Summer Games Fest doubles down on AA, as chaos sweeps LA, 12/06/2025
From Geoffmas Day to riots in L.A.
We summarise Summer Games Fest (and disquiet on the streets of LA)
Nintendo Switch 2 sells 3.5m units in a gangbuster opening week
BALL X PIT is our pick of the Summer Game Fest (and other showcases) bunch
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Hello VGIM-ers,
Tom Regan here. As you may have already heard, I’m filling in for the inimitable George Osborn over the next few weeks, alongside the brilliant George Young. It’s a pleasure to not be named George, but somehow still gracing your inbox.
Now that we’ve been acquainted though, I think it’s only fair that I level with you.
The plan for today’s newsletter was to write up a nice breezy SGF summary, talk about some games, point out some trends, have you stroke your chins thoughtfully and then maybe share some laughs.
Yet it turns out that we aren’t allowed nice, micro-transaction-filled things.
As the industry gathered in Los Angeles last weekend, President Donald Trump seemingly had other, bleaker plans for the city. With the anti-ICE protests still unfolding at the time of writing, I’ve spoken to industry folk on the ground about their experiences, as well as summarising the main beats of Summer Games Fest.
Let’s start with the light stuff, shall we?
The big read – Summer Games Fest doubles down on double A as chaos sweeps L.A
A Geoffmas Carol: “Twas the week of Gaming Christmas, when all through the house, not a game release was stirring, except for Switch 2’s new mouse.” In a week built to utterly terrify games journalists, June 5th gave the world both Switch 2’s long-awaited launch – without any pre-release review units - and then a day later, Summer Games Fest’s four day announcement-filled extravaganza began.
1) The State of Play(Station)
When Nintendo’s away, Sony will play: Not wanting to lose mindshare to Nintendo, Sony wisely started festivities early by kicking off on June 4th with their best State of Play presentation in recent memory. Where PlayStation’s livestreams usually trudge along with all the pace of a rubbish truck, this summer, Sony leant into its Japanese heritage and delivered 55 minutes of wonderfully niche weeb-baiting glory.
Land of the rising fun: From a stunning ode to Marvel Vs Capcom from Guilty Gear creators Arc System, to the RE-emergence of Capcom’s long dormant Pragmanta, Sony delivered 55 minutes of endearingly odd titles. Be it Romeo Is A Dead Man - an eye-catching and predictably unhinged new title from Suda 51, Mizuguchi dazzling us with mad shapes via Lumines Arise, or a beautifully rendered remake of Final Fantasy Tactics, this year’s State of Play felt like a throwback to the creative risk-taking PlayStation of old.
Dead Service: Refreshingly, there wasn’t a gun-toting live service game in sight, causing an audible collective sigh of relief across the record-breaking amount of people that tuned in. In fact, of the 24 games announced during Sony’s event, pirate ‘em up Sea of Remnants and the narrative-driven Tides of Tomorrow were the only titles flying the multiplayer flag. For the first time in the PS5 console generation, it felt like PlayStation had a tangible identity.
2) X(box) ‘gon give it to ya
You’ve got to hand it to them: Xbox’s showcase fared similarly well, avoiding known quantities like Fable and Perfect Dark Zero in favour of unveiling its shiny new handheld. Partnering with ASUS, the ROG Xbox Ally runs entirely on Windows, in theory eliminating many of the compatibility issues facing Steam Deck’s linux-powered portable. Coming in two variants - the presumably cheaper ROG Xbox Ally and pricier ROG Xbox Ally X - it looked like an impressively capable device, with a spec sheet suggesting that Xbox’s little chonker outperforms the Switch 2. Prices have yet to be announced, but you can definitely expect it to break the bank.
Gotta steal ‘em all: Alongside stealing Switch 2’s thunder, Xbox adds insult to injury by nabbing the makers of Pokémon from under Nintendo’s nose too. Yep, Pokemon maestros Game Freak are developing a surprisingly bleak-looking action RPG called Beast Of Reincarnation, which is also coming to PS5, but seemingly not to Switch 2. Cue shocked Pikachu Gif.
The big weeb-eals: Not wanting to be out-weebed, Xbox treated us to a visually impressive glimpse at Persona 4: Revival, along with confirming 2020’s FFVII Remake and 2023’s FF XVI are finally arriving on Xbox. Otherwise, the showcase was a mix of reveals and re-reveals, highlighting the off kilter games Microsoft’s made its name on. Don’t Nod’s exploration-driven new sci-fi opus Aphelion looked impressively slick, as did the fun-looking No Ghosts At The Grand, a horror-themed hotel management game combining the lizard brain cleaning satisfaction of Power Wash Simulator with a horror-tinged narrative. Ninja Gaiden 4, Cronos and Double Fine’s gorgeous new platformer Keeper also impressed, with Xbox HQ seemingly also receiving the ‘champion single player games’ industry memo.
Finishing the console war: Gears Of War E Day was a no-show, but Microsoft instead revealed a 4K remake of the original Gears Of War, which of course, was also announced for PlayStation 5.
3) Keigh3
Ups and downs: The live, audience-filled centrepiece of the weekend was Geoff Keighley’s Summer Games Fest. Featuring 50+ games across two hours, 2025’s showcase felt a tad bloated, lacking the AAA wow factor of recent years. Sensibly, Geoff tempered expectations from the off, highlighting a slew of the best-selling games from 2025 developed by small-scale teams, before kicking off the rollercoaster of reveals. A revealercoaster, if you will.
Double YAAy?: AA titles reigned supreme, with sequels to games like Code Vein, Jurassic World Evolution 2, a Lies of P: DLC and Deadpool VR all looking… perfectly fine. Lego Voyager, was a welcome highlight, a stunning, WALL-E-esque co-op sci-fi exploration game. Out Of Words delivers a similarly gorgeous slice of platforming avec un pal, and Section 9 Interactive’s End Of Abyss suggests a delightfully dark sci-fi twist on survival horror. We also got an intriguing new look at Stranger Than Heaven ( formerly known as Project Century.)
Summer James Fest: It was all expectedly slick stuff, brilliantly co-presented by guest host and VGIM alumni Lucy James. I couldn’t help but wonder how it feels to present such a massive event. So, I asked her.“I was a bit nervous,” says Lucy James, on co-hosting this year’s Summer Games Fest, “obviously the first time you go out [on stage]... there's all the hype in the room… but then you get used to seeing the audience in front of you. You get used to the sound and the visuals, and after the first couple of times I went out, I was not anxious anymore - I was just excited!”
First impressions count: For James, the pressure came from wanting to do justice to the various games that she was announcing. “Ultimately, I think the thing that got me is that I just wanted to do the best for the developers… Because you only really get one chance at a first impression. If I'm there and I trip over my words, or I unintentionally did something that would negatively impact that moment, I would really regret it forever. So, that was the thing for me, just making sure that I did the best for them.”
All quiet on the AAA front: While Papa Geoff gave us some new glimpses at anticipated titles like Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, Sonic Racing and Mafia: Old Country, it largely fell to Capcom to do the AAA heavy-lifting. Offering audiences a slick new slice of Onimusha: Way Of The Sword, a weird Resi fakeout, and then an eventual show-stopping reveal of Resident Evil: Requiem, Capcom (eventually) delivered.
Something fishy this way comes: While viewers probably wanted a brief respite from global horrors, the inescapable stench of reality soon wafted its way into Summer Games Fest. Around the midpoint of the show, controversy-courting Russian developer Mundfish revealed Atomic Heart 2, before later confirming an MMO spin off set in the same fictional universe. Ten minutes later, Mundfish was back, its engine powering first person horror title, ILL. With Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister accusing Mundfish of funneling game profits into Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, Mundfish felt like an unnecessarily controversial choice of partner. Chuck this fish back in the sea, please Mr Keighley.
Hat's not a good look: If sobering reminders of real war weren’t bad enough, the developer of throwback FPS Splitgate 2 ruffled feathers with his questionable choice of headwear. With many understandably nervous about travelling to the U.S given the plethora of border enforcement horror stories, sporting a ‘Make FPS great again hat’ went down about as well as Chris Hemsworth’s five-minute mobile ad. While online commentators were quick to brush off the slogan as a harmless joke, less than 24 hours later, Trump had deployed the National Guard to L.A. And no one was laughing then.
4) Disquiet in Los Angeles
ICE-y reception: Following a slew of ICE raids and arrests across Los Angeles on Friday, citizens took to the streets to protest, eventually bringing police clashes to the doors of the former home of E3, the LA Live. On Sunday evening the National Guard were dispatched to Los Angeles for the first time since 1992’s L.A riots – although this time, they were deployed against the Governor of California’s wishes. Journalists were shot by rubber bullets, helicopters were soaring across L.A, and plumes of smoke were visible from windows.
Should I stay, or should I go?: “Things escalated quickly since yesterday. There have been constant city-wide alert sirens - like earthquake sirens - going off across the city,” Lucy Orr, writer for The Metro and game design lecturer at UAL tells me on Monday morning, “Flights were delayed out of LAX on Sunday. Everyone else is leaving here tonight if they can. It’s a journalist mass exodus.“I hope things calm, but by all accounts, I think it might spread.”
Breaking convention: L.A is a gargantuan city, meaning that despite there being multiple protests, large pockets of the city remained completely unaffected. Yet even from the Play Days convention centre, I’m told that flames were still visibly flickering ominously in the distance. “It's been quite a contrast,” says VG24/7, RPG Site and Eurogamer’s Alex Donaldson, “Summer Game Fest has been quite celebratory, but on the second day you could see the plumes of smoke rising from some of those [driverless] cars that were on fire, maybe five or 10 blocks away from SGF.”
Skip the locust, attend the protest: Some, however, felt compelled to get involved. “I skipped a Gears of War demo to go to City Hall to see the beginning of Sunday’s anti-ICE protests,” says Gamefile’s Stephen Totilio, “Games don’t exist in disconnected fantasy land and so, if nothing else, I figured my readers should also know about what was happening just blocks away from Summer Game Fest. What I saw was peaceful, with families participating in the rally. Things were more heated later, after I left and once police and protestors were facing off…I saw police guarding one sneaker store and saw another that had been looted.”
The show must go on?: With many industry folk originally planning to spend a few extra days in L.A, developers, PR and journalists had little choice but to carry on their days regardless, finding themselves sat downing pints in Tom’s Sports bar (no relation). “People are shocked… but the vibe here for the most part is that the show must go on, and it has been,” Adds Donaldson, “ [There’s a] cognitive dissonance between being here to see a bunch of video games - which let's be frank is very spurious - and some real shit about the fate of the city, the fate of a country, the fate of individual people, that is ongoing very nearby.”
Tensions remain: The events of the last week feel surreal and stomach-churning to watch from across the pond, but for some on Monday, things were business as usual."I didn't actually see anything… aside from some graffiti" says Lucy James, of her experience of the protests, “ Play Days was very business as usual on the Monday when I went back in…L.A is a very big city, but [the protests weren’t] this violent, terrifying thing from where I was at all, so for me, it's very strange to see how it's been reported.”
Environmental storytelling: Totilo also said that tensions had eased a little on Monday, as the weekend drew to a close and people’s work commitments beckoned. “I took a walk late on Monday night and it was all very low-key and pretty quiet,” adds Totilo, “The emotion of the moment was more evident in the graffiti that was on buildings at nearly every block. Two words, sprayed everywhere: Fuck ICE.”
All quiet on the West Coast front?: After speaking to these journalists, on Tuesday Trump dispatched a further 2000 national guard members and 700 marines to L.A, with largely peaceful anti-ICE protests also occurring in New York, Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco. Tensions seem to have thankfully eased slightly in L.A. for now. Whether America’s constitutional crisis will is a different question.
The best of the rest of the Fest
While Nintendo’s new console launched just hours before SGF, you wouldn’t know it from the games revealed. With more than 100 announced games across the weekend, only a handful were for Nintendo’s shiny new console. While this is undoubtedly due to the company saving the goods for a yet to be announced Direct, finally owning Nintendo’s shiny new console after months of waiting felt oddly anticlimactic.
Day of the Devs once again showcased indie gaming’s best and brightest, with strong showings for Big Walk, Sword of the Sea, Dosa Divas, Thick As Thieves, Mixtape and Moonlighter 2.
The Green Gaming livestream was utterly bizarre. From featuring a game with AI generated visuals in a conference all about sustainability to showing off a trailer for… 2013’s Telltale The Walking Dead, for some reason?! The stream’s admirable intentions and drive to help fundraise for green causes couldn’t save what was sadly a complete and utter mess.
News in brief
I’m that Switch: Switch 2 is officially the fastest selling Nintendo console to date, shifting 3.5 million units in just 4 days. Pretty impressive, considering Nintendo shipped it with only 1.5 games to play.
Robot powered can kicking: The UK is delaying AI regulation to next year according to The Guardian, news that was announced just days before Keir Starmer kicked off London Tech week on Monday by revealing that the UK would double down on investing in AI ahead of the Spending Review. Wonderful, at least it won’t affect any of our jo-
Entry level woes:…The BFI released a report this week about the use - and risks - of generative AI across the screen sectors, including games, and how it threatens film, TV and gaming jobs. Ah. The report described the use of generative AI stealing from 130,000 copyrighted film and TV scripts, citing generative AI as ‘a direct threat’ to the UK screen sector, eliminating the entry-level jobs that train up the next generation of workers.
The Aftra SAGs Back: SAG-Aftra seems to have come to an agreement with various game publishers, after almost a year of striking and negotiations. The strike started over the use of AI replacing voice actors in video games. The strike suspension agreement looks to be agreed soon.
Splat street’s back ALRIGHT: In typical Nintendo fashion, the Kyoto-based games giant opted to announce a single player Splatoon spin off for Switch 2…on a random Tuesday. Seemingly not wanting to be left out of the SGF madness entirely, Nintendo revealed the island-set Splatoon Raiders, along with a free Switch 2 update heading to Splatoon 3.
Moving on
Naveen Chopra is now the CFO of Roblox… Eurogamer has made a litany of changes to its editorial team, Tom Orry is now Editorial Director, Alex Donaldson (he of a few paras above fame) is Editor-at-Large, Dom Peppiatt and Chris Tapsell are Deputy Editorial Directors and Connor Makar joins the team as a Staff Writer… Sarah Parvini is now Communications lead at Activision… Hannah Cook is the new PR manager for Nintendo UK… and Ash Harvey joins Dead Good PR as Senior PR Manager.
Jobs ahoy
BAFTA is hiring a new Games Officer in London… Playground Games are hiring for multiple roles, including a Community Manager, a Senior VFX Artist, a Senior Cinematic Animator and more in the UK…PlayStation are hiring for a Remote US Concept Art Lead… Infinity Ward are hiring for a Senior Narrative Designer (Writer) (Temporary) in California… and Sperasoft is hiring for a Social Media Manager in Warsaw, Poland.
Events and conferences
Toronto Games Week, Toronto - 12th-18th June
Games for Change, New York - 26th-27th June
Develop, Brighton - 7th-9th July
VGIM Business Breakfast sponsored by Games Press, Brighton - 8th July
Siggraph, Vancouver - 10th-14th August
Games of the week
I recently had the chance to go hands-on with Devolver’s Ball X Pit, which was revealed at SGF this week and it’s absolutely brilliant. Part roguelite spin on Breakout, part base-builder, this game is destined to be an obsession that utterly consumes my freetime.
I’ve already gushed about LEGO Voyagers, but just look at it! Wall-E meets Astrobot? Take my money, oh bricky behemoth.
The Yakuza series has always somewhat eluded me, but after getting stuck into Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut on Switch 2, Stranger Than Heaven really caught my eye. An early 20th century take on Yakuza, featuring grizzled detectives, moral choices and…er, jazz hands? Sold.
Before you go…
Hideo Kojima confirmed that he’s making an anime adaptation of Death Stranding, because clearly what people wanted from Death Stranding was less gameplay and more incomprehensible story.
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