Summer Game Fest producer Geoff Keighley expects significantly fewer PR live streams from publishers in the coming months.
Aside from Geoff Keighley, there are probably only a few people in the games industry who have such detailed insight into what will be announced by console and game manufacturers in the coming weeks and months. Because Keighley curates, produces and hosts several cross-platform shows and online formats in which publishers announce games as well as advertising trailers and first in-game material.
The kick-off event for Keighley’s Summer Game Fest 2022 is planned for the evening of June 9th, followed by the opening show Gamescom Opening Night Live on August 23rd, which will again be broadcast live from the Cologne Exhibition Center after a two-year break from the pandemic – and in front of 5,000 spectators on site.
Based on the experiences of the past year, Keighley assumes that fewer digital ‘showcases’ – i.e. PR live streams – will take place between these two fixed points than in 2021. So far, with the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase on June 12, only one major format from a ‘First Party’ manufacturer has been announced. There you will experience how small and medium-sized publishers ‘hide in’ instead of setting up their own showcase.
As justification, the producer refers to the disappointed reactions to last year’s online presentations by Take-Two, Capcom and Square Enix. The audience’s high expectations were disappointed. The lesson would be: Anyone planning their own showcase should be able to fill a program lasting at least 30 minutes – one or two nice games are not enough.
There’s obviously enough stuff at THQ Nordic: The Viennese publisher with a Swedish mother wants to organize its own showcase shortly before Gamescom (24-28 August). Electronic Arts, on the other hand, announced in March that there would be no edition of EA Play Live this year – this alone eliminates a key pillar of the summer of announcements. It is still unclear how Ubisoft will decide with a view to Ubisoft Forward, which usually takes place in June or July.
According to Keighley, the ‘Covid gap’ is now having an effect: the pandemic has recently led to the postponement of several blockbusters. This is how the Microsoft Xbox Christmas title became Starfield postponed from November 2022 to 2023 – As of now, it is completely open which product could fill the gap that has arisen, especially since the release of Halo Infinite in December 2021, half a year has already passed without AAA replenishment.
The situation at Sony Interactive is similar: In the second half of 2021, no blockbuster from the group’s own PlayStation Studios was released. After the delivery of Horizon: Forbidden West and Gran Turismo 7 in the 1st quarter another software lull threatens for the coming months.
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