Summer Game Fest


Summer Game Fest is a live video game event organized and hosted by game journalist Geoff Keighley. The event takes place annually over multiple live streams during the North American summer period, the most notable of which is the "main show" which usually airs on the first day of the event and showcases upcoming major releases. The "main show" is usually then followed by multiple streams over the next few days from other publishers or groups, such as an Xbox Game Studios showcase or "Day of the Devs" featuring several indie games.
While Keighley had been involved in events associated with E3, one of the game industry's prominent events, he had expressed concern and dissatisfaction with the direction the Entertainment Software Association had planned for the event in 2020, and withdrew from participation. When the Impact of [the COVID-19 pandemic on the video game industry|COVID-19 pandemic] caused the cancellation of physical events for E3 and Gamescom in 2020, Keighley established the livestreamed Summer Game Fest presentation to help replace these events. Following the ESA's decision to discontinue E3 after 2021, Summer Game Fest has become the default mid-year showcase for game announcements, and often is nicknamed as "not-E3" because of this substitution.

List of events

History

2020

Games journalist Geoff Keighley had been working with the ESA since before 2000 to support the E3 convention typically held in June of each year, including running the E3 Coliseum, a side event to give developers and their games more exposure than the standard press conferences. Ahead of the planned E3 2020 show, the ESA had announced a number of changes to its approach, aiming the content of the show towards what it described as a "fan, media and influencer festival". This change of approach was criticized by some in the industry, and Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that it would not be participating in the event, after missing E3 2019, as the vision offered by the ESA did not match its expectations; Keighley also opted out of the show, noting he did not "feel comfortable participating" due to the changes.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ESA canceled the physical event for E3 in 2020. Keighley began working with numerous developers and publishers to run a four-month Summer Game Fest from May 7 to August 24, 2020, helping developers and publisher to host live streams and other events in lieu of E3 and Gamescom. Alongside Summer Game Fest, Keighley promoted the third Steam Game Festival, following The Game Awards 2019 and the previously canceled 2020 Game Developers Conference, which ran from June 16–22, 2020. Over 900 games had demos available on Steam for players to try, alongside a slate of interviews with developers throughout the period. A similar event for Xbox One games occurred from July 21–27, 2020, as part of Summer Game Fest.
Announcements made during Summer Game Fest 2020 included:
The second Summer Game Fest took place from June 10 to July 22, 2021, coinciding with E3 2021. From June 15–21, 2021, ID@Xbox offered a number of demos of upcoming games for the Xbox One and Xbox Series X and Series S consoles as part of Summer Game Fest.
Summer Game Fest 2021 opened with an announcement stream of games hosted by Keighley on June 10, 2021. Titles presented include:
Summer Game Fest 2021 included the first Tribeca Games Spotlight on June 11, 2021, featuring games that had been nominated for the inaugural Tribeca Film Festival video game award. These games included:
Koch Media presented a showcase on June 11, 2021, as part of Summer Game Fest. Alongside introducing their new publishing label, Prime Matter, Koch Media's presenting covered the following games:
Sony participated in the event by holding a State of Play on July 8, 2021. Announcements made during the event include:
The third Summer Game Fest ran throughout June 2022, with its core programming from June 9–12. Participating publishers with individual showcases included Capcom, Devolver Digital, Epic Games, Netflix, Nintendo, Sony, and Xbox.
The following titles were showcased:
The fourth Summer Game Fest was a combined digital and physical event for the first time, held from June 8 to 11 2023, at the YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California; a physical component was available to the press only in 2022.
The following companies were featured:
Nintendo and Konami did not participate. Nintendo instead hosted a Nintendo Direct on June 21, while Konami announced their games at the Tokyo Game Show in September.
The following titles were showcased during the main show:
The fifth Summer Game Fest was held at the YouTube Theater from June 7 to 10, 2024.
The following titles were showcased during the main show:
The following titles had new updates, downloadable content, or ports showcased during the main show:
In addition, Innersloth, creator of Among Us, announced Outersloth, a game fund to support other indie game developers. Innersloth also showcased the upcoming animated television series based on Among Us. Again, Nintendo and Konami did not participate. Nintendo instead hosted a Nintendo Direct on June 18, while Konami announced their games at the Tokyo Game Show in September.
Following his experience at the 2024 Summer Game Fest, Diego Nicolás Argüello of Paste thought the event was in a "transitional period" and shifting towards something "more in line with what E3 used to be". He commented that "as of now, the Summer Game Fest conglomerate stands as a hybrid of sorts—a fading summer vacation with the preview commitment traditions of old. Perhaps it was naive to expect the 'chill' vibe to remain as one of the event's pillars, as it's already becoming larger than its intended place and runtime. It's clear that this ambition is deliberate. But I'm glad I caught it during this period".

2025

The sixth Summer Game Fest was held at the YouTube Theater on June 6, 2025, with a physical "Play Days" event taking place from June 7 to 9, 2025. Peak live viewership of Summer Game Fest increased 89% year-over-year to 50 million viewers.
The following publishers attended the event:
The following titles were showcased during the main show:
Justin Carter of Gizmodo commented that "five years in, Summer Game Fest still feels like it has no real identity of its own beyond an extension of the annual year's end Game Awards" and despite wanting to be E3, it "can't be that, both because publishers have their individual, more regular showcases, and it doesn't want to be perceived as disrespectful to the medium and its audience happy to receive recognition but not the criticism that comes with it". Ash Parrish of The Verge noted there were good games shown at Summer Game Fest, however, there was "nothing big enough to anchor the show" and "as the industry faces its third straight year of rampant layoffs, cancellations, delays, and studio closures we're finally starting to see the pipeline of blockbuster games dry up". Nathan Grayson of Aftermath highlighted the juxtaposition between attending Summer Game Fest and the nearby June [2025 Los Angeles protests against mass deportation], stating "the whiplash is impossible to ignore" and "willingly or not, SGF attendees were gifted a front-row seat to authentic community action". He noted that discussions on the protests came "up organically more often than not" and that "the overriding sentiment SGF attendees feel the need to convey, as though it's a weight threatening to cave in their chests, is guilt. Multiple PR people repeatedly lament that they can't make it out into the streets because of job obligations". Parrish similarly commented that while she was "ensconced in a happy bubble" at Summer Game Fest, "the escalating conflict between demonstrators protesting against immigration raids and the Los Angeles Police Department cast a dark and soul-shaking pall that could not be ignored".

2026

The seventh Summer Game Fest is scheduled to be held from June 5 to 8, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Event types

Main show

The most notable and watched part of Summer Game Fest is the "main show", which is usually held on the first day of the event and is used to showcase major upcoming releases. Most of the content shown on the show is paid promotional content from major publishers, though a few "free slots" are also reserved for smaller and indie games and studios to be showcased at the show.

Day of the Devs

and iam8bit jointly held a "Day of the Devs" event as part of E3 and later Summer Game Fest to feature indie games. The stream was first incorporated at Summer Game Fest in its inaugural event in 2020 after the event which originally was a free in-person festival held in San Francisco was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has remained a part of the event since. With Double Fine's acquisition by Microsoft in 2019, a Day of the Devs non-profit organization was founded in 2024 to allow the event to continue with Double Fine's involvement but independent of Microsoft. The games selected to showcased on the stream are selected following an application process that closes a couple months before the event. Developers and publishers do not have to pay any costs or fees to be featured on the stream.

Trailers

Publishers and developers pay for trailers to appear during the main show. Anonymous marketing professionals claimed to Esquire that for the main show in Summer Game Fest 2024, it cost $250,000 to air a one minute trailer, with $100,000 being added to the price for each additional 30 seconds. Though a few "free slots" are also reserved at each main show for smaller and indie games and studios, Esquire estimated that at those rates the 2023 Game Awards made $9.65 million in fees to air trailers during the main show. This fee structure has attracted criticism, as it puts airing a trailer during the show mostly out of reach for smaller and independent studios who do not get a free slot.