It’s Friday night and another Summer Game Fest has come and gone. This year, Geoff Keighley wowed players with trailers that we now know run in the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. But developers who ponied up probably got their money’s worth, what with the high-value production effort and the millions of viewers following along on YouTube and Twitch.
Once you’re done calculating the total revenue, you no doubt are interested in the major trends that ran through Keighley’s megapromo telethon. For the first time since the game industry’s layoff spree beginning in 2023, he acknowledged the ongoing layoffs—before immediately pivoting to praising the power of “newer, smaller creators,” pointing to a list of 2024’s most popular new games on Steam (which included games like Balatro, Hades II, and Palworld) as a sign of the industry’s health.
“It’s a reminder that developers need to treat their developers right, because there are so many paths to sustainability and success,” he boasted.
Sony’s unveiling of LEGO Horizon Adventures, as a day-one cross-platform release on PC, Switch, and PS5 shone a spotlight on how PC and Nintendo Switch are drawing more interest from Microsoft and PlayStation, who have spent the last year lowering their platform-exclusive walls.
Firaxis’ announcement that Sid Meier’s Civilization VII would launch on consoles the same day as PC also showed publishers’ hunger to get games in front of as many players as possible as soon as possible.
Innersloth also showed up to directly acknowledge the industry’s woes and unveil a new publishing label called “Outersloth,” a moment that showed how much Summer Game Fest—and the industry—need indie devs to push themselves forward.
What were the biggest Summer Game Fest announcements?
Despite taking place in the week that would normally host the now-deceased E3, the broadcast contained few high-profile announcements of new games. That said, studios like Sony used the show to show off a Horizon spinoff, and Take-Two unveiled the next entry in the Side Meier’s Civilization series.
The remainder of the broadcast showcased an impressive roster of indie and double-A games. Blumhouse Games and new publisher Outersloth Games were given time to unveil their first slates of published titles, putting a bit more space between promotions for already-announced titles.
LEGO Horizon Adventures – Guerilla Games/Studio Gobo
No Room in Hell 2 – Torn Banner Studios
Harry Potter Quidditch Champions – Unbroken Studios
Cuffbust – Two Star Games
Star Wars Outlaws – Ubisoft
Neva – Nomada Studio
Sid Meier’s Civilization VII – Firaxis Games
Black Myth Wukong – Game Science
Metaphor RE Fantazio – Atlus
Batman: Arkham Shadow – Camouflaj
King of Fighters characters appearing in Street Fighter VI – Capcom
DRAGONBALL: Sparking! ZERO – Bandai Namco
Delta Force Hawk Ops – Team Jade
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves – SNK
Mecha Break – Amazing Seasun
Crisol Theater of Idols – Vermila Studios
Grave Seasons – Perfect Garbage
Sleep Awake – Eyes Out
Fear the Spotlight – Cozy Game Pals
The Simulation – Playmestudio
Project C – Half Mermaid
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers – Rita’s Rewind – Digital Eclipse
Deer & Boy – Lifeline Games
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II – Warhorse Studios
Slitterhead – Bokeh Game Studio
Killer Bean – Jeff Lew
Cairn – The Game Bakers
Wanderstop – Ivy Road
Unknown9 Awakening – Reflector
The First Descendant – Nexon
Mars First Logistics – Shape Shop
Battle Suit Aces – Trinket Studios
The Mossfield Archives – Anypercent Studios
Project Dosa – Outerloop Games
Sonic X Shadow Generations – Sega
Dune Awakening – Funcom
Battle Aces – Uncut Games
A new season of The Finals – Embark Studios
Downloadable content for Alan Wake II titled Night Springs – Remedy
New World Aeternum – Amazon Games
Honkai Star Rail – HoYoGames
Dark and Darker – IronMace Games
Kinitsu-Gami Path of the Goddess – Capcom
skate. – EA Games
A new update for Palworld – Pocketpair
A console debut for Valorant – Riot Games
Monster Hunter Wilds – Capcom]
Phantom Blade 0 – S-Game
It’s a lineup that captures the conundrum facing the industry at this moment. The games above all look incredible. But that won’t stop the tough economic conditions putting many developers out of work.