With the PlayStation Showcase been and gone, we’re now in full swing for the gaming showcases of 2023. Next up is the Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest, which for many is replacing the now-dead E3, which spectacularly imploded over the last few months with each of the big three pulling out, as well as most big publishers as well. However, the big three and those very same publishers have pledged to be showing their wares at Summer Game Fest, but what can we expect to see?
Summer Game Fest – Predictions and Confirmations
We haven’t had much confirmed as to what we’ll see at the upcoming showcase, but what has been confirmed is exciting. Many were disappointed when the recently announced Mortal Kombat 1 wasn’t to be seen at the PlayStation Showcase, and that was by design, as the game has been confirmed to appear at the Summer Game Fest with a first-look gameplay trailer.
The recent announcement of the game didn’t give much away gameplay-wise, but it did show a multitude of playable characters including Liu Kang, Sub Zero, and Scorpion, amongst others. It also highlighted the universe’s total reset from the previous game Mortal Kombat 11 as being canon, and a new universe created by Liu Kang with no trials and tribulations awaits players.
Related: Mortal Kombat 1 Finally Gets Revealed With a Trailer and Release Date
The other confirmed-to-appear video game is Remedy’s Alan Wake 2, with Sam Lake due to present more of the sequel to the hit survival horror from 2010. We hope to see some gameplay, and it’d be a safe bet to be fair, but at the very least we’d like to find out what has happened to Alan Wake in the time between the two games, as well as what awaits him in the sequel.
Alan Wake 2 was shown off at PlayStation Showcase, with the game getting a cinematic trailer that revealed some of what we have in store for us. Wake seems to still be trapped in the nightmare universe of his creation and seems to be enlisting the help of an unwilling FBI agent that arrives in Bright Falls to investigate a murder. We don’t know much else at this point, but consider us curious.
Geoff Keighley and Summer Game Fest… the new E3?
Geoff Keighley has previously been at the center of some pretty big gaming announcements, most recently would have been Death Stranding, and he’s good friends with Hideo Kojima, the creator of that, and the Metal Gear Solid series. Death Stranding 2 was expected at the PlayStation showcase, but along with a few other expected titles, was sadly not in attendance. If Death Stranding 2 is to be announced this year, it’ll be at the Summer Game Fest.
Keighley has also come out in recent days and announced that the Summer Game Fest will feature three of four ‘pretty big announcements’. Whilst that can be interpreted in several ways, it’d be fair to assume these won’t just be gameplay reveals or announcements of games we’ve long been expecting, but instead actual game changers for the industry. Maybe we’ll finally see the long-rumoured Grand Theft Auto 6? Unlikely. Maybe we’ll see a new Splinter Cell? Even more unlikely.
Related: 5 Huge Reasons Why ‘Grand Theft Auto 6’ Will Be Announced in 2023
A nearly confirmed rumour at this point is the first showcasing of CD Projekt Red’s upcoming expansion to Cyberpunk 2077, Phantom Liberty, which according to leaks is ‘pretty much complete’. Considering the disaster of a release fiasco the main game had, we’ll all be hoping the DLC has a smoother time of it, both for us and for the studio.
For the sports fans among us, EA will almost certainly be showing more of their upcoming football sim EA Sports FC, which marks the first time the developer will be releasing a football game without the official FIFA license involved. They’ve promised that not having the license will be a benefit to gamers, as it’ll allow the studio to do more with the game than was previously possible. How or why the FIFA license held them back is anyone’s guess, but with the studio being famous for being cookie-cutter-like with their sports franchises, there’s no better time for them to show they are still innovative when it’s needed.
Xbox and PlayStation are both in attendance, but Nintendo has decided to skip it, surprisingly. With the PlayStation Showcase being considered largely a failure compared to the expectations that fans had, it’ll be interesting to see if PlayStation does announce some first-party games as was expected previously, or if they double down on just Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 again.
With the current public perception of Microsoft and Xbox in the gaming industry right now, it cannot be understated how huge of a showing Xbox needs. Whether it’ll be damage limitation regarding their reputation, which has taken a hammering due to the incredibly poorly handled merger, or the very obvious chasm of AAA games on their latest console – even worse with the release of Redfall -, we can expect something big to come from Xbox during their panel.
Hopefully, the Summer Game Fest will be as good as Keighley and co. are promising, but either way it’s an exciting time to be a gamer with announcements, gameplay trailers and more coming thick and fast all month.
Summer Game Fest streams live on Thursday, June 8, from the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles, at 12 p.m. PDT/3 p.m. EDT/9 p.m. CEST. The show will be streamed live on SGF’s YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and via Steam.
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