a early retail listing on an obscure website. Add to that EA referencing a new Need for Speed title due in Q3 fiscal year 2013 and this is one of the easiest rumors of the season. Status: Unofficially confirmed. Programming listings from TwitchTV clearly show a Need for Speed: Most wanted. The grain of salt? Could be some sort of remake for 3DS or Wii U.

Castlevania: Mirror of Fate -- Paul Gale Network has been touting a couple of Castlevania rumors for a year now. The first is Castlevania: Mirror of Fate,  a 3DS/Wii U title that uses the 3DS' cameras to create some unique "mirror-like" puzzles. Status: Confirmed. Nintendo Power confirmed the release of the 3DS version of Mirror of Fate, and the Wii U version is said to have become Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. [Update] Mirror of Fate was teased during Konami's pre-E3 event, but will likely have a full trailer during Nintendo's E3 keynote.

Good Odds

Sony and cloud gaming/Sony acquiring Gaikai -- This story, as E3 approaches, has slowly been becoming more specific and dramatic. In March we heard Sony was exploring the idea of not allowing used games to run on their system. That rumor has since been told as Sony exploring a digital only console, though admittedly that rumor is quite far fetched.

Recently, it sounds like Sony's next console will have a combination of digital/retail availability, and just yesterday we're hearing Sony is partnering with Gaikai -- bringing game streaming and cloud services to the next generation. Status: Likely. Both Gaikai and Onlive are saying to expect huge things at E3.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 -- Paul Gale Network has a monopoly on Castlevania news. The intitial rumor was for a Castlevania: Mirror of Fate 3DS twin on the Wii U, but the Wii U version has since become Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. Status: Likely. Konami has teased some announcements to be made at its Pre-E3 show tonight, in which one of posters is likely referencing a console Castlevania title. [Update] Confirmed. Both events last night, Spike and Konami's pre-E3 shows, featured the debut trailer for Lords of Shadow 2. Gabriel Belmont is seen using his new-found Dracula powers, and near the end of the trailer Alucard is teased.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist -- Jade Raymond's Ubisoft studio in Toronto was linked to a title named Splinter Cell: Retribution earlier this year, as part of an Ubisoft investor report document. Another retailer document from earlier this month named it Splinter Cell 6, but only in the past week has the name become Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Status: Likely. A NeoGaf poster has claimed to see a promo for Blacklist, which will be shown during Ubi's keynote at E3. The name may be up in the air, but Splinter Cell is almost certain to make a showing this E3.

Quantic Dream's Infraworld -- This rumor has appeared quite suddenly. The greater gaming community has been curious what Quantic Dreams has been working on. Our best clue is a reference to a game called Infraworld on a Quantic Dream employee's resume, a name trademarked by Sony. Status: Likely. CVG has only recently reported that a trusted source told them Quantic Dream is working on two games for Sony, and that one will be announced at Sony's E3 keynote.

Coin Toss

Wii U to support two touch-pad controllers -- When the Wii U was first shown at E3 2011 last year, it took a while for the news to slip out that at the time it only supported a single fancy touchpad controller. Most gamers were surprised, but some were very disappointed, likely including developers who would view a single fancy controller as a limitation. Only recent vague rumors have led us to believe that Nintendo listened to the frustration, and has upped its tech to support two of the controllers. Status: Likely.

Star Wars: (insert franchise here) -- We know there's a new LucasArts Star Wars game in development; we know a Star Wars game is going to be announced on Spike TV tonight; what is this mysterious Star Wars game? Rough rumors and bitter fan exclamations point towards a Battlefront reboot or sequel, but for that matter it could be a reboot of any number of old Star Wars game franchises. A calmer mindset will say it's an entirely new franchise built on tech we haven't seen before. Which is it? Who knows! Status: game, confirmed; title: difficult to say. [Update] New game is officially named Star Wars: 1313, full trailer on Monday.

Redesigned 3DS -- These are the sad facts, the 3DS is not currently performing very well. In fact, it's almost as if Nintendo has created a vacuum around the handheld, with very few game's announced  and limited amounts of the handheld available on shelves. In fact, Amazon Japan is out of stock!

We know Nintendo wants to add a second analog stick to its handheld, and considering its very unlikely they're abandoning the console in Japan -- are we looking at a huge 3DS redesign announcement at the Nintendo keynote? With a bigger screen? With a better battery? Nintendo does love its bi-annual handheld upgrades. If so, Nintendo has kept this secret very well guarded. Status: Difficult to say.

Eminem's Acid Ghost -- This rumor is quite a bit unclear, and also borderline ridiculous. GoNintendo found out about Eminem filming a commercial for a game named Acid Ghost. The kicker? It's supposed to be a mature themed game for the Wii U. What kind of game is it, how is Eminem involved, and is this Nintendo's way of trying to move back into the core market? Status: Likely.

Poor Chances :(

Starfox/Metroid Crossover -- Those internet rumor mongers teased the world with this one. They first reported a Starfox/Metroid crossover title potentially being developed, but only recently have rescinded their rumor. The game was at one point considered by Nintendo and Retro Studios, but is certainly not in development anymore and will absolutely not be at E3 next week. Nintendo giveth and Nintendo taketh away. Status: Dead. Then... what is Retro working on!?

Xbox 720/PlayStation Orbis details -- Both consoles are rumored to reach retail shelves in 2013, but is E3 2012 too early to officially announce them? Both Sony and Microsoft have said that no new console details will be revealed at E3 this year.... but you have to wonder. Will one of them try to steal the show with a teaser? Wouldn't Sony's Gaikai acquisition tie in with a new console announcement? Then again, the lack of any news regarding next-gen game announcements ensures we won't likely be seeing anything at all. Status: Unlikely.

Kingdom Hearts HD Collection -- This is one of those dark rumors that starts on 4chan or the comments of Reddit. A story popped up claiming a Kingdom Hearts HD Collection combining every single Kingdom Hearts game to date was in the works. As ridiculous as that sounds, the image was very nicely put together, and Kingdom Hearts fans so very dearly want a direct console sequel. My mailbox, however, can tell you that the only Kingdom Hearts game being focused on right now is Dream Drop Distance. Status: Unlikely.

Final Fantasy XIII Versus is now Final Fantasy XV -- Here's another great rumor that came out of nowhere. It started from a video said to be taken from a Square Enix press event which shows some Final Fantasy XIII Versus footage. What's surprising is when the footage ends and a logo for Final Fantasy XV comes up on screen, followed by logos for the Wii U and PlayStation 3. This one's unfortunately untrue. The footage has been shown before, and it doesn't help that there are only 3 or 4 people in the audience cheering. Status: Dead.

Lightning Round:

Wii U launch lineup: Expect potential news on Zelda, Pikmin, Mario, Metroid, Kirby, Star Fox, or Donkey Kong. It could be all of them, it could be none of them. 

Harmonix: Harmonix has confirmed they'll be announcing a new franchise at E3 this year. We're betting it has to do with music.

Capcom: Tonight's Spike broadcast will be sporting some Capcom news, but whether that's a new announcement or just a Lost Planet 3 trailer is anyone's guess. [Update] Capcom was a no-show on the Spike pre-E3 show.

Zone of the Enders: The new ZoE sequel was teased at a Konami event recently, but expect to see some a full-fledged trailer tonight  during Spike's pre-E3 event. [Update] Konami's pre-E3 show teased the ZoE collector's edition, but no mention of the sequel.

The No-Shows: Irrational Games and Bioshock Infinity, Rockstar and Grand Theft Auto 5, Bungie and Destiny, Respawn and whatever they've got, Valve and anything beyond Dota 2, CS:GO, or Big Picture Mode.

Wii U price: Don't expect a Wii U price announcement, as it's still in fluctuation this far from launch. in fact, the media reaction to the Wii U may have a dramatic effect on the price. Maybe we'll get some official tech specifications, however.

[Update] Leaked Ubisoft Images: NeoGaf uncovered some new images from an Ubisoft trailer. They think it might be Prince of Persia, but I'd say it's too hard to tell. Need more information!

The Speculation Pile:

Beyond Good & Evil 2 - Recent leaked screenshots may portend an actual announcement... o

Fortnite - Shown at the 2011 VGA's, this game needs to see the light of day again.

Metal Gear Solid sequel - Kojima has promised, "big things,"  at E3 this year -- and considering the distance he's put between himself and Revengeance, that might mean a big announcement. [Update] Kojima talked for a while during th Konami pre-E3 show, but only teased his studio's new Fox Engine. He says to look forward to coming months.

Dragon Age 3 - News about BioWare and E3 is nonexistant. Are they laying low, or are they setting up a huge announcement for a big franchise sequel?

Know of any rumors we might have missed, off the top of your head? Games that may or may not be announced due to some circumstantial evidence? Let us know and we'll update our list.

Rumors don't fit your fancy? Make sure to check out our official list of game's that will 100% be appearing at E3. It's five times as amazing as our list of rumors, but half has ridiculous.