Following its initial announcement, it's looking like the Summer Game Fest 2020 is going to be a very big affair overall.
Let's kick things off with a brand-new Summer Game Fest trailer to get hyped for this upcoming event!
So, what's this thing all about? For a long time, Geoff Keighley has wanted to do some kind of big digital game festival. We got our first taste with The Game Festival last year during The Game Awards 2019, and now Keighley is stepping things up significantly.
The Summer Game Fest is going to be a four-month-long event where developers and publishers of all sizes hype up their new games and other products. In a sense, it will be a lot like the big E3 2020 announcements that we would have gotten delivered over a much longer period, allowing for a closer focus on each individual product and developer.
For now, Geoff Keighley has announced: "Phase 1" of the developers who are participating in a tweet.
PHASE 1 pic.twitter.com/Y1K2Wd5l7H
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) May 1, 2020
If you're thinking "Phase 1" means that there's more to come, you would be absolutely right. Keighley elaborated on his plans in a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) session.
"There will be more phases of partner announcements to come, yes," Keighley stated.
"There will be playable content, and maybe some big surprises," Geoff Keighley explained. "There are also things like alpha and betas on big games. I would not expect that every major game is going to be doing a demo for you -- maybe eventually, but also let's be realistic about the world we are in right now. Work from home is challenging for studios and they need to finish their games too. But I see a day when yes, all major games have playable trailers or slices."
It's certainly shaping up to be a cool event, but it's not a money-making venture, so to speak. Geoff Keighley told VentureBeat that he's running this as a nonprofit effort, funding it out of his own pockets so that the game industry can keep on going.
When is the Summer Game Fest 2020?
Now that we've got a good idea of what's coming, when is the Summer Game Fest 2020? Well, that question is a little difficult to answer.
Don't get this confused with The Steam Game Festival: Summer Edition. That's going to be running from J June 9–14, 2020, and one presumes it will be part of the Summer Game Fest 2020, along with the teased Xbox Game Festival that will similarly have unreleased game demos. As for the Summer Game Fest, it's going to kick off starting this month (Inside Xbox next Tuesday will be part of it) and it will conclude sometime in late August — with Geoff Keighley hosting gamescom: Opening Night Live on August 24, 2020.
You can sign up for more information about this event at summergamefest.com.
Read more about how the COVID-19 novel coronavirus is affecting the gaming world at our Coronavirus Gaming Convention Cancellations and Game Delays Hub.
What do you think of the Summer Game Fest? Do you think four months is too long for an industry-wide gaming event? Let us know in the comments below!