How to watch EA's Gamescom media briefing live online

Electronic Arts will take to the stage at Gamescom on August 14 to deliver its press conference, starting 4pm CET (10am New York and Toronto, 3pm London, 10pm in Malaysia, Singapore, and Perth), with the event streamed live on the company's website.

Electronic Arts will take to the stage at Gamescom on August 14 to deliver its press conference, starting 4pm CET (10am New York and Toronto, 3pm London, 10pm in Malaysia, Singapore, and Perth), with the event streamed live on the company's website.

What's to expect? Well, ambitious online game Star Wars: The Old Republic will soon embrace the free-to-play movement, so there's that, and EA may want to talk up its experience with other popular free games SimCity Social, The Sims Social, and Battlefield Heroes.

That's likely in addition to some impressive numbers concerning the amount of downloads made by players of FIFA 12, Battlefield 3, Mass Effect 3 and Bejeweled Blitz, the growing reach of community games network Origin, and possibly some new additions to the Play4Free brand.

There'll be time devoted to another MMO, the myth and conspiracy theory crossover The Secret World, and upcoming survival horror game Dead Space 3.

A new season of sports approaches and that means it's time to shed Olympic fever and get ready for the excitement of domestic soccer, especially for Gamescom's European crowd, with FIFA 13 preparing to launch the week of September 25 -- there may well be room for Madden NFL 13 and EA Sports MMA 2.

Big guns Medal of Honor: Warfighter (week of October 23) and Crysis 3 (February 2013) will be presented, as will imminent urban racer Need for Speed: Most Wanted (week of October 30).

Is it too early for The Sims 4? Perhaps too early for a public announcement, though there were around four and a half years between The Sims 1, 2 and 3, and The Sims 3 has already accrued 8 expansion packs, in line with its predecessors, so keep those sim-watching eyes on 2013.