Opening the showcase summer, the PlayStation Showcase has been and gone, largely without making much of an impact, however, we’re now in full swing of the showcase season, next up? Summer Games Fest. Geoff Keighley has been incredibly vocal about the magnitude of the upcoming games festival, even more so since the expected, if still shocking, cancelation of E3, so he’s got a lot to live up to.
Death Stranding 2
There’s never been a secret made of the close friendship between Hideo Kojima and Geoff Keighley, and with the leaks and viral marketing of Kojima’s latest project, known to be including such Hollywood talent as Elle Fanning, it would surprise no-one if Death Stranding 2 was shown off in a more comprehensive nature at the Summer Games Fest.
Considered by most to be a shoe-in at the PlayStation Showcase, many were surprised by its lack of attendance, however in hindsight, would Kojima have wanted his flagship property to be overshadowed by a remake of his previous IP Metal Gear Solid, especially with the acrimonious nature the relationship between Kojima and Konami imploded.
Dead Rising Remake
Capcom is having a fantastic year already in 2023 with the release of the excellent Resident Evil 4 Remake and more recently, Street Fighter 6. With that said, not a huge amount is known about next year. 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of Monster Hunter, so it would be a huge surprise not to see something relating to that at Summer Games Fest, but rumours and leaks lately appear to point towards another noughties originating franchise in Dead Rising.
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When Dead Rising originally released it revolutionised the zombie genre, and taking some pretty obvious inspiration from George A. Romero’s work didn’t exactly hurt matters. Featuring more zombies on screen than ever before, a fantastic, if frustrating survivor system and the real time, constantly counting down timer, it’d be interesting to see how a remake of the first Dead Rising would be modernised and adapted for the current generation of consoles.
Skydance New Media Captain America/Black Panther Game
Officially teased with a short, not very illuminating cinematic at The Game Awards last year, very little concrete information is known about the upcoming Marvel game. Marvel games as a whole have had a mixed bag in recent years, with the likes of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Eidos-Montréal’s Marvel’s Guardian’s of the Galaxy being particular highlights, but on the other end of the spectrum you have the incredibly poorly received Marvel’s Avengers and Gotham Knights.
Hopefully the upcoming, untitled Marvel game will be closer in quality to the first two mentioned, and with the talent behind the game in Amy Hennig (of Uncharted, Jak & Dexter and Legacy of Kain fame) producing and Marc Bernardin (long-time comic and TV writer) penning the script.
No release date has been announced, but with the game officially announced in 2021 and then teased a year later, development should be well under way, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see it arrive in 2024, making a more comprehensive showcase at the Summer Games Fest much more likely.
EA Sports FC
Now most of those watching the Summer Games Fest won’t have a huge interest in the latest sports release from EA, however, there will be plenty of fans and critics alike that’ll be watching with beady eyes, interested to see exactly how the developer will pivot now they no longer have the FIFA licence at their disposal.
Much has been made over the years of EA’s football game being better than Konami’s, sometimes for no other reason than the official licence and likenesses it possessed, but now without that, it’ll be down to EA to genuinely develop innovative and engaging football games, rather than the cookie-cutter nature of previous years.
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EA have recently come out and said that development of the game has been freer and easier than previous years, due to them being able to explore and implement different ideas they previously couldn’t due to said FIFA licence. How true this actually is has yet to be seen though.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
A completely fresh AAA IP is becoming an increasingly rare occurrence these, even less so when you factor in poor releases like Redfall. However, one that does look interesting and is development by Focus Entertainment and Dont noD – two trusted industry leading developers/publishers – is Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden.
Focusing on two ghost-hunters who take an oath to protect the living from the threat of lingering ghosts and spectres, the cinematic showed that one of those two ghost-hunters meeting an unfortunate demise, becoming the very thing she swore to destroy. The gameplay opportunities this provides means the game could be a genuinely unique experience for us.
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Previously announced at The Game Awards 2022, it has been almost completely radio silent regarding any more news of the game, but with ‘late 2023’ release date, it’s pretty much a shoe-in that we’ll be seeing this at Summer Games Fest.
There’s our unlikely predictions of what we’ll see at the upcoming Summer Games Fest. What else do you expect to see? What games would you love to see, but don’t expect to? Let us know.
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