Geoff Keighley announces Summer Games Fest: A 4 month long season of news and events

[VegiHam]

The 'why' to me is clearly so that a bunch of different companies can pool their resources and share a spotlight instead of having to each individually market their own announcements. Without E3, a company like WB for example were probably like shit we were gonna do our own thing for the first time, now wtf do we do?

In comes Geoff Keighley with a basket for all these companies to put all their various eggs. This way people will be like ok that was a cool Inside Xbox... what's next? Oh ok some little indie thing... but what if SONY are after that!! Better stay tuned to this website.

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Yeah I think this is it really.

Just anecdotally though, I think this is good for people like me as well. I totally missed the recent Stadia Connect because I don't go to places like IGN, I get my news from thread titles here and I managed to miss that thread. I don't really follow all the headlines for everything, normally, just games I care about. But every year at E3 I'll watch things like Devolvers show and the PC gaming show because they're part of E3. For me, having a centralised schedule saying what things are coming up that I'd miss if they were low traffic era threads will be really useful.

 

[Sekiro]

Wonder if that rumoured June 4th Playstation event is part of the Summer Games Fest. 🤔

 

[DieH@rd]

Wonder if that rumoured June 4th Playstation event is part of the Summer Games Fest. 🤔

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Let us wait for official announcement from Sony, June 4th is for now only a Tale from Ass.

 

[T002 Tyrant]

I wonder if this will replace Nintendo E3 Direct this year? Just send the trailers periodically to Geoff - let him do the work?

 

[DieH@rd]

I wonder if this will replace Nintendo E3 Direct this year? Just send the trailers periodically to Geoff - let him do the work?

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Nintendo never lets anyone else do their promotion. They will produce Direct during the summer when they can.

 

[T002 Tyrant]

Nintendo never lets anyone else do their promotion. They will produce Direct during the summer when they can.

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That's fine I'm personally not thirsty for a Direct, just thought it could be an option for them as a company, I mean they participate in TGAs, so why not throw Geoff a bone? :)

 

[Corrie1960]

Over 4 weeks I could get hyped but over 4 months just sounds like a regular year like reading news on ign etc

 

[HMD]

Over 4 weeks I could get hyped but over 4 months just sounds like a regular year like reading news on ign etc

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Agreed, 4 Months is just stupid.

 

[KillaKap]

The industry is looking to replace E3. GK has enough clout to pull off everyone working together under one umbrella to release game announcements. There could be an argument that when under the guise of E3 things just get more attention. Yes media sites and big platforms can do their own thing, but im pretty sure when the E3 banner is leading the way the attention goes up a bit more.

So the game fest has the perfect opportunity to put a digital e3 together.It's not perfect, but Rome wasn't built in a day, or a year.

When quarantine is over, expect game fest to restructure into an offline alternative as well.

 

[Herb Alpert]

4 months of news !
Like every year, but with a fancy intro !

 

[weekev]

It's a different approach -- things weren't going to line up into one week. In fact you'll see some publishers do multiple events/touch points across the summer. It's not just about one 2 hour "press conference" anymore, think about playable content, extended looks at games, and so on. And we're certainly not programming things every day, there will be breaks. And in-game events and content too.

When you look back across the summer at Labor Day, I hope you'll say "I got all the news I wanted, and played a bunch of cool things too." This is a container for all that, and we have some big surprises coming too. Today is just the initial announcement, the schedule on the website will launch next week.

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I like your quote that it isnt competition to what companies have planned but that its an amplification of those plans. Seems like a cool idea. Good luck with it.

 

[Gxgear]

This is too much power for one man.

 

[nikos]

This is exciting. Looking forward to these events.

 

[BhetjaXIV]

It's a different approach -- things weren't going to line up into one week. In fact you'll see some publishers do multiple events/touch points across the summer. It's not just about one 2 hour "press conference" anymore, think about playable content, extended looks at games, and so on. And we're certainly not programming things every day, there will be breaks. And in-game events and content too.

When you look back across the summer at Labor Day, I hope you'll say "I got all the news I wanted, and played a bunch of cool things too." This is a container for all that, and we have some big surprises coming too. Today is just the initial announcement, the schedule on the website will launch next week.

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When you talk about playable stuff, is it like ... E3 demos but accessible for everyone at home for a limited time as opposed to exclusive to attendees? :)

Also keep it up ! That's a very nice way to centralize and amplify the few next month of news, especially with next gen being so close. And it's very welcome in this time of pandemic.

 

[the_fastbuck]

sweet, dying light 2 is in phase 1

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where did you see this?

great thing to look forward to. thanks geoff. to all the nay-sayers: just wait and see and after it all went down you can still form your opinion. it's something new, just like the game awards was a few years ago. maybe it will be really the start of a e3 alternative, maybe not. looking forward to the schedule on tuesday.

 

[Tovarisc]

When you talk about playable stuff, is it like ... E3 demos but accessible for everyone at home for a limited time as opposed to exclusive to attendees? :)

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In case Geoff doesn't circle back, yes.

Will what we get to download be exactly those vertical slices shown on E3 stages? Doubt that, but we will be getting actual demos to download of upcoming titles.

 

[Bold One]

TLDR: Tired of people making fun of games that they never would have played at E3. Having game-specific stream schedules makes sense to me. Don't know if this year is that year where that happens (thinking more multiple games/publisher led streams now), but I suspect in future we will see that. Will like having huge blowouts. Leaks happen every year before e3 so there are no real surprises anymore anyway.

I just wanted to post something. I am an avid gamer. I like a lot of different stuff. Obviously I like some stuff more than others. But one thing I have always ALWAYS hated about E3 is that pundits, influencers, and media have ALWAYS made a "lol Madden" or "lol Minecraft" joke. I feel like this kind of schedule and game-by-game reveal approach is incredibly positive for the industry because it allows FANS to choose when to look at things and "react" to things. Like, if Minecraft announces a July 1 reveal or whatever, I don't need to worry about Greg Miller or IGN making stupid jokes about that game or that development team. It always seemed crude and inappropriate to me. Like, cool, you made a joke to belittle the entire team and product, but in 48 hours a member of your team is going to interview a developer there to get more information. It never sat right with me. Maximilian dood - who I genuinely love as a person - reacted to EA Play last year by spinning chairs for the sports sections of the entire show - DESPITE them even scheduling those parts of the show beforehand. Like, the man could have just shown up for Star Wars and not been upset.

I think - to me - getting full day blowouts of games I care about versus having to backtrack weeks down the road to determine if I missed a video or a news article, is a WAY more exciting route to take then BANG BANG BANG press conferences. Heck, press conferences nowadays don't even show gameplay. There's a distinct possibility that this opens up more work-in-progress showings of these games. Maybe it will allow for more at-home demos. Geoff has worked with Steam a couple times on releasing demos (demoes?) in the past and it opened my eyes to some cool indies that I would never have tried.

And we are definitely in a world where games can stand on their own. Warframe, Destiny, Call of Duty, The Division, Apex (I think), and more all sort of do that now anyway. Knowing I can be excited for one big blowout of one specific game on one specific day is incredibly exciting for me. You lose the WOW WHAT A SURPRISE element, but to be super realistic, there were no surprises. Resetera ruins all of them. I love you guys, but you do. You guys scour trademarks, LinkedIn postings, twitter ramblings, and leaks/code data to figure it out. I'm never surprised. Then when e3 actually happens, the publisher leaks it on their own if Jason Schreier didn't leak it before that. There's literally no point to e3 anymore. I hope this is the way of the future with The Game Awards being a good mid-way point.

Looks like Geoff Keighley is the Kevin Feige (TIm Gettys' words) of the industry.

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This is so true - Reddit sub-forums have dedicated communities devoted to data-mining all the information from a game for reasons I cant comprehend. Its pretty much killed all of Destiny's mystique - major story beats and events are data-mined months in advance - major cutscenes are thrown into the wild. All because some no-life twat wants his 15 minutes of e-clout.

The recent ND fiasco only shows how pervasive it is and will become as games become more complex, production size and length increase and the number of cooks in the proverbial kitchen expands.

 

[afrodubs]

Geoff Keighley is legit one of my gaming heroes.

I'll never forget your GameTrailers, Bonus Round days. One of the fondest gaming eras of my young(ish) life.

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I miss bonus rounds 😫

 

[MrOblong]

how are there people complaining about this? it actually makes no sense to me.

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Calling a period of 4 months without a schedule a festival is... confusing to people who have ever been to an actual festival. So we shrug and make fun on this- a discussion forum. Hope it makes more sense to you now.

Just a general note on tone policing (not just your post):
No-one's trying to ban this, and we can all see Geoff is trying something new with little time to get it ready. But the logic and value of this sprawling grab bag is hardly self-explanatory, nor has it been convincingly explained (I appreciate the posts in this thread that have theory-crafted about the qualitative difference the new format might make).

Are only positive posts allowed about marketing (non)events, or can we say the thing is odd and inscrutable to us? Or even mock the hubris of declaring one third of the calendar as your gaming festival? It's inherently funny to me, nothing to do with being miserable.

 

[BhetjaXIV]

In case Geoff doesn't circle back, yes.

Will what we get to download be exactly those vertical slices shown on E3 stages? Doubt that, but we will be getting actual demos to download of upcoming titles.

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Nice. That's neat and will definitely keep people entertained

 

[Deleted member 56752]

This is so true - Reddit sub-forums have dedicated communities devoted to data-mining all the information from a game for reasons I cant comprehend. Its pretty much killed all of Destiny's mystique - major story beats and events are data-mined months in advance - major cutscenes are thrown into the wild. All because some no-life twat wants his 15 minutes of e-clout.

The recent ND fiasco only shows how pervasive it is and will become as games become more complex, production size and length increase and the number of cooks in the proverbial kitchen expands.

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Imagine Geoff like announcing Elden ring day instead of just a stupid cinematic video that gets a reaction like "oh" and then the 2 minute trailer is over in a major conference. You get details and gameplay and the team is elevated. Thanks to noclip and, to a lesser extent (sorry), Geoff, teams are being held on higher pedestals. Individual devs are being recognized for their talent. This could potentially move the needle further. this is something that'll happen much further down the road but it's something I'm still excited for.

Some games truly wont be ready for more than a cg trailer reveal but think about it. How many games just show a cg trailer and then show gameplay later in e3 week. It's a lot. Since "later in e3 week" isn't a thing, it'll happen during the big blowoit

 

[Tygre]

You can't have an "event" that lasts 4 months. Even a season can only really last 3 months.

Having this spread out so much just completely dilutes the concept, how different is it really from just the regular stream of news we get anyway?


Is Sony's 9-month long drip-fed death march of PS5 'announcements' an "event" now?

 

[Prine]

Literally what in that statement does a gaming news website not do?

What does "coordinate" announcements mean? Space them out more evenly? How...is that even relevant? Am I as a consumer not capable of grasping and being equally attentioned to the announcement of Dying Light 2 and then also Elden Ring because somehow those got announced at the same time?

Oh wait that sort of thing will happen, because a lot of these events being "hosted" (whatever that means) will be having lots of announcements at their own events. So you literally aren't giving games their own time to shine. You're just giving platform holders and the biggest publishers time to shine which...since when were they not big enough that that mattered?

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Your not being inconvenienced either way, you'll just tune in for info you want, just like your currently doing right?, and yes, alot of people have no clue when these events are on or even scheduled, so it's helpful to know there's a central place for gaming info during the next few months. There's cadence to it, and you can set expectations of big news during upcoming sessions. Could become the replacement to E3.

This is too much power for one man.

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More like the Kevin Feige of Gaming :D

 

[Tovarisc]

You can't have an "event" that lasts 4 months. Even a season can only really last 3 months.

Having this spread out so much just completely dilutes the concept, how different is it really from just the regular stream of news we get anyway?

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Did you read Geoff's post or any of the AMA he did?

 

[DixieDean82]

Honestly, I would be more hyped if it was a one off two hour stream than this.

 

[BhetjaXIV]

Honestly, I would be more hyped if it was a one off two hour stream than this.

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It's not just streams

 

[Starlatine]

This is so true - Reddit sub-forums have dedicated communities devoted to data-mining all the information from a game for reasons I cant comprehend. Its pretty much killed all of Destiny's mystique - major story beats and events are data-mined months in advance - major cutscenes are thrown into the wild. All because some no-life twat wants his 15 minutes of e-clout.

The recent ND fiasco only shows how pervasive it is and will become as games become more complex, production size and length increase and the number of cooks in the proverbial kitchen expands.

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Thats not going to change one bit. Someone can still come and "leak" the lineup of the inside xbox coming up (would bet two doritos bags and one mountain dew on zhuge as usual). Geoff might want to dedicate an Elden Ring day for June 12th but someone can get access to the footage earlier and leak it on the internet the same way. And if the future goal of Summer Gamefest is making "a big offline event that is just like E3" then whats the point of celebrating E3 going away now, if the endgame is to remake it again, but with a different figurehead behind it?

Seems like you're all having very unrealistic expectations to what this will be despite Geoff dropping by to pull them back to realistic levels.

 

[Rygar 8Bit]

This just sounds like normal news cycle.

 

[DieH@rd]

This just sounds like normal news cycle.

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Yeah, with a promotional calendar that will maybe have some upcoming events on it.

 

[Neoxon]

You all think we'll get Overwatch 2 & Diablo IV news during the Summer Games Fest?

 

[The BLJ]

So, to replace E3 2020, there are both IGN's Summer of Gaming in June and Keighley's Summer Games Fest in May-August?

 

[Bradbatross]

Calling a period of 4 months without a schedule a festival is... confusing to people who have ever been to an actual festival. So we shrug and make fun on this- a discussion forum. Hope it makes more sense to you now.

Just a general note on tone policing (not just your post):
No-one's trying to ban this, and we can all see Geoff is trying something new with little time to get it ready. But the logic and value of this sprawling grab bag is hardly self-explanatory, nor has it been convincingly explained (I appreciate the posts in this thread that have theory-crafted about the qualitative difference the new format might make).

Are only positive posts allowed about marketing (non)events, or can we say the thing is odd and inscrutable to us? Or even mock the hubris of declaring one third of the calendar as your gaming festival? It's inherently funny to me, nothing to do with being miserable.

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But there is a schedule...

 

[MrOblong]

But there is a schedule...

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Not posted yet, there isn't.

But even if you scratch that one point, four months of drip fed publicity isn't what most people would expect from a festival. The bemusement should be easy to understand.

 

[Bradbatross]

Not posted yet, there isn't.

But even if you scratch that one point, four months of drip fed publicity isn't what most people would expect from a festival. The bemusement should be easy to understand.

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Not really understandable, but expected on ERA.

 

[bcatwilly]

LOL, I mistyped the URL to the web site as http://www.summergamesfest.com/ (notice the 's' after game) which for whatever reason redirects to this link https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EW5DF5JXgAw7LHr?format=jpg&name=large with the image below.

 

[Moz La Punk]

I don't really understand why you all keep piling up on Chettlar ? He's just asking for a more clear description of what it's going to offer above a regular gaming news site / forum, where all the dates and announcements and what not are posted anyway. He's not hating on Geoff's hard work, I'm sure. I work as a game editor and I wrote news about this event this morning and I had to do some research as well to get a more clearer image of what this festival entails. I respect Geoff immensely - he's done more in his field of work that I'll ever be able to do (which is logical, as I write in my own language for a living instead of in English) - but its okay to ask to each other - or to him, in this topic - what the festival entails, right? There's nothing wrong with that?? I don't understand why Era has to be like this echo chamber sometimes where if you ask questions or share a different opinion, you get spit out. He wasn't even offensive, he was just asking questions. I'm sorry but I had to post this, it was rubbing me the wrong way reading all those cheap shots against him and stuff like 'just dont visit the site'. That wasn't the point. But whatever.

The way I see it - and I think its described this way, even - its a central hub for all the cool announcements that going to happen starting next week. So a bit like a gaming news site yes, but with a calender. It gives all these random, seperated events coming up more of a 'united' feeling. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, if anything I think its extremely smart of Geoff to see this opening and make use of it - in a way that benefits all parties of course, both publishers and gamers hungry for news. As I've been following the stuff Geoff has done these years, I think if there's anyone who can give al this news an extra 'touch' so to speak, its him. THe times I followed E3 at home instead of being there, following his shows on YouTube (and before that on another channel - can't remember which one) really gave the experience something extra. Interviews with the big guys from the publishers, mixed with smaller titles that got lost in the shuffle. I presume that's going to be the strength of the festival. Still, he has his work cut out to communicate the purpose of the festival clearly, and Im sure he is aware of that himself. I am excited to see the results! Keep up the good work :)

 

[MAK11]

4 months? Lol
Nothingburger

 

[MrOblong]

Not really understandable, but expected on ERA.

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I said it was easy to understand, not that you'd understand it.

But shit post this site community if you want.

 

[V has come to]

i swear some of yall just look for reasons to be upset about shit

 

[Bradbatross]

I said it was easy to understand, not that you'd understand it.

But shit post this site community if you want.

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It isn't easy to understand though lol. There's no reason to be shitting on this initiative. You're complaining about there not be a schedule knowing that it's going to be announced next week..

 

[MrOblong]

It isn't easy to understand though lol. There's no reason to be shitting on this initiative. You're complaining about there not be a schedule knowing that it's going to be announced next week..

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You're back on that one note. The majority of my last post was after the phrase "even if you scratch (the point about the schedule)", so at this point you're fixating on a perceived gotcha rather than the broader point of this thing being poorly communicated. I suspect you're not arguing in good faith, just wanting points to feel good for team hype or whatever. Some commentary is negative, constructive or otherwise- both appear in this thread and both are fine. People have explained why they like it, and I haven't seen them be attacked (broadly, there may be exceptions). People have explained why they don't like it, and I've seen a lot of feathers get ruffled by it.

Several people have explained why this 'festival' doesn't make a lot of sense to them, but the Tone Police won't let up, like the example right above your post:

i swear some of yall just look for reasons to be upset about shit

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which misrepresents indifference, bemusement and mocking as being 'upset'... whilst posting solely to admonish posters with opinions they don't like. The irony is palpable, but it's still boring as fuck to read.

You (and whoever else) are welcome to salivate at the prospect of four-months-of-staggered-marketing-wait-isn't-that-just-IGN content, others are welcome to laugh at it or criticise the approach to any aspect of it. It's real simple.

 

[Geoff Keighley]

I wonder if Inside Xbox/AC Valhalla were two that just missed out of the scheduling/marketing window for this. This past week has felt like there's been gaming news every day, whether it's leaks, rumours or official announcements.

I can't help but wonder why the announcement of this games fest wasn't pushed back until the schedule could also be released. Kinda a bit anticlimactic to wait for a schedule now.

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Inside X

In case Geoff doesn't circle back, yes.

Will what we get to download be exactly those vertical slices shown on E3 stages? Doubt that, but we will be getting actual demos to download of upcoming titles.

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Right, it's going to vary by game and platform and publisher -- especially this year with work from home conditions. I wouldn't expect that every major upcoming is giving you a demo by any means -- but eventually, I think we'll get there, especially with new streaming technologies, etc. The basic idea: Standing in line to play a video game at an event seems antiquated (and not very safe in today's climate). Of course in a new hardware year it's a little trickier, but I hope by TGA time in December we'll have some pretty cool ways to bring the announcements on stage to playable life. I have a lot of crazy ideas for "playable trailers" for games in the future. But those will take a few years :)

 

[Geoff Keighley]

Not posted yet, there isn't.

But even if you scratch that one point, four months of drip fed publicity isn't what most people would expect from a festival. The bemusement should be easy to understand.

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Have you heard of World's Fairs or Expos? Those run 3-6 months. I'm not sure why you think a "Festival" has to be any specific length. The advantage of digital is that things can run for much longer periods of time than a physical "destination" event.

 

[Geoff Keighley]

I don't really understand why you all keep piling up on Chettlar ? He's just asking for a more clear description of what it's going to offer above a regular gaming news site / forum, where all the dates and announcements and what not are posted anyway. He's not hating on Geoff's hard work, I'm sure. I work as a game editor and I wrote news about this event this morning and I had to do some research as well to get a more clearer image of what this festival entails. I respect Geoff immensely - he's done more in his field of work that I'll ever be able to do (which is logical, as I write in my own language for a living instead of in English) - but its okay to ask to each other - or to him, in this topic - what the festival entails, right? There's nothing wrong with that?? I don't understand why Era has to be like this echo chamber sometimes where if you ask questions or share a different opinion, you get spit out. He wasn't even offensive, he was just asking questions. I'm sorry but I had to post this, it was rubbing me the wrong way reading all those cheap shots against him and stuff like 'just dont visit the site'. That wasn't the point. But whatever.

The way I see it - and I think its described this way, even - its a central hub for all the cool announcements that going to happen starting next week. So a bit like a gaming news site yes, but with a calender. It gives all these random, seperated events coming up more of a 'united' feeling. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, if anything I think its extremely smart of Geoff to see this opening and make use of it - in a way that benefits all parties of course, both publishers and gamers hungry for news. As I've been following the stuff Geoff has done these years, I think if there's anyone who can give al this news an extra 'touch' so to speak, its him. THe times I followed E3 at home instead of being there, following his shows on YouTube (and before that on another channel - can't remember which one) really gave the experience something extra. Interviews with the big guys from the publishers, mixed with smaller titles that got lost in the shuffle. I presume that's going to be the strength of the festival. Still, he has his work cut out to communicate the purpose of the festival clearly, and Im sure he is aware of that himself. I am excited to see the results! Keep up the good work :)

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Thanks, glad you get it! It's a new idea, we will see how it goes. And I'll definitely be doing some shows and cool things around all this, lots to still announce! When you look back in September, I hope everyone will feel like it was a worthwhile endeavor.

 

[Geoff Keighley]

It's not just streams

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We'll have some specific "streams" inside of this -- even gamescom ONL on August 24 will be much like that. This idea is bigger than that.

 

[Greigor the FellHand]

where did you see this?

great thing to look forward to. thanks geoff. to all the nay-sayers: just wait and see and after it all went down you can still form your opinion. it's something new, just like the game awards was a few years ago. maybe it will be really the start of a e3 alternative, maybe not. looking forward to the schedule on tuesday.

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Warner brothers in phase 1

WB published dying light 1 if I recall

 

[ASilentProtagonist]

Thanks for doing this Geoff. Hopefully you got some special surprises in store, and gameplay for titles people have been wanting to see for awhile now:)

 

[Polyh3dron]

E3 has now been replaced by Geoff3

The King Is Dead, Long Live The Dorito Pope

Seriously though, well done Geoff.

 

[The BLJ]

The responses in this thread confuse me to be honest. If I understand correctly, this will be something like a hub for news and streams and promotional content that would've been at E3. Why is it 4 months long? Because several companies have their announcements delayed because of the whole pandemic thing (even Nintendo's stream might happen later than June). And everyone is going to stay home anyway, so why hurry to fit everything into a single week?

I only wonder if this will line up with the Summer of Gaming thing IGN is doing in June.

Personally I like the idea. I don't have the energy anymore to do 2-3 all-nighters in a week to catch every conference every year (I live in France). And because they are all so close to each other, all the announcements start feeling like a single blob and nothing really stays in memory in the end. Trying to spread it out to 4 months is the perfect experiment considering everyone is staying home for now anyway.

 

[Bold One]

Y'all actually made Geoff get up from his Thanos Chair.