It is early June, which implies it is time for a ton of online game occasions! Rising from the ashes of E3, Geoff Keighley’s Summer time Sport Fest is now the premium gaming occasion of the yr, simply inching forward of… Geoff Keighley’s Sport Awards in December. Not like the present it changed, Summer time Sport Fest is an egalitarian affair, spotlighting video games from AAA builders and small indies throughout a various set of livestreams. SGF 2025 contains 15 particular person occasions operating from June 3-9 — yow will discover the complete Summer time Sport Fest 2025 schedule right here — and we’re smack dab in the midst of that programming proper now.
We’re protecting SGF 2025 with a small staff on the bottom in LA and a far bigger group of writers tuning in remotely to the assorted livestreams. Anticipate recreation previews, interviews and reactions to reach over the approaching days (the present’s in-person element runs from Saturday-Monday), and a boatload of recent trailers and launch date bulletins in between.
By way of all of it, we’re collating the most important bulletins proper right here, with hyperlinks out to extra in-depth protection the place we now have it, in chronological order.
Tuesday, June 3
State of Unreal: The Witcher IV and Fortnite AI
Epic hitched its wagon to SGF this yr, aligning its annual developer Unreal Fest convention, which final befell within the fall of 2024, with the buyer occasion. The convention was held in Orlando, Florida, from June 2-5, with properly over 100 developer periods targeted on Unreal Engine. The spotlight was State of Unreal, which was the primary occasion on the official Summer time Sport Fest schedule. Amid a bunch of very cool tech demos and bulletins, we received some significant updates on Epic’s personal Fortnite and CD PROJEKT RED’s upcoming The Witcher IV.
The Witcher IV was first unveiled at The Sport Awards final yr, and we have heard little or no about it since. At State of Unreal, we received a tech demo for Unreal Engine 5.6, performed in actual time on a base PS5. The roughly 10-minute slot featured a mixture of gameplay and cinematics, and confirmed off an in depth, bustling world. Maybe the technical spotlight was Nanite Foliage, an extension of UE5’s Nanite system for geometry that renders foliage with out the extent of element pop-in that’s maybe essentially the most widespread graphical aberration nonetheless plaguing video games as we speak. On the sport facet, we noticed a city full of a whole bunch of NPCs going about their enterprise. The city itself wasn’t fairly on the size of The Witcher III‘s Novigrad Metropolis, however nonetheless felt alive in a manner past something the final recreation achieved.
It is truthful to say that Fortnite‘s second within the highlight was… much less spectacular. Sizzling on the heels of smooshing a profane Darth Vader AI into the sport, Epic introduced that creators will be capable of roll their very own AI NPCs into the sport later this yr.
Wednesday, June 4
PlayStation State of Play: Marvel Tōkon, Silent Hill f and the return of Lumines
One other firm getting a headstart on proceedings was Sony, who threw its third State of Play of the yr onto the Summer time Sport Fest schedule a pair days forward of the opening night time occasion. It was a packed stream by Sony’s requirements, with over 20 video games and even a shock {hardware} announcement.
Essentially the most time was given to Marvel Tōkon: Combating Souls, a brand new PlayStation Studios tag fighter that fuses Marvel Superheroes with anime visuals. It is also 4 versus 4, which is wild. It is being developed by Arc System Works, the staff maybe finest recognized for the Responsible Gear collection. It is coming to PS5 and PC in 2026. Not-so-coincidentally, Sony additionally introduced Challenge Defiant, a wi-fi combat stick that’ll help PS5 and PC and arrive in… 2026.
Elsewhere, we received a parade of launch dates, with concrete dates for Sword of the Sea (August 19) Child Steps (September 8) and Silent Hill f (September 25). We additionally received affirmation of that Closing Fantasy Techniques remaster (coming September 30), an an all-new… let’s name it aspirational “2026” date for Pragmata, which, if you happen to’re conserving rating, was marketed alongside the launch of the PS5. Nice going, Capcom!
Rounding out the present was a bunch of smaller bulletins. We heard a couple of new Nioh recreation, Nioh 3, coming in 2026; Suda51’s new weirdness Romeo is a Useless Man; and Lumines Come up, a long-awaited return to the Lumines collection from the developer behind Tetris Impact.
Thursday, June 5
Diddly squat
There have been completely no Summer time Sport Fest occasions scheduled on Thursday. We assume that is out of respect for antipodean bushes, as June 5 was Arbor Day in New Zealand. (It is in all probability as a result of everybody was enjoying Nintendo Change 2.)
Friday, June 6
Summer time Sport Fest Dwell: Resident Evil Requiem, Stranger Than Heaven and sequels abound
It is truthful to say that earlier Summer time Sport Fest opening night time streams have been… whelming at finest. This yr’s exhibiting was actually an enchancment, not least as a result of there have been exponentially fewer cell recreation and MMO advertisements littering the presentation. Sure, of us monitoring Gabe Newell’s yacht have been dissatisfied that Half-Life 3 did not present up, and the Silksong crowd stays unhappy, alone and unloved, however there have been nonetheless some large bulletins.
Maybe the most important of all was the “ninth” (Zero and Code Veronica erasure is actual) Resident Evil recreation. Resident Evil Requiem is alleged to be a tonal shift in comparison with the final recreation, Resident Evil Village. Here is hoping it reinvigorates the collection in the identical manner Resident Evil VII did following the disappointing 6.
We additionally heard extra from Sega studio Ryu Ga Gotoku about Challenge Century, which appears to be a 1943 tackle the Yakuza collection. It is now referred to as Stranger Than Heaven, and there is a (actually) jazzy new trailer on your consideration.
Exterior of these large swings, there have been sequels to a bunch of mid-sized video games, like Atomic Coronary heart, Code Vein and Mortal Shell, and a non secular sequel of kinds: Scott Pilgrim EX, a beat-em-up that takes the baton from the 2010 Ubisoft brawler Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Sport.
There have been numerous different bulletins on the present, together with:
Day of the Devs: Snap & Seize, Blighted and Escape Academy II
As at all times, the kickoff present was adopted by a Day of the Devs stream, which targeted on smaller tasks and indie video games. You possibly can watch the complete stream right here.
Escape Academy has been firmly on our greatest sofa co-op video games checklist for a while, and now it is received a sequel on the way in which. Escape Academy 2: Again 2 College takes the identical primary co-op escape room enjoyable and expands on it, transferring away from a level-select map display and in direction of a completely 3D faculty campus for gamers to discover. As long as the puzzles themselves are as enjoyable as the unique, it looks as if a winner.
Semblance studio Nyamakop is again with new jam referred to as Relooted, a heist recreation with a singular twist. As in the actual world, museums within the West are full of things plundered from African nations underneath colonialism. Not like the actual world, in Relooted the colonial powers have signed a treaty to return these things to their locations of origin, however issues aren’t going to plan, as many artifacts are discovering their manner into personal collections. It is your job to steal them again. The British Museum is quaking in its boots.
Listed below are among the different video games that caught our eye:
The remainder: Ball x Pit, Hitman and 007 First Gentle
After Day of the Devs got here Devolver. Its Summer time Sport Fest present was slightly extra muted than common, specializing in a single recreation: Ball x Pit. It is the subsequent recreation from Kenny Solar, an indie developer who beforehand made the sleeper hit Mr. Solar’s Hatbox. Ball x Pit is being made by a staff of greater than half a dozen devs, in distinction to Solar’s largely solo prior works. It appears like an fascinating mashup of Breakout and base-building mechanics, and there is a demo on Steam accessible proper now.
Then got here IOI, the makers of Hitman, who put collectively a basic E3-style cringefest, stuffed with awkward pauses, ill-paced demos and repetitive trailers. Truthfully, as somebody who’s been watching recreation firm shows for twenty years or so, it was a pleasant second of nostalgia.
Away from the marvel of a presenter making an attempt to deal with every thing going flawed, the present did have some precise content material, with an prolonged demo of the brand new James Bond-themed Hitman mission, an announcement that Hitman is coming to iOS and desk tops, and a presentation on MindsEye, a recreation from former GTA producer Leslie Benzies that IOI is publishing.
Saturday, June 7
Monument Valley 3, eggs, Camper Van: Make it Dwelling and area of interest streams
The Healthful Direct arrived on Saturday, simply in time to assuage that bizarre hangover all of us received after the IOI showcase. The Healthful Direct is a celebration of all issues lovable, quaint, peaceable and candy, and this yr included mainstream information about Monument Valley 3 coming to consoles and PC, following a stint as a Netflix unique. There was additionally a launch date announcement for the comfy however twisted shop-management sim Discounty, which is about as spooky because the Healthful Direct ever will get. There’s one thing sinister in regards to the small city in Discounty, and whereas we’re nonetheless undecided if it’s demons or simply the looming specter of capitalism, we all know for positive the sport is coming to PC, Change, PS4, PS5 and Xbox Collection X/S on August 21.
In the meantime, Omelet You Prepare dinner hit Steam in the course of the showcase as a pleasant little shock. It’s a recreation about making eggs for choosy college students in a cafeteria, and naturally pleasing Principal Clucker (who’s a rooster in a swimsuit, sure). Merely put, it appears scrumptious. The ultimate recreation we wish to shout out from this yr’s Healthful Direct is Camper Van: Make it Dwelling, an ideal little crossover of inside design mechanics and barely miniaturized objects, which makes for a brilliant cute expertise. It got here out in the course of the showcase, and it’s reside now on Steam.
There have been dozens of different bulletins in the course of the 2025 Healthful Direct stream, and your complete factor is value a watch. You are able to do so at your leisure, ideally cuddled up with a blanket and a pleasant drink, proper right here.
Saturday was additionally the time for the entire hyper-specific recreation streams to shine. We noticed the Girls-led Video games present, Latin American Video games Showcase, Southeast Asian Video games Showcase, Inexperienced Video games Showcase and Frosty Video games Fest. Celebration!
Sunday, June 8
A brand new Xbox handheld, Outer Worlds 2 and Black Ops 7
The final large occasion of the weekend was Xbox, which had its common breathless showcase. The key information, particularly for a publication like Engadget, was the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, two new Xbox-focused PC handhelds. Internally, they’re loads like ASUS’ ROG Ally handhelds, however the grips have been smoothed out to really feel extra like an Xbox controller in your fingers.
The software program expertise can be completely different. The Xbox Ally handhelds run Home windows 11, however in Microsoft‘s model of Steam Large Image mode there will be fewer background processes and… only a typically decrease overhead in comparison with common Home windows handhelds. Fortunately, Microsoft is not locking issues down, because it’ll be capable of entry different “standard storefronts,” which we’re taking to imply Steam and Epic. The Xbox Ally will likely be accessible nearer to the vacations, however value is a large query mark: The ROG Ally prices considerably greater than the Steam Deck and Change 2. Is Microsoft going to subsidize this stuff, or are they going to value $600-$800 like ASUS’ own-brand variations?
Aspect observe: A fast screw you to Microsoft for utilizing Hole Knight: Silksong to point out off the brand new handheld. We’re all ravenous out right here, and this was not useful. I assume the information that it will be playable on day one on the hand-held at the very least narrows down the discharge date to “between now and every time this factor comes out.”
Much less of a shock was Outer Worlds 2, which Microsoft stated can be on the present properly forward of time. We received a launch date — October 29 — and a deep dive into the sport’s new programs. It appears like an expanded title in comparison with the unique, with an improved fight system and a extra fleshed out set of companions. We hope to have extra on what’s new actual quickly.
The One Extra Factor of the present was a brand new Name of Responsibility recreation, Black Ops 7. Really, when a recreation comes out yearly is it actually value blowing your yet another factor on? If solely Microsoft had an Xbox-branded handheld to point out off, that might’ve been a very cool observe to finish the present!
Listed below are the opposite bits and items value studying about from the Xbox present:
The remainder: Paralives and Blippo+
Paralives has been within the works for what appears like without end, however you can play it this yr: It enters early entry on December 8. The indie tackle The Sims appears charming as all hell in its newest trailer, and I can not wait.
Blippo+ has been an excellent distraction because it launched with Playdate season 2, and we came upon Sunday that it will be coming to extra platforms quickly — in full coloration, no much less! It will arrive on PC and Nintendo Change in fall 2025.
Monday, June 9
Now you are all caught up. There’s only one occasion on Monday, and it is the Black Voices in Gaming showcase. It begins at midday ET, and we have embedded the steam under on your viewing pleasure.
