Like every year, The festival of conferences for publishers, manufacturers and other players in the video game industry will be in full swing throughout the month of June. E3, the once pinnacle of video games, is dead, but Geoff Keighley and his Summer Game Festival have been aiming to take over and grab the attention of gamers around the world for some time now. This event has therefore become THE showcase for our favorite media before we hit the pill on the beach. And this year, too, there will be numerous conferences all about the Canadian animator. Grab your diaries, the next few days will be packed with announcements about tomorrow’s big games.
And we’re starting this Monday, June 5th, with a conference that’s not directly related to video games, not even video games at all Summer Game Festival. But Apple’s entry into the virtual and augmented reality headset market is likely to happen and, in our opinion, will cause a lot of buzz during the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Technologically, the device is likely to be positioned the most successful by far, particularly with a 4K resolution in each eye, but also as the most expensive as positioning around $3,000 would seem to be an option.
The Guerrilla Collective 2023 will take place on Wednesday, June 7th at 6 p.m. on Youtube. Independent game fans should find their account here. Although it is not the conference that will mark this period the most, it is certain that, as every year, some small highlights will be presented. We think, for example, of Remnant 2, the sequel to Remnant: From the Ashes, or Yomi 2, which mixes a fighting game and cards.
The day after, On June 8th at 9pm it will already be the highlight of the show or at least the main course of this conference festival as that is when the Summer Game Fest takes place on Twitch. We hope it will be more consistent than last year. This year we could see the presentation of the long-awaited multiplayer mode of The Last of Us 2 (whose only official visual of the game was presented last year), a new trailer for Death Stranding 2 or even, why not?, first images of the additional ones Content of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. With an almost two hour long show and good relationships with the biggest studios around the world we can expect more nice surprises. And who knows, maybe a little shaken by the general negative response following its showcase, PlayStation might have a big announcement or two in store for us.
the same evening, The Devolver Digital Showcase starts at 11:59 p.m from the rock stars of independent gaming and Double A. The program features the charming The Plucky Squire, which caused a sensation last year. We can well imagine that Gunbrella, the supercharged 2D action game planned for later this year, will also be there. As always with the publisher, two or three more titles with an artistic focus or very unique gameplay are also to be expected. It all ended in a totally insane conference with the incredible actress Mahria Zook, who will once again point out the excesses of the video game industry. After the DLCs, the NFTs and the microtransactions, what will we be entitled to this time?
On June 11th at 7 p.m. it starts on the Xbox to advance your characters. After the missed meeting of its Japanese competitor, the American manufacturer has the opportunity to impress with a conference broadcast on Twitch where Phil Spencer will finally present some promising exclusives for its X and S series. So we’re waiting to see this week some sequences and in particular release dates for titles like Hellblade 2, Fable, Avowed, Everwild, Replacementd and, with a little luck, the exclusive title developed by Kojima Production, whose codename could be Overdose. Finally, following this speech, we are entitled to a Starfield-themed event with undeniably lengthy sequences of compelling gameplay.
Ubisoft will of course be there Summer Game Festival with his Ubisoft Forward on June 12 at 7 p.m. to follow on Youtube. There will be plenty of Assassin’s Creed with Mirage, the “main episode” scheduled for October 12th, Nexus, a virtual reality game for Meta Quest 2, and codenamed Jade for mobile. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is also likely to make its mark at the conference alongside The Crew and Skull and Bones, which, let’s be honest, isn’t unleashing the masses. But the big opportunity would be the presentation of his very big open world project in the Star Wars universe. The bets are open.
As you will have understood, these are the most important meetings Summer Game FestivalHowever, other conferences of a smaller scale or of a more specialized nature will also take place. For example, the Future Game Show (June 10 at 7 p.m.) systematically presented us with some very nice independent titles. PC lovers will also get their money’s worth at the PC Gaming Show (11 June at 10 p.m.). And let’s not forget the RGG Summit Summer (June 16 at 5 p.m.), which offers an opportunity to discover future projects around the excellent Yakuza license.
In a 2023 that is poised to be historic in terms of quality and game density, all of these conferences need to stay in sync and kick off this second half and the years to come with panache. Now that the pandemic is finally far behind us, the delays in the various studios are finally resolved and everyone can gradually reveal their projects. So a whole host of studios should finally be able to let their horses loose, and we’ll be eagerly following each of the speeches to discover the surprises we have in store. Sleep can wait until tomorrow.