In the absence of the annual E3 gaming convention, publishers and developers are filling the void with digital events of their own. On Friday, The Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley announced his E3 2020 replacement, Summer Game Fest, described as a blend of “breaking news, in-game events, and free playable content.”
Summer Game Fest will run from May to August, and has buy-in from a long list of developers and publishers, including 2K, Activision, Bandai Namco, Bethesda, Blizzard Entertainment, Bungie, CD Projekt Red, Digital Extremes, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Private Division, Riot Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Square Enix, Valve, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Those companies will host digital events of their own under the Summer Game Fest brand, and will be broadcast on Facebook, Mixer, Twitch, Twitter, YouTube, and publishers’ own channels. The extent of their participation was not detailed.
In a news release, Summer Game Fest organizers said that Steam, Xbox, and other unspecified platforms will offer “playable, limited time demonstrations and trials of select game content” as part of the program. That includes the Valve and Keighley-organized Steam Game Festival: Summer Edition, which will run June 9–14, the same week E3 2020 was previously scheduled to take place.
Organizers say that the Summer Game Fest will culminate with the previously announced Gamescom: Opening Night Live digital event on Aug. 24.
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