Summer Game Fest wasn’t enough to fill the E3 void

digitaltrends.com:

Geoff Keighley had an unenviable job this year. When E3 2022 was fully cancelled, players began looking to the gaming personality’s Summer Game Fest event to fill the gap. The show has grown in recent years, bringing more high-profile announcements during its annual kickoff stream. Considering that last year’s show featured a new trailer for Elden Ring, one which revealed the game’s release date, expectations were understandably high.

It’s safe to say that this year’s show couldn’t fully capitalize on the hype. The tw- hour broadcast featured plenty of new footage for big games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, but it wasn’t filled with the kind of killer apps that make E3 a watercooler moment (its grand finale, The Last of Us Part I, was leaked hours before the event).

Despite being a painstakingly crafted labor of love, this year’s stream wasn’t the E3 replacement most players were hoping for. Instead, it seemed to signal that gaming companies may not be looking for an E3 replacement at all, even if fans are.

Today’s kickoff stream started well enough with a new Street Fighter 6 trailer, an unannounced Aliens title, and a deep dive into The Callisto Protocol. The initial flurry of big reveals quickly slowed down as the stream focused on previously announced titles and new projects from smaller studios. It never really picked back up though, as ads for things like Nerdwallet padded out the show. The Rock even showed up, but mostly to plug an energy drink in the show’s lowest moment.

It didn’t help that this year’s show wasn’t quite curated with variety in mind. It was heavy on shooters, particularly those set in outer space — so many that Keighley even joked about it between reveals. Games like The Callisto