This summer, we’re living in a brave new world. E3 is officially dead — for real this time. That means there’s a vacuum to be filled as publishers still look to showcase their games during high-profile events. There’s both good news and bad news for anyone who looks forward to E3 season. The good news? Summer Game Fest is filling that gap, alongside several streams that’ll orbit around it. The bad news? Keeping track of it all is a huge pain.
- State of Play: May 30
- Silent Hill Transmission: May 30
- OTK Games Expo: June 4
- IGN Live: June 7-9
- Access-Ability Summer Showcase 2024: June 7
- Summer Game Fest: June 7
- Day of the Devs: June 7
- Devolver Direct: June 7
- Future of Play Direct: June 8
- Wholesome Direct: June 8
- Latin American Games Showcase: June 8
- Women-Led Games: June 8
- Future Games Show Summer Showcase: June 8
- Xbox Games Showcase + Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct: June 9
- PC Gaming Show: June 9
- Ubisoft Forward: June 10
- Yacht Club Games Presents: A Decade of Shovel Knight: June 14
- Nintendo Direct: June 18
- LRG3: June 20
- UploadVR Summer Showcase: June 26
- THQ Nordic Showcase: August 2
- VR Games Showcase: August 15
- Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024: August 20
- Future Games Show at Gamescom (June 21)
- Panic Games Showcase
Over the past few months, we’ve seen shows from Sony, Xbox, Nintendo, Ubisoft, and more game companies. To help make your life a little easier, we’ve rounded them up in one place. We’ll keep this article updated throughout the summer, adding in the VODs of all the streams once they air, so check back in from now until September so you don’t miss a single show.
State of Play: May 30
Sony’s State of Play kicked off the summer at 3 p.m. PT on Thursday, May 30. This presentation focused on 14 games that will come to PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2 in 2024 and beyond, and ran for 30 minutes. We got a glimpse at games like Concord during it as well as Astro Bot.
Read our recap of PlayStation State of Play
Silent Hill Transmission: May 30
A Silent Hill Transmission directly followed State of Play. It was a presentation from Konami focused on its horror franchise. This Silent Hill Transmission put a focus on Return to Silent Hill, a new movie based on the video game series that’s coming soon, as well as the highly anticipated remake of Silent Hill 2.
OTK Games Expo: June 4
One True King, or OTK, is a media company founded by influencers. In 2022, it began airing the OTK Games Expo as a way to showcase indie games. OTK Games Expo returned for a third outing on June 4. As OTK teased, it featured “30+ video games, studios, and genres.” Games shown during the broadcast included BrokenLore: Unfollow, Rogue Labyrinth, and Freaked Fleapit.
IGN Live: June 7-9
While Summer Game Fest is the main event this year, gaming website IGN lightly counter-programmed Geoff Keighley’s big show. IGN Live was a three-day event that took place from June 7 to 9. It featured an in-person component where fans could demo games, and also had some live streams for those who couldn’t make it in person. It was full of eclectic announcements, like a surprise remaster of a cult classic The Thing game.
Access-Ability Summer Showcase 2024: June 7
The Access-Ability Summer Showcase 2024 took place at 8 a.m. PT on June 7. This is a showcase made to specifically focus on games with fantastic accessibility settings and games made by disabled developers. It was hosted by Laura Kate Dale and featured games from studios including Playtonic, Fiction Factory Games, and Whitethorn Games.
Summer Game Fest: June 7
The main event of the summer was Summer Game Fest’s kickoff stream. This is essentially the big replacement for E3, and it featured new reveals and announcements on some major games coming this year and beyond. This year’s show was an unusual one, as Keighley put more focus on indie titles like Killer Bean. Still, it included some big news, including reveals for Civilization VII and Lego Horizon Adventures.
Read our Summer Game Fest recap
Day of the Devs: June 7
As is always the case with Summer Game Fest, Keighley’s stream was immediately followed by a Day of the Devs showcase. This is an indie-focused stream that highlights smaller projects. It also happens to be the highlight of the summer season most years. This is where you’ll find breakout indie hits like Animal Well. It featured tons of exciting games this year, including Fear the Spotlight, UFO 50, and Building Relationships.
Read our full Day of the Devs recap
Devolver Direct: June 7
Indie gaming publisher Devolver Digital held showcase once again on June 7. It’s the company’s 15th anniversary, so the gimmick of 2024’s Devolver Direct was that it was a 15th birthday party of Volvy, the creepy company mascot Devolver Digital introduced with last year’s Direct. Along with some gags, the show featured lots of news, including the reveal of The Talos Principle 2‘s first DLC and a new game from Hyper Light Drifter studio Heart Machine.
Future of Play Direct: June 8
At 8 a.m. PT on June 8, GLITCH held another Future of Play Direct. This self-proclaimed “Toonami-inspired video game showcase” was hosted by a VTuber called Melios. The show highlighted a variety of new indie game trailers. Dungeon Crawler, Timberborn, Psyschroma, Zodiac XXL, and Airborne Empire all appeared at the event, as did new games from Trinket Studios, Texel Raptor, Mighty Yell, and Studio Pixel Punk.
Wholesome Direct: June 8
If cozy games are more your speed, you’ll want to rewatch this year’s Wholesome Direct. The showcase was a loaded one as it highlighted over 70 games this year. That included information on Usagi Shima and Minami Lane, as well as a few surprise game releases that you might have missed.
Read our Wholesome Direct recap
Latin American Games Showcase: June 8
At 10 a.m. PT on June 8, a Latin American Games Showcase aired on YouTube, Twitch, and Steam. This presentation featured over 70 games from game developers based out of Latin America. The event promised exclusive announcements and world premieres, and was backed by notable indie game publishers like Raw Fury and Devolver Digital.
Women-Led Games: June 8
A Summer Game Fest edition of the Women-Led Games showcase took place on June 8. As its title suggested, this was a showcase focused on highlighting games from development teams that are women-led and primarily made up of women. The show aired at 11:30 a.m. PT on June 8.
Future Games Show Summer Showcase: June 8
Future Games Show was June’s most unpredictable stream. The show has a history of showing off eclectic games like Blue Prince, but it also occasionally bags heavy hitters like Dragon’s Dogma 2. Of everything on this list, it has the loosest concept. This year’s show aired at noon PT on June 8 and showed off the “future of games” across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. This summer showcase featured over 40 games, including Antonblast and Bodycam.
Xbox Games Showcase + Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct: June 9
Following a controversial decision to shutter several Bethesda studios early this month, Xbox had to work to win players’ goodwill back this summer. It took a small step toward that with its annual Xbox Games Showcase, which showed off several big games. We saw new details on games like Avowed and Perfect Dark, but the most interesting detail was what happened directly after the show: a dedicated deep dive for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
Read our full Xbox Games Showcase recap
PC Gaming Show: June 9
If you’re more of a PC gamer, you’ll want to make sure you go back and watch the PC Gaming Show. The latest edition celebrated the show’s 10th anniversary, and it featured tons of games to celebrate. The list of games shown included Stormgate, Windblown, Fallen Aces, and more.
Ubisoft Forward: June 10
While many big publisher showed their games at Summer Game Fest, Ubisoft did its own thing. The publisher hosted a Ubisoft Forward stream on June 10, which featured new details on Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The show was light on surprises otherwise. The only major news was that the long-delayed remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is now scheduled for a 2026 launch.
Yacht Club Games Presents: A Decade of Shovel Knight: June 14
The beloved retro-inspired indie platformer Shovel Knight turns 10 this year. To celebrate, developer Yacht Club Games held a showcase dedicated to the franchise on June 14. According to Yacht Club Games, this event kicked off a “year-long celebration that promises a slew of new updates, announcements, merchandise, and dazzling surprises.” The biggest news here? That a new Shovel Knight game is in development — and it might be 3D this time.
Nintendo Direct: June 18
Nintendo showed up fashionably late to the party this year with a Nintendo Direct on June 18. While expectations were low heading into the show, Nintendo delivered with one of this summer’s best streams. The 40-minute presentation revealed a new Zelda game that actually stars Zelda, Mario & Luigi: Brothership, Mario Party Jamboree, and much more. It was all capped off by the first gameplay footage of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which is now set to land in 2025.
Read our Nintendo Direct recap
LRG3: June 20
Limited Run Games, a company that specializes in physical releases of classic titles, held a show of its own on June 20. It featured a treasure trove of announcements for fans of retro games. The show featured Gex, Bubsy, Tomba, and more classic franchises, which are all getting revivals soon. If older games are your speed, you’ll want to check this one out.
Read out full LRG3 recap
UploadVR Summer Showcase: June 26
One thing we didn’t see a ton of this summer was VR. While we did see occasional games like Batman: Arkham Shadow, you found most of this June’s biggest VR stories during the UploadVR Sumemr Showcase. This show will gave players a better idea of the kinds of games you can play on their Meta Quest 3 and other headsets. The show took place at 10 a.m. PT on June 26 and showcased games like Metal Hellsinger VR and Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom.
THQ Nordic Showcase: August 2
While most publishers stuff their showcases into June, THQ Nordic is famous for hosting its own show in August. That’s happening again this year, as the publisher will show off its games at noon PT on August 2. We already know a bit about what it’s showing too. Titan Quest 2 and the upcoming Gothic remake are both on the docket, but many more are to come.
VR Games Showcase: August 15
On August 15, several VR game developers will work together and hold the VR Games Showcase on YouTube to show off new titles for the Meta Quest 3, PlayStation VR2, and general PC VR. XR Games and IO Interactive’s Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded is the only confirmed game so far, but we know that Flat2VR Studios, Synapse’s nDreams, Arizona Sunshine 2’s Vertigo Games, Mannequin’s Fast Travel Games, I Expect You to Die’s Schell Games, Ghost of Tabor’s Combat Waffle Studios, and Toy Monsters’ Beyond Frames will make announcements during the show.
Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024: August 20
As has been the case for years, Geoff Keighley will follow up Summer Game Fest with a European game showcase ahead of Gamescom. It’s a two-hour show that will be held live in Cologne, Germany, and live-streamed online alongside a 30-minute preshow internationally. We’ll likely learn more about what games will appear here as we get closer to the event, but so far, we know that Monster Hunter Wilds, Batman: Arkham Shadow, and Dune: Awakening will all appear during 2024’s Gamescom Opening Night Live.
Future Games Show at Gamescom (June 21)
Like Geoff Keighley, GamesRadar+ will hold another showcase of its own around Gamescom this year. More specifically, it will take place on June 21. The article announcing the event says the presentation will “offer illuminating deep dives on fall’s most-anticipated games, exciting world premieres, and updates concerning the best and brightest indies and AA sleeper hits.” The only game confirmed for Gamescom 2024’s edition of the Future Games Show is Fenix Studios’ Office Fight, which will also launch the day of the event.
Panic Games Showcase
Panic, the video game publisher behind the Playdate and comedic titles like Thank Goodness You’re Here! and Untitled Goose Game, will hold another showcase this year. The Panic Games Showcase will take place on YouTube and Twitch at 10 a.m. PT on August 27. The event will feature chats with the developers of Arco and Thank Goodness You’re Here!, which will launch prior to the show, as well as Nour: Play With Your Food, Time Flies, and a deeper look at a new game from Okomotive that will be announced at Gamescom Opening Night Live. Unfortunately, Panic says we should “expect no more than a wink and a nod” when it comes to Big Walk, the next title from Untitled Goose Game developer House House.
