Geoff Keighley's hosting his own E3 replacement that will run all summer

News
By published

Starting off this month, the Summer Game Fest will feature news and events through August.

Kojima's mate and industry superfan Geoff Keighley is keeping busy this summer. He's announced the Summer Game Fest, a peculiar summer-long smorgasbord of news, reveals, demos and in-game events. It starts this month. 

Unlike E3, which is contained within a few days, or Keighley's other venture, The Game Awards, this will be pretty spread out, lasting for four long months. Plenty of publishers have already been revealed as participants, including 2K, Activision, Bandai Namco, Bethesda, Blizzard, Bungie, CD Projekt, Digital Extremes, EA, Sony, Private Division, Riot, Square Enix, Steam, Warner Bros. and Microsoft. 

During last year's Game Awards, Steam hosted a 'game festival' where people could take a long list of demos for a spin across 48-hours, replicating the hands-on experiences of E3. The Summer Game Fest will do something similar, but with Xbox joining Steam in doling out the demos. 

Former E3 partner iam8bit is working with Keighley on this one. Even before E3 2020 was officially cancelled, the company announced that it was pulling out. Keighley also announced that he wouldn't be attending. So while Summer Game Fest is being positioned as an E3 replacement now that the show won't be happening this year, it seems like this has been in the works for a bit longer. 

Keighley says that the schedule will be available soon, and there will be more details during next Thursday's Inside Xbox, where we'll also get our first look at Assassin's Creed Valhalla gameplay. In the meantime, he's hosting a Reddit AMA right now. 

Fraser Brown
Fraser Brown
Online Editor

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog. 

Latest in Gaming Industry
Gabe Newell
Gabe Newell is hooked on Stalker 2 and once he's got the fourth ending (!) will 'figure out what I'm going to play next'
Valve logo with a man with a steam valve for an eye.
Valve's DRM was inspired by an exec's nephew, who 'used a $500 check I'd sent him for school expenses and bought himself a CD-ROM replicator… he sent me a lovely thank you note'
Max, from Life is Strange: Double Exposure, looks ponderingly off into the distance.
'We all got laid off', says former Deck Nine narrative designer, after no-one was around to pick up Life is Strange: Double Exposure's GDC Awards win
An edited Microsoft/Steam logo, illustrating the potential future integration Microsoft has for an Xbox app.
Microsoft crawls back to Steam ahead of schedule by leaking a screenshot of an app where you can launch Steam games through Xbox
The "mind blown" meme from Tim & Eric.
Friendship ended with human race: Boffins declare the 'meme Turing test' has been passed, and AI is now making funnier captions on average than you useless lumps
Gabe Newell in a Valve promotional video, on a yacht.
Valve CMO threatened the company would walk away from games if it didn't own the rights to Half-Life—'It wasn't an idle threat—we weren't going to take on all of the risk to make other people rich'
Latest in News
assassin's creed shadows protector's armor
Assassin's Creed Shadows hits 2 million players, putting it on track to be the series' most successful game yet
Minthara BG3 looking upset
Another round of Baldur's Gate 3 unearthing reveals Minthara can end up living in a sewer, an unused beach ending, and more
A shirtless man rides a big fish underwater
Ark devs distance themselves from AI-generated trailer: 'we did not know that they were doing it'
Team Fortress Spy being shocked
An FPS studio pulled its game from Steam after it got caught linking to malware disguised as a demo, but the dev insists it was actually the victim of a labyrinthine conspiracy
Neighbors Suburban Warfare screenshot a child aims a slingshot at a man from across a cul-de-sac.
A beta of backyard FPS Neighbors: Suburban Warfare is out now, and the balance discussion is hysterical: nerf trash can lids and children
Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer still - woman in the front seat of a car, looking out the back window while holding a wad of cash
The specter of a GTA 6 delay haunts the games industry: 'Some companies are going to tank' if they guess wrong, says analyst
More about gaming industry
Gabe Newell

Gabe Newell is hooked on Stalker 2 and once he's got the fourth ending (!) will 'figure out what I'm going to play next'
Valve logo with a man with a steam valve for an eye.

Valve's DRM was inspired by an exec's nephew, who 'used a $500 check I'd sent him for school expenses and bought himself a CD-ROM replicator… he sent me a lovely thank you note'
King wielding his axe against would-be assassins in Norland.

Medieval colony sim Norland is getting a 'damn big update' that completely overhauls the game's mechanics: 'We're rolling out some radical changes to the core gameplay'
See more latest
Most Popular
King wielding his axe against would-be assassins in Norland.
Medieval colony sim Norland is getting a 'damn big update' that completely overhauls the game's mechanics: 'We're rolling out some radical changes to the core gameplay'
assassin's creed shadows protector's armor
Assassin's Creed Shadows hits 2 million players, putting it on track to be the series' most successful game yet
Rosella encounters a satyr in a forest in King's Quest 4
Eagle-eyed streamer spots that Roberta Williams' portrait in King's Quest 4 is based on her author photo on the back of the game box: 'I never noticed it before.'
Myst puzzle game
'You’ve been asking, and we’ve been listening': Myst remake adds a whole new world to the classic adventure, one originally introduced in another overhaul from 25 years ago
A lineup of heroes from Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard gets a crumb of support as EA offers free weapon skins to coincide with a 50% discount
Minthara BG3 looking upset
Another round of Baldur's Gate 3 unearthing reveals Minthara can end up living in a sewer, an unused beach ending, and more
Wordle today being played on a phone
Today's Wordle answer for Sunday, March 23
A shirtless man rides a big fish underwater
Ark devs distance themselves from AI-generated trailer: 'we did not know that they were doing it'
Neighbors Suburban Warfare screenshot a child aims a slingshot at a man from across a cul-de-sac.
A beta of backyard FPS Neighbors: Suburban Warfare is out now, and the balance discussion is hysterical: nerf trash can lids and children
Screenshot from Wreckfest 2
Wreckfest 2 has hit early access for your car-obliterating combat racing enjoyment