E3 is dead, long live Summer Game Fest.
After enduring years of dwindling relevance, gaming’s long-running spectacle event has finally kicked the bucket. But while E3 is in the grave, another event has risen from its ashes. Geoff Keighley, one of gaming’s most well-known personalities, has taken it upon himself to create his own gaming extravaganza — Summer Game Fest.
Started in 2020, Summer Game Fest has supplanted itself as gaming’s must-watch event. Summer Game Fest 2024 is happening on 7 June 2024 and again teases the biggest announcements to come this year and beyond. The question is, what can we expect? We deliberate on what gamers might catch for this year’s show.
Confirmed Appearances
While there are many unknowns going into Summer Game Fest 2024, Geoff has set the stage early by revealing several names appearing at the show. Here’s everything we know so far.
A new RTS by Starcraft 2 Veteran
The first confirmed appearance for Summer Game Fest 2024 is an RTS (real-time strategy) title by Uncapped Games, a new studio entering the space. While a first game by a newly established game studio may pose many questions, it has a familiar name attached to it.
Uncapped Games is being led by David Kim, previously the chief balance designer of StarCraft 2 at Blizzard. His team consists of experienced talents in the form of veterans from Blizzard’s RTS titles, as well as key personnel from Relic Entertainment and Blackbird Interactive, who are behind notable RTS franchises like Homeworld and Company of Heroes. Suffice it to say that they know how to make an RTS.
Their yet unnamed game has been cooking since 2021, promising to challenge the genre itself when it is released— a bold claim from the developers. We’ll see exactly how revolutionary this RTS will be when it is unveiled at Summer Game Fest 2024.
Metaphor: ReFantazio
Given the popularity of Atlus’ Persona series, Metaphor: ReFantazio is one title you should be keeping an eye on, especially after Geoff Keighley has announced that Katsura Hashino and Shigenori Soejima from Atlus will be making a live stage appearance.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is the original game from Atlus’ Studio Zero, a new internal team established by Hashino after expressing a desire to do something different from the Persona franchise. The game has been cooking for a long time — 2016 is when the title was first revealed, then named Project Re:Fantasy — but now the news cycle is gearing up in anticipation of its 11 October 2024.
In April, we were treated to a big blowout of details for the game. In a live stream, the team detailed how elements like city exploration, travel, combat, and bonds affect the gameplay in Metaphor: ReFantazio. Given how dense Persona 5 is, we expect that there will be much more information to be doled out during Summer Game Fest 2024.
DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO
The Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi games have been a big part of many people’s childhoods, so to see a new game in the series after more than 15 years is sure to elicit excitement from your inner child. With The Game Awards 2023 being the place for the first formal reveal for DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO, seeing it again for another Geoff Keighley show isn’t a surprise.
Thus far, we know 56 playable characters in the game, but it is still just a fraction of the 164 total for the final roster. We should be seeing more characters in action at Summer Game Fest 2024, alongside a release date for the game.
Monster Hunter Wilds
Monster Hunter has always been a popular series, but the triumphant return to consoles with Monster Hunter: World has been a remarkable success; it is still Capcom’s best-selling title at 25 million units sold worldwide. And the next instalment, Monster Hunter Wilds, will be similarly exciting.
Monster Hunter Wilds is evolving the gameplay for the new generation. The game will feature a new mount called Seikrets, allowing players to perform actions on the go, like weapon sharpening, while guiding them to their destination. Another new element is changing weather patterns, which affect how the hunt plays out. All in all, the game looks to be more fluid and dynamic than ever before.
We’ve just seen a glimpse of the gameplay at PlayStation’s very recent State of Play stream, but for Summer Game Fest 2024, Capcom will explain the game more in detail and reveal an entirely new monster that fans can look forward to hunting.
Honkai Star Rail
It has been a big year for Honkai Star Rail. The big Version 2.0 update was launched in February, bringing players to the dreamy realm of Penacony — we played it ourselves and loved it! After Version 2.2’s recent release, what is next for the game? Summer Game Fest 2024 has the answer.
The game will be making an appearance at the show and teases the “next chapter of the space fantasy voyage”. This is likely to be the unveiling of the Version 2.3 update, with a good chance of being Firefly-related or even a new character! Whatever it turns out to be, we’ll be tuning in to catch the reveal.
Our Predictions
Here comes the exciting part! The fun of E3 was all about the speculations on what will happen, and we’ll be remiss if we don’t do the same for Summer Game Fest 2024. With over 56 industry partners participating, there is potential for more than a couple of massive announcements. Here are our predictions for what we’ll see in the show.
Wonder Woman
Warner Bros. Games’ involvement in Summer Game Fest 2024 is teased, which could mean several possibilities from their roster of studios, but it should be time for Monolith Productions to shine this year.
The developers, known for the Middle-earth series, are making a Wonder Woman game for their latest project. It was announced at The Game Awards 2021, but there has been no news of it since. After almost 3 years of silence, the time is right for it to resurface, and what better stage than Summer Game Fest 2024?
Should it make an appearance, expect it to be a big blowout. Since we only got a short concept tease back in 2021, a more in-depth trailer depicting the world and the story would be the next step. A lengthy look at the gameplay may come too soon, but they may include snippets of it in the trailer. It’s been confirmed that Monolith’s trademark Nemesis System will be in the Wonder Woman game, so there is also a good chance it would be hinted at here.
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf
If you thought the gap between the announcement and now for Wonder Woman was long, wait till you learn about Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. The game was revealed all the way back in 2018. For context, the current generation of consoles was two years away from release, and now we are midway through this cycle.
The game has had a protracted and difficult development process. According to reports, it was rebooted twice, first to implement multiplayer elements and again in a few years to change back to a single-player-only game. However, with the game recently completing Alpha development (meaning it is playable from beginning to end), it looks like it is back on track.
BioWare promised a full reveal for the Summer in December 2023, meaning it is almost certain that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will be at Summer Game Fest 2024. Given how long fans have waited to see this game, we should see an extended look at gameplay featuring new characters, the world, and combat.
LEGO Horizon
We have just come off a low-key PlayStation showing for this year’s E3 season — just a State of Play covering several incoming games for this year from third-party and first-party. It is a somewhat uncharacteristic move from Sony, though not as surprising considering they have already said that there will be no releases from PlayStation’s major existing franchises for this year in a financial call and the fact that they are preparing the all-but-announced PS5 Pro.
But surely, with PlayStation’s involvement in this year’s Summer Game Fest, we will see them reveal something that all points to a Horizon project. Yes, Horizon is one of the aforementioned major existing franchises, but there are multiple Horizon games in the works, one of which conceivably be revealed at the show. Among them are the next Horizon instalment, an MMO title by NCSOFT, and a LEGO Horizon game.
The LEGO Horizon game seems the most likely to appear. With reports suggesting that it will be called LEGO Horizon Adventures, this is essentially a ‘LEGO-ised’ Horizon Forbidden West utilising more realistic graphics than your typical LEGO game. Rumours were particularly rife recently that an announcement was imminent. Still, nothing was shown at the recent State of Play, meaning a higher likelihood of it being at Summer Game Fest 2024.
IO Interactive’s James Bond
We loved being silent assassins in IO Interactive’s Hitman series; now, how about being a suave spy? We’ve known for some time that the developer is working on a project starring the film industry’s most famous spy, James Bond. Now is possibly the time for it to make a grand entrance.
Unlike previous James Bond games, IO Interactive’s James Bond — tentatively titled Project 007 — will feature an original Bond alongside a new story, one that could potentially be the starting point for a trilogy. While not much is known about the game, we do know that the Bond rights holders weren’t too pleased with the amount of violence in past titles, so that we might be getting a tamer, more stylised Bond game than before. This is definitely in IO Interactive’s wheelhouse, given that the Hitman games are essentially that.
If it does make an appearance at the show, we will likely get a reveal trailer showing off the new Bond. As much as we want a gameplay feature, it may be too early. Still, it’ll be exciting to see what IO Interactive’s take on James Bond would be.
Mafia 4
2K will also be involved in Summer Game Fest 2024, but more excitingly, Keighley has revealed that they will be there to showcase “the next iteration in one of 2K’s biggest and most beloved franchises “.
This throws up several choices—could it be the long-dormant Bioshock? Or possibly a new game in the XCOM series? We think that the answer is actually Mafia, specifically Mafia 4. This stems from Hanger 13, developers of Mafia III, confirming that a new project was in the works, though cautioning that it was still a few years away from being able to share. That was in August 2022, and well, it has been a few years.
Only a little is known about the new Mafia game, and even rumours conflict. Some claim it will be set in Las Vegas. Others say it will be a prequel to the first Mafia in Sicily. Wherever it may be, here’s hoping we find out during Summer Game Fest 2024.
OD
Of course, we can’t have a Geoff Keighley show without an appearance from his bestie, Hideo Kojima. Somehow, somewhere, Keighley will find a way to slot him in even if he doesn’t have anything substantial to show (we love you, Kojima, but you do not need a 5-minute segment to announce your new podcast).
But there is something huge he can talk about, OD. The game is a new horror title made in partnership with Microsoft, leveraging their cloud gaming technology to create a wholly unique and immersive gaming experience for players — it certainly sounds like a Kojima game. A teaser trailer for the game was unveiled at The Game Awards 2023, revealing that Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer and Udo Kier would have roles in the game, with Jordan Peele also assisting in writing.
As opposed to Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, not much else is known about OD, making it a great candidate for Keighley’s showcase. We’d expect a lengthy trailer depicting what the game is truly about before Xbox rounds it off with a look at the gameplay for their Xbox Showcase a few days later.
What are your predictions?
These are our predictions for the biggest announcements likely to happen at Summer Game Fest 2024, but the show will most certainly have lots more in store. It was almost 2 hours last year and we’d expect it to be around the same duration — it will be a barrage of games.
What do you think will pop out during the show? Let us know on our socials on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok! Here’s hoping your gaming wishes come true!
Visuals courtesy of ATLUS, HoYoverse, EA, 2K, and Sony Interactive Entertainment.
