The 2025 Summer Game Fest, hosted by Geoff Keighly, aired Friday, June 6th and continued throughout the weekend. There was promise and potential in the air, but did it deliver?
[Did you miss Summer Game Fest? Fret not–we linked the video at the bottom of the article.]
We all know that there is no right answer here, although there were (to nobody’s surprise) a batch of loud internet trolls bashing this year’s festivities. One moment that seemed to leave a sour taste in some people’s mouths was when Ian Proulx strolled on stage with a “Make FPS Great Again”, taking shots at other FPS titles (um, Call of Duty?), before boasting how “awesome” his game, Splitgate 2, is going to be. Was it a little obnoxious? Sure. But one bro wasn’t going to ruin a whole showcase for me.
Speaking of the entire showcase, Summer Game Fest proper was a two-hour affair. It had a pleasant opening with Keighly making a sincere attempt to engage with the audience by taking a look at the top Steam games in the year thus far, which included indie developers, such as Warhorse Studios and their game, Kingdom Come Deliverance II.
Many folks in the media come down hard (like, sledgehammer with rusty nails hard) on Keighly because of the shaky state of the industry, but sometimes I wonder if my fellow colleagues understand the delicate diplomacy someone like Keighly must demonstrate in his position. Sure, someone of his position in the gaming industry could to more to leverage his voice to speak out on layoffs like he finally did at the 2024 Game Awards; however, we have a saying here in New England: do your job–I believe Geoff Keighly did his job at Summer Game Fest, and that is to showcase and celebrate upcoming games and updates (which totaled just under 60).
While there were announcements and appearances galore, it did feel like it dragged on for quite a while. The showcase seemed bloated with a few trendy genres–for 2025–it’s apparently year of the dark, brooding, souls-like or grotesque hyper-realistic shooty-shooty horror. Thankfully, these were broken up by some amazing news such as Mina the Hollower, Scott Pilgrim EX, First Light, the Le Chiffre addition to Hitman World of Assassination, Code Vein II, and the odd tease and closing trailer for Resident Evil Requiem. Oh, and am I the only one who thinks LEGO Party will actually be fun?
Lastly, it’s worth noting that Nintendo’s partnership was simply…commercials for the Switch 2. Every. Single. Commercial. While I wasn’t surprised that Nintendo didn’t actively participate in the showcase themselves, it was a touch disappointing to hear they were partners but only see Paul Rudd play Mario Kart World (we love you, Paul).
I also take a look at all the partnering showcases that premiered during this festival–including Day of the Devs and Wholesome Showcase. These two never fail to disappoint and help uplift Summer Game Fest.
Overall, I would rate Summer Game Fest a B+. There were some bangers, some unique eyebrow raisers (Felt That: Boxing anyone?), and a bit of bloating and monotony that could be trimmed.
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Featured Image Source: Summer Game Fest
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