In the past, the coming of the summer months has brought with it new announcements in the gaming world with the E3 games showcases, but those days are no more. E3 is no longer with us, however the show (or shows) must go on, and developers still held their own showcases to highlight their upcoming games releases. While some of these showcases were filled with reveals and surprises, some were filled with a little disappointment. Here are 2023’s summer games showcases, ranked worst to best.
10. Devolver Direct
The Devolver Direct was certainly one of the most unique of all the showcases this year, what with the introduction giving us a full documentary background for a game mascot that has never existed, only to introduce us to his robotic second version. While much of the presentation was focused around the skit, there were a few announcements of note on the gaming side of things.
There was an announcement and gameplay preview for Wizard with a Gun, The Talos Principle II got a gameplay preview, and we got to see a first glimpse of Baby Steps, a likely infuriating walking simulator from the devious mind of Bennett Foddy. All the games they previewed looked promising, but once Volv-E started oozing goop onto the stage, I started wondering if I couldn’t have read about the show afterwards.
Coming without any gameplay in its reveal was Human Fall Flat 2, which ready didn’t need much explanation for the fake crowd to go wild. Unfortunately, no release date was provided, but the revamped physics engine and graphics update are enough to get excited for if you’re a fan of the first game. Most of the Devolver Direct seemed to be focused on the (admittedly well-made) performance as opposed to the games, so it does land at the bottom of the list.
9. Access-Ability Summer Showcase
The Access-Ability Summer Showcase is one of the smaller, indie-game showcases, but that doesn’t make it any less significant. YouTuber LauraKBuzz organized the stream in order to allow disabled gamers the comfort of watching a games showcase and know that the games will be playable for them with plenty of accessibility features, as opposed to the other, larger shows where accessibility may not be in the forefront of people’s minds.
Many of the games that were featured during the showcase are smaller games from smaller developers, so they don’t garner as much attention as games like Final Fantasy or Spider-Man. Games like Mythwrecked, Skye Tales, and Stories of Blossom were announced, and there were conversations with developers on games like Sniper Elite 5, being highlighted for their pre-existing accessibility features. While the showcase is valuable to many disabled players, the small-scale of reveals ranks this showcase lower on the list.
8. Capcom Showcase
One of the shorter showcases of the year, Capcom only had a few major announcements at their event, also leaving it towards the bottom of this list. That being said, Capcom still brought some exciting reveals like some gameplay for Dragon’s Dogma 2 and a trailer for the fourth, fifth and sixth Ace Attorney games in a remastered trilogy, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
While Capcom excited fans with a new trailer for their dinosaur-hunting game Exoprimal, they balanced the hype with some disappointment with the news that they would be further delaying the release of Pragmata to an unknown year in the future. Unfortunately that disappointment knocked the showcase down further on this list.
7. Starfield Direct
Streaming directly behind Microsoft’s more all-encompassing Xbox Games Showcase, the Starfield Direct gave a much more in-depth look at Bethesda’s newest space-RPG. Fans got to see a deep dive into the travel mechanics, character creation and some of the world building along with plenty more.
Bethesda provided excited fans with a much broader look at the game than ever before, addressing the sheer size and technical spectacle of Starfield’s galaxy and showing off plenty of gameplay. There are over 1000 planets and moons to explore throughout the galaxy, and there will be 40 detailed preset character models to use as a starting point for your own character, and that’s still before you can customize anything from your piercings to your teeth.
Deeper gameplay mechanics like combat, ship customization and the skill trees were also broken down, and there was plenty to explain. It was nice to finally get such a clear look at the game, without too much of it being given away. Given that it only really focused on one game, the Starfield Direct is placed lower on the list, but that’s not indicative of the content announced.
6. Meta Quest Gaming Showcase
Meta’s 2023 showcase turned out to be a fruitful one, with the main event of the show being the announcement of the Meta Quest 3, the newest member of their lineup of VR headsets. The Quest 3 headset will drop later this year, but not before a price drop of the previous Meta Quest 2 models, also announced at the show.
Meta also revealed that they would be releasing an update to improve the GPU and CPU performance of the Quest 2 and Quest Pro. This comes to the benefit of the new games coming to Meta’s library like Stranger Things VR, Samba de Amigo and The Seventh Guest. They also gave the official title for the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, which was further expanded upon in the later Ubisoft Forward.