Despite the slow-motion train wreck that led to the ultimate demise of video games preview-athon E3 this year, the 2023 summer season – and especially the month of June – is turning out to be a uniquely spectacular time for games. The groundswell of excellence building up to this crescendo included both Jedi Survivor and Tears of the Kingdom, two of the best games in recent memory. They were soon followed by the similarly epic Street Fighter 6 and Diablo IV, with Final Fantasy XVI right on the horizon.
There have been very few years with this kind of density of excellence in such a short period, and even fewer summers. For those of us that require mundane things like work, sleep, and time with tolerant loved-ones there already aren’t enough hours in the day to possibly enjoy all of these games to their fullest. I have a tendency to be a serial monogamist with games, but I’m also easily distracted by shiny new things – so my journey since Jedi shipped in April has just been a series of disappointing incompletions culminating in an insatiable Diablo habit.
The Road to The Biggest Summer of Gaming
Unbelievably, there’s still more to come. Since E3 first went off the rails in 2020 we’ve been wrapping all of the big summer livestreams and preview events into our Summer of Gaming schedule. This year it kicked off on May 24 with the PlayStation Showcase that delivered 35 trailers capped off with a spectacular demo of Insomniac's Spider-Man 2 that hinted at the sequel’s expanded game world. This was followed by the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase on June 1 with its acknowledgment of Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, and glimpses of Samba de Amigo: Party Central, Stranger Things VR, and the VR reboot of 90s classic The 7th Guest.
The next couple of weeks will be the real meat of what used to be E3. As I’m writing this, there are no less than 18 scheduled livestreamed events that we’ll be covering and carrying across our platforms in the first two weeks of June. If things continue the way they did last year, there will no doubt be even more shows announced before the end of the month. Those events include indie showcases from The Guerrilla Collective and Day of the Devs, programming from Dames 4 Games, Black Voices in Gaming, and Wholesome Direct along with the PC Gaming Show, the Future Games Show, an UploadVR event, and a Sega Summit devoted to Yakuza games.
There are really three upcoming mega-events that will drive the bulk of the conversation through the summer though. First up is the Summer Game Fest live show on June 8 which should feature an extensive batch of trailers. Last year’s show was 33 games strong and there are lots of signals that this year’s show will be even more packed. Then there’s the Xbox Showcase (which includes a 45-minute Starfield blowout) on June 11, followed by Ubisoft’s Forward event on June 12. We’ll be carrying all of these with pre- and post-shows from our studios in LA. But before that, let’s take a stab at guessing what we might get to see.
Expectations and Wishes
Despite the headline, I’m loath to call any of the following “predictions” because really this is just some stuff that we already know for sure blended with some educated guesses and a healthy dose of wishful thinking. Years and years ago I used to do this every summer with my co-hosts on a podcast that some of you might remember called 1UP Yours, and we got pretty good at it. We’ll see in a couple of weeks whether I’ve still got it…