We are now entering what used to be the most exciting month for gamers (and for games journalists): June, the month of E3, where we would find out what gaming’s biggest names had in store for the winter and beyond. It’s all rather more diffuse now, since Covid did a number on the yearly gaming events rhythm and E3’s big return was cancelled (as Keith Stuart wrote about in this very newsletter), so I’ve pulled together everything to look out for from the summer’s gaming announcements in one place.
Before we get into it, though: it is difficult to get tremendously excited about hour-long sequences of trailers, isn’t it? Immediately after the live E3 press conferences of yore, games journalists would be running into side-rooms to interview executives and developers, often playing the games that had just been shown, and reporting back to readers and viewers with something more than mere marketing information. We could do a good job.
Now, we are given a carefully curated and scripted advertising package. There’s no room for questions, analysis or digging for more information – in other words, for journalism. This may work brilliantly for the world’s game publishers, because they get full control of the message with no inconvenient live slip-ups or follow-up questions, but it feels so inauthentic – and players are as wise to that as journalists. It’s harder for us to do a good job when this is what you’re working with. People can speculate on what’s shown to drum-up clicks or views on YouTube, but all that amounts to is more hype. And though gaming fandom has ample people willing to tune into this stuff, the world at large just isn’t watching.
Games journalism has evolved over time. For many years now, talking to the people who make and sell video games has been a smaller part of the job, as publishers have taken control of their own comms via social media and livestreams, and enlisted influencers to advertise for them. Instead, we have been writing dispatches from within the worlds they create, talking to players as much as developers. There’s no shortage of interesting stories to tell about video games. But I do miss the nexus of novelty and excitement that E3 used to represent – a week when the entire global media was paying attention to games, and when every player knew there would be something to interest them.
It’s more work to find that excitement now among 15-plus different livestreams, but hey, that’s what I’m here for! Over the next couple of weeks, the Guardian’s games writers and I will be sifting through the endless livestreams and report on the most interesting morsels. If you want to follow along yourself, here’s my pick of what’s worth watching.
PlayStation Showcase
This happened a couple of weeks ago, and it included a sequence of variably interesting trailers followed by an extended look at Spider-Man 2 on PlayStation 5 (pictured top), which does look like a superbly entertaining (if also resolutely on-rails) Marvel action game. Other things that stood out to me: Marathon, an artsy reimagining of Halo studio Bungie’s very first weird sci-fi game; another remake of 2004’s Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater, in which series creator Hideo Kojima is not involved; and Revenant Hill, a game in which you play as an aspiring feline witch’s familiar, and whose connections to millennial coming-of-age classic Night in the Woods are evident from its art style.
Summer Game Fest – 8 June
This has become the de facto E3 stand-in, run by longtime games industry pundit Geoff Keighley, who of course also runs December’s Game awards. It’s a live show, run out of LA’s YouTube theater, and will pull in a range of announcements from publishers big and small, including Xbox and PlayStation, and relatively new gaming-space entrant Netflix. Horror sequel Alan Wake 2 will premiere gameplay here, as will the new Mortal Kombat (be ready to watch that through your hands if you’re squeamish). Promisingly, Keighley has invited developers to actually speak about their games, so this will be more engaging than just a stream of CG videos.
Day of the Devs digital Showcase – 8 June
Of all the many indie-focused livestreams of the next few weeks, this is the one to watch, run by endearingly hipster game art and collectibles outfit iam8bit and Double Fine (of Psychonauts 2 and much else). At least one of the games shown here tends to become a breakout hit; Untitled Goose Game featured a few years ago, as did Bafta-winning prog rock curiosity The Artful Escape.
Devolver digital Showcase – 8 June
A comedic bright spot in among a week of Very Serious Trailers, the Devolver showcase is usually worth tuning into to see what elaborate corporate satire they will fabricate. The indie publisher rather set the stage for the death of E3 with its inaugural 2017 mock press conference, which had its wild-eyed fake “chief synergy officer” Nina Struthers haranguing the audience while becoming progressively covered in gore – and they’ve somehow managed to keep the frenzied energy up.
Access-Ability Summer Showcase – 9 June
A showcase of games made by disabled developers, with players’ accessibility needs in mind.
Future Games Show – 10 June
Also vying for the position of “the new E3” is the 70-minute Future Games Show, run by Future Publishing (a former employer of mine, which publishes PC Gamer, Edge and GamesRadar, among others) and featuring more than 50 games. Feeling tired yet?
Xbox Showcase – 11 June
Microsoft is rather embattled, so I am hoping to see it come out swinging at this showcase, hopefully with the new Fable that’s been in development at UK studio Playground Games for a while now (and some surprises, too). It will be followed straight after by an in-depth look at science-fiction RPG Starfield (pictured second from top), Bethesda and Xbox’s big game for the year. Our games correspondent Keith will be in LA to talk to some of Xbox’s key people afterwards.
PC Gaming Show – 11 June
For the mouse-and-keyboard warriors among you, PC Gamer’s showcase never disappoints: it gives ample time and space to the PC-exclusive games and genres that sometimes get overlooked in the console-centric games media, such as strategy and simulation.
Ubisoft Forward – 12 June
This will be alllll about Assassin’s Creed Mirage (above), probably with the inevitable Just Dance cameo, but the French publisher might have more up its sleeve as well. I have heard that one of its classic series may be next up for a high-profile reboot.
Capcom Showcase – 12 June
Street Fighter 6 has just come out, and Resi 4 is flying high, so Capcom is very much feeling itself right now. Might this be where we hear about a new multiplatform Monster Hunter game, now that 2018’s Monster Hunter World is getting long in the tooth fang?
What to play
I’m still spending every spare minute I get in Tears of the Kingdom, and I’m nowhere close to moving on from it. Last night I found a giant horse! But one game is tempting me away from it: Blizzard’s hellishly addictive and elaborately beautiful demon-slaying extravaganza, Diablo IV. Our reviewer, Nic Reuben, described it as the video game equivalent of hyper-palatable junk food, so beware of its life-absorbing compulsiveness, but for me the main draw of Diablo is being able to play it with my partner on the couch and switch my brain off as hordes of demons fall before me in a conflagration of flashy effects.
Available on: PS4/5, Xbox, PC
Estimated playtime: 20+ hours
What to read
Apple’s VR headset has finally been announced, with a focus on productivity and communication rather than gaming (smart move, Apple) – although Apple Arcade games will apparently be playable through these futuristic ski-goggles, if you fancy paying $3,499 for the privilege.
Variety published a long interview with Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who comes across as one of gaming’s least-loved executives trying to rehabilitate his image as his company’s merger with Microsoft stalls and it fights a discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of former employees. Unsurprisingly, Kotick believes his company has no problems with endemic harassment, despite multiple reports to the contrary in the games and wider press over the past couple of years, and several lawsuit settlements. A couple of days after the piece was published, Activision Blizzard released an internal report that showed 114 alleged incidents of harassment, discrimination or retaliation in 2022, of which 29 were substantiated by the company’s own investigations.
Microsoft has been fined $20m for illegally collecting data on children playing on Xbox consoles.
Ooh, look at these new pastel-coloured Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons!
What to click
‘I’m terrified’: Nightdive Studios boss on remaking System Shock
Diablo 4 review – a hell of a good time?
Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator may face jail over alleged insider trading
Future shockers: 10 great games about rogue AIs
Question Block
This week’s question comes from reader Neil: I wonder if you have any suggestions for older gamers such as me (60-plus), who started playing a while back, have taken a break and now want to enjoy what we enjoyed 10-plus years ago. What’s the best way to get back into gaming without having to play online/compete with others?
There’s an easy answer to this these days, Neil: get an Xbox Series S for £250 and take advantage of the free trial of Xbox Game Pass, which gives you access to a library of games for £7.99 a month (you can cancel your subscription whenever you want to). Game Pass’ selection is a good representation of modern gaming, particularly its indie selection, and you can try out plenty of different things without spending money on each one. You mentioned in your email to me that you’ve enjoyed Zelda and Halo; you could jump straight into Halo Infinite (pictured above), or play Tunic, a wonderful Zelda-inspired combat-light adventure game from last year. Also give the medieval narrative game Pentiment a try, or the surreal internet-detective game Hypnospace Outlaw. Two gigantic Assassin’s Creed games are on there as well, Origins (set in ancient Egypt) and Odyssey (ancient Greece). For more suggestions, VG247 has an up-to-date list of its Game Pass recommendations.
If you’ve got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – click reply or email us at pushingbuttons@theguardian.com.
