Last year, video game companies’ ever-changing individual responses to the COVID-19 pandemic meant that we had events somewhat tediously scattered across the entire year.
In fact, there were constant questions about when Xbox or PlayStation would finally reveal more about their new consoles or Nintendo would have another Direct, among other game updates.
Thankfully, that won’t be nearly as much of an issue in 2021, as game companies are now banding together to have more consistent reveals that emulate the more traditional summer event season. In this case, these come in the form of E3 2021 and Summer Game Fest, and because the pandemic is still ongoing, both events are fully digital to let fans experience them fully from home.
With all of that said, we’ve rounded up everything you should know about these two events, including when they’re happening, how to tune in and what you can expect from them. Given that new information about these kinds of events can often come at the last minute, we’ll also update this story accordingly over time.
Summer Game Fest
Who’s ready for #SummerGameFest?@geoffkeighley gives you an overview of what’s planned for this month’s celebration of what’s next in video games.
It all begins live on Thursday, June 10 with KICKOFF LIVE, streaming everywhere and right here on @twittergaming pic.twitter.com/z9DjaUJBL2
— Summer Game Fest (@summergamefest) June 1, 2021
Geoff Keighley, the Toronto-born producer of The Game Awards, launched ‘Summer Game Fest‘ (SGF) last year, a four-month-long all-digital expo to feature game reveals and other announcements.
However, in bringing SGF back this year, Keighley is addressing feedback that last year’s reveals were too spread out. This time, SGF is more condensed; it’ll begin on June 10th and run until about mid-July. The entire event will be free to everyone — no digital badge required.
So far, we don’t know much of the SGF programming besides a major ‘Kickoff Live!’ event, which will open the show on June 10th at 11am PT/2pm ET.
As it stands, we don’t know exactly what games to expect from the show. That said, if you’ve watched one of Keighley’s other live gaming shows — namely, The Game Awards or Gamescom’s Opening Night Live — then the Kickoff Live! format should be familiar to you.
Running for about two hours, Kickoff Live! will feature more than 30 games in total from the likes of PlayStation, Xbox, Square Enix, Activision, Amazon, 2K, Capcom, EA and Bandai Namco. There will also be musical performances from the likes of Weezer and the Sonic Symphony orchestra. Day of the Devs, an annual indie game showcase curated by Psychonauts devleoper Double Fine and entertainment production company iam8bit, will also be held during Kickoff Live!
You’ll be able to stream Kickoff Live! on SGF’s official YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and Twitter channels.
Other SGF programming that we currently know about includes a ‘Netflix Geeked Week’ stream with Keighley on June 11th at 9am PT/12pm ET and the full Sonic Symphony concert on June 23rd (time TBA).
Keighley will also appear in a showcase from Koch Media, the owner of publisher Deep Silver (Saints Row, Metro), on June 11th at 12pm ET/3pm PT. We don’t yet know what will be featured in this stream, but you can tune in here.
E3 2021
Lots of #E32021 hype so far but where can you WATCH IT? We’ve been dying to announce our giant distribution list for this year’s live show (& other E3 content) including YouTube, Twitch, Facebook Gaming, Twitter, Steam, Reddit & more!
Get the full scoop:https://t.co/E1Y00kBrB3
— E3 (@E3) May 21, 2021
Normally, E3 is held in person in Los Angeles every June, but the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has opted for a fully virtual event amid the pandemic.
This will take place online from June 12th to 15th following media-only days on June 7th to 11th. E3 will be free for everyone, although you’ll need to register for a digital badge through the official website. Fans can do this starting June 3rd.
Once registered, you’ll be able to access a variety of programming through a dedicated portal and app, including:
- Exhibitor Booths — Each exhibitor will have its own hub for special events, VOD content, big announcements and more
- Forums — Fans will get a dedicated space for online discussion
- Leaderboards — Fans can interact through “gamified” show elements that can be collected and displayed
- Lounges — Online gathering spots for attendees
- Profile Creation — A tool to create your own unique profile within the portal and app
Live E3 broadcasts will be hosted by Greg Miller of Kinda Funny, Jacki Jing and Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez — these will be streamed on YouTube, Twitch and Facebook
Note that the portal and app aren’t live yet, but we’ll update this story with links once they are. Thankfully, the ESA at least isn’t actually planning to ban the word “Canada” when fans eventually get their hands on these public forums.
So far, nearly every major publisher besides PlayStation has confirmed participation in this year’s E3, including Xbox, Nintendo, Ubisoft, Square Enix, Capcom Bandai Namco, Sega and Warner Bros. That said, we currently don’t know exactly what any of them have planned besides the following three:
Ubisoft Forward — Saturday, June 12th
Ubisoft will have a new ‘Forward‘ presentation for E3 to reveal more about its upcoming games. This will be streamed on Saturday, June 12th at 12pm PT/3pm ET on Ubisoft’s YouTube and Twitch channels.
In terms of what to expect, we don’t know anything concrete, but reasonable guesses include Ubisoft Montreal’s Rainbow Six: Parasite (formerly Quarantine), Ubisoft Toronto’s Far Cry 6 and Ubisoft Pune’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake.
Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase — Sunday, June 13th
Xbox’s major summer event will kick off at 10am PT/1pm ET, run for about 90 minutes and be streamed on its Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook channels.
Fortunately, the company has been fairly forthcoming about what we can expect from its big event — a major emphasis on games from Bethesda, which it recently acquired. The most prominent of these is Fallout and The Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda Game Studios’ Starfield, a new sci-fi IP that was revealed at E3 2018.
We have since seen nothing official from the game, but rumours from credible industry tipsters suggest Starfield will make a big splash at E3. The official logo for the ‘Xbox & Bethesda’ event seemingly shows the same planet we’ve seen in Starfield‘s official artwork.
What’s undeniable from that logo is Halo‘s Master Chief, though, which suggests we’ll get an update on the long-awaited Halo Infinite. Other Xbox Game Studios titles that could make an appearance include Ninja Theory’s Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, Double Fine’s Psychonauts 2 and the Perfect Dark reboot from Xbox’s new ‘Initiative’ team.
Finally, Xbox promises some updates on new games coming to its ever-growing Game Pass service.
Nintendo — Tuesday, June 15th
The Japanese gaming giant will hold a 40-minute Direct on Tuesday, June 15th at 9am PT/12pm ET on its YouTube and Twitch channels.
The company says the presentation will be focused “exclusively on Nintendo Switch software” that’s “mostly releasing in 2021.” At first glance, this seems to rule out hearing about the long-rumoured 4K-capable ‘Switch Pro.’
However, it should be noted that Bloomberg reported last week that Nintendo is planning to reveal the new hardware before E3 to allow companies to show off their upgraded Switch games at the actual show. This means that we could still see ‘Switch Pro’ games during Nintendo’s E3.
Beyond the new Switch, we can only hope that Nintendo will finally show off more from the untitled Breath of the Wild sequel, which was revealed two years ago with no new footage since. Additionally, it seems like a safe bet we’ll see more from the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl remakes — as well as, potentially, Pokémon Legends: Arceus — and a new DLC fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Finally, Nintendo says it will have a three-hour ‘Treehouse Live’ event after the Direct to offer “deep dives into select games.”
Other
Of all the other publishers, Square Enix is the most rumoured to be having its own E3 showcase, although it hasn’t officially confirmed one yet.
In particular, Fanbyte‘s Imran Khan — a credible source in the industry — reported last month that Square Enix will indeed have its own E3 event. But he didn’t stop there; Khan also corroborated another reliable leaker that Square Enix will reveal a brand-new Final Fantasy action game developed by Team Ninja, the makers of Nioh. In fact, the game — reportedly titled Final Fantasy Origin — will be set in the world of the original Final Fantasy game and feature action-RPG gameplay akin to Nioh, albeit in a more “accessible” form.
Otherwise, Square Enix could very well have more to show off from Final Fantasy XVI, Life is Strange: True Colors and its new IP Forspoken.
Beyond June, EA also has its EA Play Live — which normally would happen the week of E3 — on July 22nd. However, since that’s a while away, we don’t yet have any other info like a specific time.
Finally, we have no idea when — or even if — PlayStation will do anything of its own, outside of whatever it has in store for SGF Kickoff Live! It’s worth noting that the company did just have a ‘State of Play’ stream focused on Horizon Forbidden West, which is slated to release later this year.
As mentioned, we’ll update this story as more news comes out about Summer Game Fest and E3. Of course, we’ll also be covering the events live, so stay tuned to MobileSyrup for more.
