Industry veteran and video game ambassador, Geoff Keighley, has announced that Summer Game Fest will make its 2021 return this June.
You’ll recall that Summer Game Fest was spawned out of the ESA’s waffling over how E3 would be handled last year. Last year, Keighley took the initiative to launch a “competitor” to E3 where the industry could still come together to celebrate video games, an annual union that E3 was having a hard time keeping together. Industry pillars such as Sony and EA had already given E3 the cold shoulder, opting to host their events outside of E3 for the past few years. However, with Summer Game Fest, Keighley hopes to once again bring all the major game publishers under one roof so-to-speak.
“I think everybody does believe in the idea of the entire industry coming together and uniting, and as we’ve seen E3 has had its challenges getting all the games companies aligned around an approach“, Keighley explains to VGC. “For me, it was really important to get everybody involved, including PlayStation, Activision, EA, and all these other companies. I built all of my events in partnership with the publishers and this was them reaching out and saying, ‘Hey, we think there’s an opportunity to do what you’ve done at other points of the year in June’. I wasn’t looking to make another big show, but it turned out that’s what we’re going to end up doing!“
Summer Game Fest will officially begin on Thursday, June 10th at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET with Kickoff Live – a 20-30 minute live games showcase featuring reveals from a variety of publishers. While no specifics were given for Kickoff Live, companies on board include Sony, Microsoft, Activision-Blizzard, EA, Ubisoft, Capcom, Square-Enix, Sega, and many more. Kickoff Live will also feature a live performance from yesteryear band and Keighley obsession, Weezer.
With E3, publishers holding their events, and now Summer Game Fest, it seems gamers are in for a June that more typically mimics pre-pandemic hype levels. Keighley says fans might need to temper those expectations.
In line with fan feedback, Keighley promises a much more condensed version of Summer Game Fest compared to the drip feed we got throughout the summer months of 2020. Though there will be more coming from Summer Game Fest than just the Kickoff Live event, everything tied to SGF 2021 should be contained to June.
Tell us, Deer Reader! What have you excited about SGF, E3, or any other event this year? Any predictions? Sound off in the comments.