Geoff Keighley has announced Summer Game Fest, an “industry-wide celebration of gaming” set over the summer featuring news, announcements, and events.
The news comes via emailed press release, stating that the event will bring “breaking news, in-game events, and free playable content.” “Designed from the ground-up as a first-of-its-kind, all-digital consumer celebration, Summer Game Fest is a multi-month global festival that highlights video games, the world’s leading form of entertainment.”
The “season” will feature news from publishers and platforms, including: “2K, Activision Publishing, Bandai Namco Entertainment, Bethesda, Blizzard Entertainment, Bungie, CD Projekt Red, Digital Extremes, Electronic Arts, Microsoft (more details coming next week), Sony Interactive Entertainment, SQUARE ENIX, Private Division, Riot Games, Steam and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.”
Each publisher will be the ones to share details of the events, and additional publisher involved will be announced in the coming weeks. In addition; Steam, Xbox, and other platforms will release limited time demos and trials of “select game content”. The press release also notes the Steam Game Festival: Summer Edition, suggesting the two events are collaborative in part.
The event’s curator is Geoff Keighley- organizer of The Game Awards (and its’ YouTube channel is where the announcement trailer was uploaded to).
“In these uncertain and challenging times, it’s more important than ever that video games serve as a common and virtual connection point between us all,” Keighley explains. “SGF is an organizing principle that promises fans a whole season of video game news and other surprises from the comfort of home.”
The event will be broadcast across “all major streaming platforms, including publisher owned and operated channels on Facebook, Mixer, Twitch, Twitter, YouTube and more global outlets and media partners.”
Along with Keighley hosting pre and post shows for “flagship publisher events.” iam8bit will also produce a showcase highlighting upcoming games.
The event is clearly intended as an alternative to E3 2020, which was officially cancelled in March (even digitally in April 2020), due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Numerous companies including Microsoft, Devolver Digital, and Ubisoft (but not Bethesda), announced they would be hosting their own digital events around the time E3 2020 would have happened. Ironically iam8bit pulled out of E3 2020 in early March. IGN also stated they would host a Summer of Games in June. It is unclear if this is also part of the collaboration, or a separate event.
Finally, the press release states Keighley will host and produce Gamescom: Opening Night Live, acting as “a spectacular, industry-wide finale to the SGF season” on August 24th.
You can find the announcement trailer below.
Summer Game Fest runs from May to August 2020.
Image: Emailed press release.
