With the ongoing jobs cuts across the gaming industry, the shift of “Grand Theft Auto 6” from release this fall to a launch next spring, and the distraction of the first new Nintendo console in eight years, there was a chance that Summer Game Fest 2025 wouldn’t have the same allure as the annual video game showcase has had in years past. (There was also the factor of the actors strike against video game companies, which, as of June 11, has been called off by SAG-AFTRA.) Related Stories But the gamers came out in full force for the Geoff Keighley-hosted event on June 6, which live-streamed out of the YouTube Theater at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Popular on Variety “Viewership was up significantly year over year,” Keighley told Variety. “Stream charts said it doubled its audience year over year for the peak concurrency to over 3 million peak concurrent viewers, which does not include China.” In person, both the Summer Game Fest live showcase event and its subsequent weekend Play Days event for developers and press saw “significantly higher” media creator attendance this year: more than 600 registered attendees vs. “somewhere in the 400s” in 2024, per SGF. The boost is an indicator that both the current U.S. political climate and significant changes in 2025’s game release schedule, like the delay of “Grand Theft Auto 6” until next May, didn’t affect interest in the event. “Things happen in the industry all the time that are big news worthy happenings,” Summer Game Fest producer and iam8bit co-creator Amanda White. “Switch 2 just happened and we’re here, it’s all working out, everybody’s having a great time playing games. It’s not irrelevant — it’s just part of the way things go.” As big a hit as the Switch 2 was with consumers upon release — selling more than 3.5 million units during the first four days after its June 5 launch — and noted multiple times during the Summer Game Fest live showcase on June 6, Nintendo’s new console was not the star of the three-day Play Days event for developers and media in Downtown Los Angeles, which ran June 7-9. “I have not seen a single attendee with a Switch 2 on campus,” SGF producer and iam8bit co-creator Jon M. Gibson said with a laugh. “There’s a few Switch 2s that Nintendo supplied. Some dev kits for Bandai and for Capcom. Of course, the launch happened on Thursday, so bandwidth from Nintendo is stretched thin with all the midnight launches and stuff. But they’re really supportive and supply some for some pre-release games, which is exciting.” Some big video publishers such as EA, Take-Two and Ubisoft skipped this year’s SGF, eliminating potential splashy in-show hits for eagerly anticipated games like “Grand Theft Auto 6.” But SGF still managed a few big moments, like the announcement and trailer release for “Resident Evil Requiem.” Gibson and White attribute that reveal and other moments like it to the immense trust the festival has managed to build up with video game publishers in just a few years. “We are very proud of our ability to keep the trust of all the publishers on campus,” Gibson said. “Six years into SGF as a whole, four years into Play Days, we’re very good. Because we have to print everything ahead of time, too. So there are lots of unannounced things that we’re very careful about who sees what. We have vendors who print and produce and manufacture physical objects under very tight wraps. We’re just very protective, because we know what it means to have to keep a secret because we’ve had our own games that we’ve had to announce, as well. Capcom is a great example with ‘Resident Evil.’ We knew that for a very long time, but they trusted us with information, and we were very careful about what our team actually knew what was going on.” And even though some of the gaming giants sat this year out, White says conversations were already happening on the Play Days campus about who is ready to return next year and what they’ll bring. “People get excited, they come and see. And each year we grow, so people see more potential,” White said. As for next year, the June show will take place just a few weeks after the planned May 26 release for “GTA 6.” While Switch 2 didn’t seem to distract too much, will the draw of playing the newly launched “GTA 6” prove to be so powerful it outshines whatever could be announced at SGF 2026? “My view is that all boats rise with ‘GTA’ launch,” Keighley said. “It is a singular cultural event that is the biggest thing in all of entertainment this decade. It will bring more people into gaming, sell lots of consoles and bring back lapsed gamers. There will never be a better time to feel the excitement and energy around gaming than SGF 2026.” See more from Variety‘s Q&A with Keighley about Summer Game Fest 2025 below. How was this year’s show impacted by the date shift for “GTA 6”? How much was planned before and after that big announcement? So far as I know there wasn’t any material impact, but I think the date move did allow a number of teams to feel more confident announcing their launch dates. Halfway through the year, what do you see as some of the biggest trends in gaming for 2025, and how did you look to reflect that in the show? We continue to see some of the most interesting and successful games come from smaller teams outside of the traditional publisher system – games like “Clair Obscur,” “Blue Prince” and “REPO.” So we wanted to highlight some of those projects at the show like “Ill” and “Mortal Shell 2.” What game announcements and trailers do you think resonated most with audiences after this show? What assets were the most popular? “Resident Evil Requiem” was a massive moment. Also we saw a lot of love for “Ill” from a small team in Canada and Armenia.

The recent Summer Game Fest 2025 has been quite successful. According to Variety, the live stream saw a massive growth year-over-year in terms of live viewership, coming in at an increase of 89 percent since the 2024 edition. The event saw a number of new games announced, as well as trailers for previously-announced games that will be coming soon. Among the headliners for the event were titles like Capcom’s Resident Evil Requiem, as well as gameplay for IO Interactive’s 007: First Light. “In total, the peak concurrent audience for SGF reached more than 3 million live simultaneous viewers across Twitch and YouTube, with significant year over year growth on both platforms in terms of average viewership, watch time and co-streams,” announced Summer Game Fest in a press release over the weekend. At the time of publishing Summer Game Fest 2025 had managed to get 8.5 million views on just one of the places where it was hosted – the official The Game Awards channel. While it is worth noting that this number takes both the live stream audience as well as those who watched the event afterwards into account, the number would quite likely be higher when taking other hosts, and even platforms like Twitch into account. Reports, have indicated that of the 8.5 million viewers, 1.5 million could be attributed to those watching during the live stream globally. Twitch, on the other hand, saw a growth of 38 percent in terms of live viewership among the over 8,900 channels that were co-streaming the event. This came in to around 1.4 million concurrent live viewers worldwide. Summer Games Fest 2025 was accompanied by a host of other events happening over the same weekend. This included events focused on PC Gaming, as well as Microsoft’s own Xbox Games Showcase, and even the indie game-focused Future Games Show 2025. Coinciding with the events was Valve kicking of its latest edition of Steam Next Fest, which featured a host of different game demos that players could try out. A lot of these games were unveiled or otherwise got new trailers during the live events last weekend. However, it is worth noting that today is the final day of this iteration of Steam Next Fest, which means that a lot of the demos will be going away.

The 2025 edition of Summer Game Fest saw an 89% year-over-year growth in live peak viewership, according to StreamsCharts. Airing live across YouTube, Twitch and X (formerly Twitter) on June 6, the Geoff Keighley-hosted video game showcase, which was held out of the YouTube Theater at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, reached more than 50 million livestreams. That marks a record high in viewership for the event, which is now in its sixth year. Related Stories Major games announced or further teased during the show included the reveal of “Resident Evil Requiem,” “Atomic Heart 2,” “Scott Pilgrim EX,” “Mouse: P.I. for Hire,” “Game of Thrones: War for Westeros,” “Marvel’s Deadpool VR,” “007 First Light,” “Death Stranding 2: On the Beach” and “ARC Raiders.” Popular on Variety SEE ALSO: Variety’s Summer Game Fest Recap Per a Friday press release from Summer Game Fest, which is produced by Keighley and iam8bit, “In total, the peak concurrent audience for SGF reached more than 3 million live simultaneous viewers across Twitch and YouTube, with significant year over year growth on both platforms in terms of average viewership, watch time and co-streams.” Peak viewership stood on YouTube (via account for The Game Awards, which is the sister event to Summer Game Fest and is used as the feed for the SGF livestream as well) was up 43% compared to 2024, with the average audience up 38%, per StreamCharts data provided by SGF. The archived video version of the live show has currently racked up more than eight million views. In total, the peak concurrent audience on YouTube reached over 1.5 million viewers globally, On gaming-focused social media platform Twitch, peak viewership for SGF was up 38% with more than 8,900 channels co-streaming the show. The total concurrent live audience stood at more than 1.4 million viewers worldwide. SGF was the top global trend on X/Twitter with 17 out of the top 30 trends in the U.S. related to Summer Game Fest, per the event.

With its first gameplay reveal during this year's Day of the Devs, indie developer Something We Made finally showed off the sequel to their inaugural title TOEM: A Photo Adventure from 2021. This charming photography adventure brought an easygoing monochrome adventure to hundreds of fans and left us wanting more. TOEM 2 opens with the same plucky character from the first title dropped into the world with little more than ambition and a trusty camera. While the first game focused on ascending the TOEM mountain, I didn't catch nary a whiff of the actual motivations and reasoning for the journey this time around. Instead, I was given free reign to meander around the idyllic village and solve a variety of problems for the townsfolk, from trying to retrieve a potion of liquid courage for a scaredy-cat knight to taking photos of three goats in order to permit a bridge troll to let me pass. In my twenty or so minutes of play, I was able to help solve the small-scale problems of four individuals and be rewarded with a stamp for my collection each time. The camera remains the player's best tool in the world of TOEM 2 with players not only able to use their photography skills to solve the plights of the ordinary person, but also a variety of attachments to use as tools in your adventure. The very first unlockable upgrade I earned for my camera was a hammer upgrade that let me smash through select stone blocks that hindered my progression. Using the hammer is just like the other attachments from the first TOEM: simply point and shoot (or in this case, tap on the rocks). It took a moment to realize that there's a small minigame to using the hammer with players having to tap out morse code with short and long taps in order to break those rocks. 2 of 9 One puzzle I encountered was take a 3x3 cube of blocks and chisel away to make a matching sculpture to the quest giver. Rather than trying to memorize the layout or run back and forth between the source sculpture and what I was crafting, I stopped to take photos of each side of the cube and use those to remember the requested shape. The developers from Something We Made seemed surprised that this was a valid solution to their puzzle and it was nice to see the camera being used as a note taking device as well as the tool you'll use to take pictures of every animal around the landscape. New to TOEM 2 is also the addition of jumping, and in true platformer style, I had to test it out by jumping around on top of any short wall I could find and try to scale up the world. I couldn't find any unintended out-of-bounds areas, but I was at least able to find some climbable areas that would lead to new hats for the playable character. With jumping now on the menu, I wouldn't be surprised if the Honk attachment gets phased out for TOEM 2. Sadly, there's still a fair bit of time before TOEM 2 is ready to be in players' hands. Developer Something We Made and publisher popagenda have penciled in this quaint photographical adventure for 2026 across a slew of unannounced consoles as well as PC. Deal of the Day

The ninth installment in the “Resident Evil” video game franchise, titled “Resident Evil Requiem,” is set to release in February 2026. The new game was announced during Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles on Friday, complete with a trailer drop, which came as a surprise after developer Capcom teased the “Resident Evil” franchise’s upcoming 30th anniversary and a ninth game earlier in the presentation — but didn’t include any new footage or release date. Related Stories “Thanks to all of you, ‘Resident Evil’ is about to celebrate its 30th anniversary this coming March,” Capcom game director Jun Takeuchi said in a video message. “We truly appreciate your continued support. Now, about the latest ‘Resident Evil’ game you’ve all been waiting for, bear with us a little longer, just a blink of an eye more, and it’ll be ready. We’re incredibly grateful for your ongoing support of the ‘Resident Evil’ series.” Popular on Variety About 20 minutes later, the “Resident Evil Requiem” trailer and release date was the final piece of news revealed before the SGF 2025 show ended. The survival horror game will launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S and Steam on Feb. 27, 2026. The last “Resident Evil” game, “Resident Evil Village,” launched in 2021 as the eighth installment in the franchise. The original “Resident Evil” was created by Shinji Mikami and Tokuro Fujiwara for PlayStation and debuted in 1996. In addition to spawning multiple followup games, “Resident Evil” has been adapted for TV and film franchises. Watch the trailer for “Resident Evil Requiem” in the video below.

Resident Evil 9, Stranger Than Heaven, and more of the key reveals from Summer Game Fest 2025 10 highlights from Geoff Keighley's annual livestream Feature by Samuel Roberts Editorial Director Published on June 7, 2025 Geoff Keighley's annual Summer Game Fest showcase had a few big moments, including a major showing from Capcom, some sharp-looking indie games from well-known developers, and a creative tie-in between Hitman and James Bond by IO Interactive. Find a selection of 10 key SGF 2025 highlights below, including all-new reveals and several worthwhile updates on already-announced games. End of Abyss Created by Section 9 Interactive, a Malmö-based studio of developers who worked on the Little Nightmares games, and published by Epic Games itself, this was the horror highlight of SGF. In End of Abyss, a combat technician explores a facility that's riddled with fleshy monsters, in what looks a little like a twin-stick survival horror shooter. New pathways will emerge in the game as players become stronger, suggesting something of a Metroidvania structure. This one doesn't have a specific release date yet beyond 2026, but it's coming to Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. Lego Voyagers This two-player Lego game from the developers of Lego Builders Journey left an impression with a simple but perfect pitch: what if you played as a single Lego brick, and the entire game was built around that notion? Anyone still craving high-value co-op experiences for couch play after finishing this year's wonderful Split Fiction should keep this beautiful-looking game on their radar. It's coming to PC and consoles, including the original Nintendo Switch, and will be playable either locally or online (with only one purchase necessary for the latter). Mina the Hollower To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Mina the Hollower, the long-awaited new game from Shovel Knight developer Yacht Club Games, got a release date of October 31, 2025 during SGF. This trailer will set off fireworks for anyone familiar with its inspirations: Link's Awakening and the other Game Boy Color Zelda games, for example, as well as the side-scrolling adventures of the Castlevania series. Marvel's Deadpool VR Rather a lot of licensed games made the cut in this Summer Games Fest (who could've predicted that this year's livestream would offer viewers a real-time strategy game tie-in to Game of Thrones, a TV show that ended on a contentious note in 2019?). Meta's big reveal at SGF was Deadpool VR, another superhero-themed exclusive coming to Quest 3, following last year's killer app Batman: Arkham Shadow. This game stars Neil Patrick Harris as Marvel's Merc with a Mouth, and comes from 'Splosion Man developer Twisted Pixel. As ever, Deadpool's delivered-via-sledgehammer meta humour is something of an acquired taste, yet the recent history of pop culture would suggest it's never been more popular. Deadpool VR's first-person combat and storytelling look authentic to the character, which is either a dream come true or a living nightmare, depending on who you ask. It launches exclusively on Quest 3 and 3S in late 2025. Ill and Mundfish's push into publishing Mundfish, the latest developer to move into publishing, had a big presence in this year's SGF livestream. That included a colourful-if-muddled trailer for Atomic Heart 2, a follow-up to its 2023 hit FPS. But perhaps more interesting was the horror-themed FPS Ill, the debut game from studio Team Clout. What could be more frightening than being chased by dozens of decaying bald men, and occasionally, some fetid-looking evil giant babies? This game will launch on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, but it doesn't have a release date yet. Scott Pilgrim EX Considering the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels ended 15 years ago, the longevity of a story about a down-on-his-luck 20-something fighting all his new partner's exes in sequence continues to amaze. This spiritual sequel to 2010's acclaimed Ubisoft tie-in Scott Pilgrim Vs The World: The Game sees Scott and six of his pals teaming up to fight three different warring gangs who have taken over Toronto. Developer Tribute Games (creators of the brilliant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge) comprises staff who worked on that prior Ubisoft title. Pleasingly for fans, too, series creator Bryan Lee O'Malley is behind the story on this project. With four-player co-op part of the mix, Scott Pilgrim EX launches in 2026. Casino Royale's Le Chiffre comes to Hitman: World of Assassination With IO Interactive's James Bond game First Light not arriving until 2026, this reveal was a real treat for fans of 007, and a fun stopgap. Actor Mads Mikkelsen joined IO's Hakan Abrak on-stage in announcing that his Casino Royale villain Le Chiffre has been added to Hitman: World of Assassination's Paris level as a limited-time Elusive Target. Players have until July 6 to take him out. Blighted Guacamelee studio Drinkbox is behind this visually stylish action RPG, which looks like it'll scratch the itch of anyone who got deep into Hades but wants something with a fresh twist (or co-op) to play. The setting is described as a 'psychedelic western nightmare' by the developers, and a 'blighted' mechanic alters the difficulty of the game dynamically depending on how afflicted the player is. It's coming soon to Steam. Stranger Than Heaven First unveiled last year as Project Century, this deeper look at the next project by Like A Dragon developer RGG Studio showed off the game's 1943 (seemingly) period Japanese setting, as well as its combat and other gameplay elements like moral choices (of the Xbox 360 era 'spare/kill' variety). Considering the last trailer was set in 1915, it would appear to suggest the game takes place across multiple decades. It's exciting to see this studio trying something a little different, even if some of the parts are superficially similar. Resident Evil Requiem The reveal of the ninth mainline Resident Evil game closed the livestream with a bang. Requiem is slightly hard to grasp from this first trailer, perhaps by design: the protagonist is an agent called Grace Ashcroft, and we see several glimpses of the ruins of Raccoon City amid the horrors in this teaser. No doubt Capcom will gradually put the pieces together in the run-up to its February 27, 2026 release date on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. It firmly looks like a stylistic follow-up to the first-person hits Resident Evil 7 and Village. On-stage, it was promised the game will feature "high-stakes cinematic action" as well as survival horror.

It's early June, which means it's time for a ton of video game events! Rising from the ashes of E3, Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest is now the premium gaming event of the year, just inching ahead of… Geoff Keighley's Game Awards in December. Unlike the show it replaced, Summer Game Fest is an egalitarian affair, spotlighting games from AAA developers and small indies across a diverse set of livestreams. SGF 2025 includes 15 individual events running from June 3-9 — you can find the full Summer Game Fest 2025 schedule here — and we're smack dab in the middle of that programming right now. We're covering SGF 2025 with a small team on the ground in LA and a far larger group of writers tuning in remotely to the various livestreams. Expect game previews, interviews and reactions to arrive over the coming days (the show's in-person component runs from Saturday-Monday), and a boatload of new trailers and release date announcements in between. Through it all, we're collating the biggest announcements right here, with links out to more in-depth coverage where we have it, in chronological order. Tuesday, June 3 State of Unreal: The Witcher IV and Fortnite AI Epic hitched its wagon to SGF this year, aligning its annual developer Unreal Fest conference, which last took place in the fall of 2024, with the consumer event. The conference was held in Orlando, Florida, from June 2-5, with well over a hundred developer sessions focused on Unreal Engine. The highlight was State of Unreal, which was the first event on the official Summer Game Fest schedule. Amid a bunch of very cool tech demos and announcements, we got some meaningful updates on Epic's own Fortnite and CD PROJEKT RED's upcoming The Witcher IV. The Witcher IV was first unveiled at The Game Awards last year, and we've heard very little about it since. At State of Unreal, we got a tech demo for Unreal Engine 5.6, played in real time on a base PS5. The roughly 10-minute slot featured a mix of gameplay and cinematics, and showed off a detailed, bustling world. Perhaps the technical highlight was Nanite Foliage, an extension of UE5's Nanite system for geometry that renders foliage without the level of detail pop-in that is perhaps the most widespread graphical aberration still plaguing games today. On the game side, we saw a town filled with hundreds of NPCs going about their business. The town itself wasn't quite on the scale of The Witcher III's Novigrad City, but nonetheless felt alive in a way beyond anything the last game achieved. It's fair to say that Fortnite's moment in the spotlight was… less impressive. Hot on the heels of smooshing a profane Darth Vader AI into the game, Epic announced that creators will be able to roll their own AI NPCs into the game later this year. Wednesday, June 4 PlayStation State of Play: Marvel Tōkon, Silent Hill f and the return of Lumines Another company getting a headstart on proceedings was Sony, who threw its third State of Play of the year onto the Summer Game Fest schedule a couple days ahead of the opening night event. It was a packed stream by Sony's standards, with over 20 games and even a surprise hardware announcement. The most time was given to Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, a new PlayStation Studios tag fighter that fuses Marvel Superheroes with anime visuals. It's also 4 versus 4, which is wild. It's being developed by Arc System Works, the team perhaps best known for the Guilty Gear series. It's coming to PS5 and PC in 2026. Not-so-coincidentally, Sony also announced Project Defiant, a wireless fight stick that'll support PS5 and PC and arrive in… 2026. Elsewhere, we got a parade of release dates, with concrete dates for Sword of the Sea (August 19) Baby Steps (September 8) and Silent Hill f (September 25). We also got confirmation of that Final Fantasy Tactics remaster (coming September 30), an an all-new... let's call it aspirational "2026" date for Pragmata, which, if you're keeping score, was advertised alongside the launch of the PS5. Great going, Capcom! Rounding out the show was a bunch of smaller announcements. We heard about a new Nioh game, Nioh 3, coming in 2026; Suda51's new weirdness Romeo is a Dead Man; and Lumines Arise, a long-awaited return to the Lumines series from the developer behind Tetris Effect. Thursday, June 5 Diddly squat There were absolutely no Summer Game Fest events scheduled on Thursday. We assume that's out of respect for antipodean trees, as June 5 was Arbor Day in New Zealand. (It's probably because everyone was playing Nintendo Switch 2.) Friday, June 6 Summer Game Fest Live: Resident Evil Requiem, Stranger Than Heaven and sequels abound It's fair to say that previous Summer Game Fest opening night streams have been… whelming at best. This year's showing was certainly an improvement, not least because there were exponentially fewer mobile game and MMO ads littering the presentation. Yes, folks tracking Gabe Newell's yacht were disappointed that Half-Life 3 didn't show up, and the Silksong crowd remains sad, alone and unloved, but there were nonetheless some huge announcements. Perhaps the biggest of all was the "ninth" (Zero and Code Veronica erasure is real) Resident Evil game. Resident Evil Requiem is said to be a tonal shift compared to the last game, Resident Evil Village. Here's hoping it reinvigorates the series in the same way Resident Evil VII did following the disappointing 6. We also heard more from Sega studio Ryu Ga Gotoku about Project Century, which seems to be a 1943 take on the Yakuza series. It's now called Stranger Than Heaven, and there's a (literally) jazzy new trailer for your consideration. Outside of those big swings, there were sequels to a bunch of mid-sized games, like Atomic Heart, Code Vein and Mortal Shell, and a spiritual sequel of sorts: Scott Pilgrim EX, a beat-em-up that takes the baton from the 2010 Ubisoft brawler Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game. There were countless other announcements at the show, including: Troy Baker is the big cheese in Mouse: P.I. for Hire Here's a silly puppet boxing game you never knew you needed Killer Inn turns Werewolf into a multiplayer action game Out of Words is a cozy stop-motion co-op adventure from Epic Games Lego Voyagers is a co-op puzzle game from the studio behind Builder's Journey Mina the Hollower, from the makers of Shovel Knight, arrives on Halloween Wu-Tang Clan's new game blends anime with Afro-surrealism Day of the Devs: Blighted, Snap & Grab, Blighted and Escape Academy II As always, the kickoff show was followed by a Day of the Devs stream, which focused on smaller projects and indie games. You can watch the full stream here. Escape Academy has been firmly on our best couch co-op games list for some time, and now it's got a sequel on the way. Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School takes the same basic co-op escape room fun and expands on it, moving away from a level-select map screen and towards a fully 3D school campus for players to explore. So long as the puzzles themselves are as fun as the original, it seems like a winner.  Semblance studio Nyamakop is back with new jam called Relooted, a heist game with a unique twist. As in the real world, museums in the West are full of items plundered from African nations under colonialism. Unlike the real world, in Relooted the colonial powers have signed a treaty to return these items to their places of origin, but things aren't going to plan, as many artifacts are finding their way into private collections. It's your job to steal them back. The British Museum is quaking in its boots. Here are some of the other games that caught our eye: Snap & Grab is No Goblin's campy, photography-based heist game Please, Watch the Artwork is a puzzle game with eerie paintings and a sad clown Bask in the grotesque pixel-art beauty of Neverway Pocket Boss turns corporate data manipulation into a puzzle game Tire Boy is a wacky open-world adventure game you can tread all over The rest: Ball x Pit, Hitman and 007 First Light After Day of the Devs came Devolver. Its Summer Game Fest show was a little more muted than usual, focusing on a single game: Ball x Pit. It's the next game from Kenny Sun, an indie developer who previously made the sleeper hit Mr. Sun's Hatbox. Ball x Pit is being made by a team of more than half a dozen devs, in contrast to Sun's mostly solo prior works. It looks like an interesting mashup of Breakout and base-building mechanics, and there's a demo on Steam available right now. Then came IOI, the makers of Hitman, who put together a classic E3-style cringefest, full of awkward pauses, ill-paced demos and repetitive trailers. Honestly, as someone who's been watching game company presentations for two decades or so, it was a nice moment of nostalgia.  Away from the marvel of a presenter trying to cope with everything going wrong, the show did have some actual content, with an extended demo of the new James Bond-themed Hitman mission, an announcement that Hitman is coming to iOS and table tops, and a presentation on MindsEye, a game from former GTA producer Leslie Benzies that IOI is publishing.  Saturday-Sunday: Xbox and much, much more Now you're all caught up. We're expecting a lot of news this weekend, mostly from Xbox on Sunday. We'll be updating this article through the weekend and beyond, but you can find the latest announcements from Summer Game Fest 2025 on our front page.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/everything-new-at-summer-game-fest-2025-marvel-tokon-resident-evil-requiem-and-more-185425995.html?src=rss

As if early June wasn't already going to be a wild enough time in the gaming world with the arrival of the Nintendo Switch 2, that's also when a whole host of showcases takes place as part of Summer Game Fest. Along with the two blockbuster events — Summer Game Fest Live and the Xbox Games Showcase — there are a bunch of other ones in store, including the always-delightful Day of the Devs. There could be even more on the docket. There's always a chance that Nintendo and Sony will run a Direct or State of Play, respectively, over the next few weeks. Ubisoft hasn't yet announced a Forward event for this year — perhaps because it has delayed a bunch of big games and isn't ready to talk about them.  As things stand, SGF is slated to run from June 6 until June 8. With E3 officially dead (organizer Entertainment Software Association is planning an industry-focused event for next April instead), SGF is now the de facto replacement and the biggest event for announcements and updates this side of Gamescom in August. We'll update this preview as more details about the showcases emerge, including additional events in the SGF nebula. We'll embed videos for each stream as they become available as well. Engadget will be on the ground in Los Angeles for the in-person side of SGF, which is for media and creators. We'll be bringing you hands-on impressions of many of the games that are featured during SGF Live. Most folks will be keeping up with everything from home, though. To that end, here's a breakdown of how to watch Summer Game Fest 2025 and what to expect from the extravaganza (we're bound to get a Hollow Knight: Silksong release date this time, right?!?!). Summer Game Fest 2024 schedule Summer Game Fest Live — June 6, 5PM ET Day of the Devs — June 6, 7PM ET Devolver Direct — June 6, 8PM ET Wholesome Direct — June 7, 12PM ET Women-led Games Showcase — June 7, 1PM ET Latin American Games Showcase — June 7, 2PM ET Green Games Showcase — June 7, 4PM ET Xbox Games Showcase — June 8, 1PM ET Death Stranding 2: On The Beach Live Game Premiere — June 8, 10PM ET How to watch Summer Game Fest Live — June 6, 5PM ET Watch on YouTube or Twitch Putting aside our annoyance at the timing of this showcase — late on a Friday evening in the UK and right when many folks on the East Coast are clocking out for the weekend — Summer Game Fest Live is one of the bigger events in early June. It starts at 5PM ET and will run for two hours. Organizers are promising "spectacular new video game announcements, surprises and reveals." That's pretty compelling, especially since host Geoff Keighley (rightfully) downplayed expectations ahead of last year's show.  We do know about a few games that will appear. SGF Live will include a fresh look at Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, a Soulslike action RPG from Leenzee, a studio based in China. That game will arrive in July. Open-world MMORPG Chrono Odyssey will make an appearance as well. Oh, and Hideo Kojima will be there, of course. SGF Live takes place just a couple of weeks before Kojima's Death Stranding 2: On the Beach arrives, so we'll likely get another peek at that game before a more in-depth event on June 8 (more on that momentarily). Perhaps some of the other projects Kojima's working on will get some time in the limelight too. We’re proud to welcome a record-setting 60+ partners for #SummerGameFest 2025, a global celebration of video games in Los Angeles this June. pic.twitter.com/1TZkEbKlHt— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) May 28, 2025 Keighley has also released an initial list of partners for SGF. It includes big names such as PlayStation, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox, Steam, 2K, Epic Games and Square Enix. On the list is IO Interactive, so perhaps we'll get more information about the James Bond game that the Hitman studio has been working on for several years.  Embark Studios is there as well, and given that there's a lot of hype around its upcoming extraction shooter, Arc Raiders, there'll be high hopes for a release date for that one. On top of that, CD Projekt Red will be at SGF, but it's more likely to be promoting Cyberpunk 2077's arrival on the Nintendo Switch 2 than shining a spotlight on The Witcher 4 (it feels a little too early for the latter after the reveal trailer at The Game Awards in December). You can watch SGF Live on more than 20 platforms, including YouTube (that stream will be available in 4K at 60 fps), Twitch, X, TikTok, Steam and international services. The event will stream live from the YouTube Theater, and you can attend in person, if you like. In any case, we'll be bringing you all the major news from Summer Game Fest Live. We just can't promise we won't have an adult beverage with an umbrella next to us while we're covering the event. How to watch Day of the Devs — June 6, 7PM ET Watch on YouTube (the same stream as SGF Live above) or Twitch  Immediately after SGF Live ends, the YouTube and Twitch streams will segue into the summer 2025 edition of Day of the Devs. This indie-focused showcase invariably has a fantastic lineup of games worth keeping an eye on. Among the games making appearances are Possessor(s) from Heart Machine and "nightmarish RPG" Neverway from Coldblood and co-publisher Outersloth. We'll also see something from House House (Untitled Goose Game) — presumably the co-op "walker-talker" Big Walk that was revealed in 2023. In all, Day of the Devs will feature 20 games.  Last year's show included 2024 game(s) of the year contender UFO 50, the very intriguing platformer Screenbound, survival climbing game Cairn, the delightfully kooky-looking Building Relationships and sci-fi mystery Phoenix Springs. My Steam wishlist somehow expands quite significantly after each Day of the Devs showcase. Weird how that always happens. How to watch Devolver Direct — June 6, 8PM ET Watch on YouTube (the same stream as SGF Live and Day of The Devs above) or Twitch  Sorry to everyone who was hoping for Baby Steps and Skate Story release dates from the SGF edition of Devolver Direct. This installment will be entirely focused on one game, and it's neither of those. Devolver Digital will be showing off a previously unannounced title called Ball x Pit: The Kenny Sun Story. The publisher hasn't revealed any more details about this game yet, but apparently it's one that the Devolver "team themselves can't even put down — hundreds of hours later." Devolver's got a strong track record, so this will probably be worth your attention. How to watch Wholesome Direct — June 7, 12PM ET Watch on YouTube or Twitch Definitely don't overlook the smaller events that take place during SGF, as you can always find plenty of treats among them. One such event is the Wholesome Direct, which will feature around 60 cozy games. It will include world premieres, demo announcements and updates from publishers and developers including Playstack, btf Games, ustwo games and Wētā Workshop (whose Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of The Rings Game arrives in July). How to watch Women-led Games Showcase — June 7, 1PM ET Watch on YouTube This one does what it says on the tin. It's a showcase featuring games from women-led and majority-women studios. Women-led Games will feature 39 titles, including world premieres and release dates. How to watch Latin American Games Showcase — June 7, 2PM ET Watch on YouTube The Latin American Games Showcase will feature more than 50 games, all of which are from Latin American developers, oddly enough. Expect world premieres, game update news and more from this one. How to watch Green Games Showcase — June 7, 4PM ET Watch on YouTube The Green Games Showcase is a new addition to the lineup for 2025. This will focus on the game's industry's "growing commitment to the environment." It will feature games that make direct contributions to green initiatives. Other titles in the showcase center around sustainability, and some are designed to raise awareness or drive action regarding environmental causes. Amazon Games, Skybound Games and Team17 are among those taking part. The stream will include a Q&A about how games can inspire meaningful action on climate change. There will also be a fundraising drive to help plant 50,000 trees. How to watch Xbox Games Showcase — June 8, 1PM ET Watch on YouTube or Twitch (there's a separate ASL stream on Twitch too) What's the over/under on the number of times the phrase "day one with Game Pass" will appear on this stream? That's one phrase you can definitely expect to hear, but Microsoft will have plenty to share here. It's the biggest Xbox showcase of the year. There will be reveals and updates from across Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda and Activision Blizzard. Games that the company has in the pipeline include Fable (2026), Perfect Dark, Gears of War: E-Day, Everwild, State of Decay 3, Clockwork Revolution, Hideo Kojima's OD and Contraband. It feels a little early for an update on The Elder Scrolls 6 since that game is still years away. But we may find out more about those other games and some we don't yet know about, such as whatever Double Fine and Toys for Bob are working on.  I have my fingers crossed for more info on the Blade game that Arkane Studios is working on. It's a reasonably safe bet that we'll see something about the next Call of Duty here as well. There's always going to be space for offerings from Microsoft's partner studios and publishers too. Plus, you never know, we might get a peek at what Halo Studios has been cooking up. One game we'll definitely hear more about on June 8 is The Outer Worlds 2. That's getting its own time in the spotlight, with a dedicated event that will start as soon as the main Xbox Games Showcase ends. How to watch Death Stranding 2 Live Game Premiere — June 8, 10PM ET Watch on YouTube Kojima will join Keighley at the Orpheum Theatre in LA to kick off a world tour of events to celebrate the arrival of Death Stranding 2: On The Beach. There will be a panel discussion with some special guests, as well as a live demo of the highly anticipated game. In case you can't make it in person (ticket registration is open now), you can watch the hour-long event live at home.  Meanwhile, several publishers and other organizations are hosting their own shows around SGF. Here's when those will take place:  Access-Ability Summer Showcase — June 6, 11AM ET, on YouTube, YouTube with British Sign Language and Twitch (featuring games made by disabled developers and the accessibility options in each title) IGN Live — throughout June 7 and 8, on YouTube and Twitch Southeast Asian Games Showcase — June 7, 3PM ET, on YouTube Future Games Show — June 7, 4PM ET, on YouTube (featuring more than 40 games)  Frosty Games Fest — June 7, 7PM ET, on YouTube (showcasing "the coolest upcoming and recently released games made in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand") PC Gamer's PC Gaming Show — June 8, 3PM ET, on YouTube (with 50-plus games) Phew. Get ready, gamers. Details on many, many new games are coming your way very soon.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/summer-game-fest-2025-what-new-game-announcements-to-expect-and-how-to-watch-162140617.html?src=rss

Summer Game Fest 2025 is just around the corner and it'll be a weekend packed with video game news. The event kicks off on June 6, with roughly a dozen livestreams scheduled to take place from then through June 8. Among them is the Latin American Games Showcase, which will highlight over 50 titles from Latin American indie developers. You can tune into the YouTube stream on Saturday, June 7 at 2PM ET (11AM PT). Last year's Latin American Games Showcase at SGF gave us a glimpse at a ton of games to be excited about, like the recently released title, Despelote, that's both memoir and soccer game. We don't know yet what the 2025 showcase will bring, but there's sure to be some gems. Before the Latin American Games Showcase on Saturday, Summer Game Fest Live will usher in the festivities on June 6 at 5PM ET (2PM PT). We have all the info you need to know right here ahead of Summer Game Fest and will be on the ground getting some hands-on time with many of the games you'll see featured in the showcases, so be sure to check back in for the latest news.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-the-latin-american-games-showcase-at-summer-game-fest-2025-210009391.html?src=rss