With its inaugural show last year, Summer Game Fest 2020 was an expansive event which saw the announcements of new games, the release of demos, and a steady stream of premiere and gameplay trailers from May through August. This year’s fest, which is set to take place in June, will feature a much more condensed format, shrinking to just a handful of announcement-heavy days.
RELATED: Weezer Releases Its Own Shooter
Announced via event host and organizer Geoff Keighley’s Twitter, the Summer Game Fest 2021 will officially begin on June 10 with its “Kickoff Live!” show. The livestreamed event promises a spectacular world premiere showcase, along with content from Day of the Devs and a full performance by Weezer. While the four-piece is a well-established act and known for hits such as “Say It Ain’t So” and “Beverly Hills,” Weezer will actually be premiering a brand new video game soundtrack song. Although there’s no info as to what game it could be for, it would definitely make sense for it to be a title featured at some point during the kickoff show.
In addition to the live kickoff show, Summer Game Fest encompasses several other presentations. The Ubisoft Forward event is listed for June 12 at noon PT, which interestingly is also confirmed to be part of E3 2021, likely indicating the event will serve double duty for both gaming industry conventions. The Summer Steam Game Festival will return this year, rebranded to Steam Next Fest. The six-day event, running from June 16 to June 22, will reportedly offer players hundreds of demos from the premier PC gaming platform. After Steam Next Fest, the final and furthest-out event is EA Play Live, which will be EA’s summer showcase of its upcoming titles.
Gaming industry events run by Geoff Keighley seem to be continuously gaining steam. In addition to The Game Awards 2020 garnering more viewers than ever before, PlayStation is now confirming its involvement with Summer Game Fest. PlayStation has been notably absent from E3 since 2019, so its involvement with a seemingly budding rival expo is quite significant. PlayStation won’t be holding a presentation of its own, so its currently unclear what exactly the company will reveal.
The second run of Summer Game Fest, with its newly condensed format and increased number of studio partners, should make for an exciting and engaging industry event. Weezer’s kickoff performance will also come with zero restrictions, meaning fans can co-stream and monetize without fear of a DMCA takedown. The Summer Game Fest concert should almost certainly go over better than Metallica’s Game Awards performance, which had its songs covered with 8Bit folk music on the official Twitch gaming channel.
MORE: Nintendo Needs The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 at E3 2021
