Geoff Keighley – owner and founder of Summer Game Fest – has preemptively settled expectations for the live show in terms of big AAA reveals.
In a personal Q&A livestream, Keighley states that it has been a quieter year for the industry, and that the show would focus on games that have already been announced rather than those set for a release date in 2025 and beyond. As such, he warned those watching not to expect a “one more thing” reveal – typically a mic-drop trailer left for the end of the Summer Game Fest showcase to end the event with a bang.
The Summer Game Fest live show is set to take place later this week on June 7. Starting at 2PM ET / 5PM PT from the YouTube live theatre, Keighley stated it would run for around two hours in total, and would still be packed full of trailers and other surprises. If you’re a fan of keeping up with the latest in the video game industry, it’s still worth a watch even if bombshell reveals aren’t to be expected.
So let’s dig into this a bit. Why is it a quieter year for games when it comes to the Summer Game Fest? There are several potential factors. The first is that many of the big publishers have dedicated livestreams where the companies can showcase their upcoming games without the aid of third party events. For example, the PlayStation State of Play that took place only a few days ago, or the Nintendo Directs. It’s worth noting that this is one of the reasons E3 started to lack import in its later years.
Another factor can be linked to that quieter year that Keighley referenced. Quieter is one word for it, but it’s worth noting that the games industry has been laden with layoffs, cancellations, acquisitions and general chaos over the past year or so. This will have surely affected release schedules for smaller studios as well as big blockbuster releases, and leading to a relatively drier Summer Game Fest this year as a result.
Or another factor could just be timing! Some years are quiet, and we’ve had so many fantastic video games releases over the past few months. It is entirely possible that a factor for this quiet year is simply that we’re in a bit of a gully – the quiet period in between two riveting seasons for video game releases – and Keighley’s Summer Game Fest is unfortunately caught in the middle. However you can’t really put too much weight on this without acknoledging the waves of layoffs and cancellations. They’re linked! Less people in the games industry making AAA games means… less AAA games.
As a final note, you can never entirely disregard the fake-out factor. Meaning that, Keighley obviously knows that his statement that there’s no surprise final announcement will pick up traction in articles like this one. Knowing this he could have an ace up his sleeve. It’s not a very likely possibility, his Q&A seemed very earnest from what I could see, but it’s certainly possible. Something for the dreamers out there to cling on to, if nothing else.
Whether one or a combination of all of these are to blame is up to your own interpretation, but nonetheless you should expect a feast of new trailers and reveals coming in the next few days. Whether it be from Summer Game Fest itself, or the various other shows happening in its orbit.