Summer game shows lined up – from Nintendo Direct to Summer Game Fest

In theory, this means that the entire process of revealing new games and the first shots of those previously mentioned only by name should still be the same. But it really isn’t.

The strange malaise that has gripped gaming over the last two years, as companies fumble with rising game production costs and declining console sales growth, has led to more and more disappointments, where the number of new reveals has dwindled and the lack of excitement and energy has become downright depressing.

That doesn’t mean all showcases are crap now, they’re just much more variable in quality than they used to be.

So we’ve taken a look at five events from the past few weeks, scored them, and ranked them from worst to best. Let us know if you agree and if this summer’s showcases made you more or less optimistic about the future…

5. Current status – May 30

You knew Sony’s summer event was going to be a disappointment the moment they talked about it as the normal state of the game rather than a bigger showcase. It was barely 30 minutes long and the only real highlights were the Concord at the beginning and the Astro Bot at the end. Astro Bot looked very good and is exactly the kind of fun and imaginative game the PlayStation 5 needs right now. However, Concord was deeply underwhelming in its general presentation and playability. Especially since it’s the first in an apparently long line of new live-streaming titles from Sony’s first-party studios.

Even with Astro Bot, the whole presentation reeked of something Sony didn’t really want to do, but felt obliged to do. It’s hard to imagine they were surprised when the Concorde trailer was so negative, and for once it’s not hard to sympathize with the fans’ displeasure. Viewed outside the context of the event, it wasn’t so bad, but as a major summer reveal event from the best-selling console of the generation, it was a woeful affair.

Score: 3/10

4. Summer Game Fest – June 7th

The simplest attempt to fill the vacuum left after E3 is this two-hour showcase from The Game Awards creator. It follows a very similar format, with endless trailers interspersed with short on-stage appearances by the developers. To its credit, it was the only event that tried to address the current crisis in gaming and the endless job losses, although it didn’t dwell on the subject. Unfortunately, the showcase itself was largely unexciting, though it’s hard to know who to blame for that.

There have been many promising looking indie titles, but they are not games that lend themselves well to these types of events. But there weren’t many blockbusters either, just things like a second look at Monster Hunter Wilds and the reveals of Lego Horizon Adventures and Civilization 7 – both of which were botched leaks.

The debut of new label Blumhouse Games was perhaps the most exciting announcement, but while it spent a lot of time on the console version of Valorant and DLC for Alan Wake 2, neither generated the kind of buzz normally expected from old E3 events. .

Score: 4/10

3. Ubisoft Forward – June 10th

Although it didn’t necessarily happen every year, many third-party publishers held their own events around E3, including EA, Square Enix, and Capcom. The only one that did this year was Ubisoft, and that’s only because they just announced Assassin’s Creed Shadows and wanted to show off its gameplay for the first time, as well as the upcoming Star Wars Outlaws.

The visuals of Outlaws were exceptional, but other than that everything was exactly what you’d expect, with Shadows looking like every recent Assassin’s Creed combined with every possible samurai-themed video game cliché. It was all perfectly fine and a certain amount of time was devoted to other franchises like Prince Of Persia, but again it was hard to get excited about the event itself. Although at least it didn’t last forever.

Score: 5/10

2. Nintendo Direct – June 18th

Ironically, the only demo that might get a free pass as the Switch is in its final months was one of only two this year that was actually worth your time. It was also the one with the biggest surprise since a new Mario & Luigi game had never been leaked before. Super Mario Party Jamboree and Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom (starring Zelda) were previously hinted at, but the final reveal proved to be more interesting than expected.

The event ended with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which may or may not run on Switch 2 hardware. Although if it didn’t, it would definitely end up being one of the best looking Switch games ever. Nintendo has had busier showcases before, but you’d never guess that this was the last before a new console was introduced, which is the most welcome surprise of all.

Score: 8/10

1. Xbox Games Showcase – June 9th

Back when E3 was still going on, Microsoft was never very good at showcases, partly because they didn’t have enough interesting games and partly because their presenters loved the sound of their own voices too much. However, in the last two years they managed to redress the balance on both issues and this was an even better show than last year.

They even managed to make the 30 minutes dedicated to Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 relatively interesting, but the real highlights were Doom: The Dark Ages, South Of Midnight, Fable, Perfect Dark and Gears Of War: E-Day. There was even time for some notable third-party reveals, including a gameplay trailer for Metal Gear Solid Delta and a Life Is Strange: Double Exposure reveal.

The only downside to this event was that almost everything was revealed beforehand, multiple times, but then Microsoft has never been very good at keeping secrets. But now they’re very good at demos, and despite essentially copying Sony’s format, they now provide exactly what PlayStation refuses in terms of a vast roadmap of future first-party titles to look forward to.

Score: 9/10