Summer Game Fest 2023: ‘Not-E3’ schedule, announcements, and what you need to know

Summer Game Fest 2023 has begun, and Geoff Keighley’s digital festival of gaming kicked off strong, showcasing a number of exciting gaming announcements, with more to come over the coming week.

If last month’s PlayStation Showcase increased your hype levels for the weeks ahead, Summer Game Fest will send you into overdrive with news, reveals, and announcements on everything from the biggest triple-A releases to upcoming indie games.

With E3 2023 canceled, Summer Game Fest stands as the biggest time of the year for gaming fans and sets out the roadmap for the months and years ahead. Read on for everything you need to know about Summer Game Fest 2023, including the full conference schedule and what we expect to see.

Summer Game Fest 2023: The biggest announcements so far

Summer Game Fest has been packed full of huge announcements so far. At Summer Game Fest Live, a release date for Spider-Man 2 was finally announced, Mortal Kombat 1‘s Kameo System was shown in a gameplay reveal, and the first trailer for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth dropped.

Devolver Digital’s showcase included shadow-dropping a demo for SLUDGE LIFE 2, along with a demo for Wizard with a Gun, both of which are now available on Steam. We also saw Baby Steps, a literal walking simulator.

The Wholesome Games showcase was true to its name with lots of cutesy characters and calming environments, including cat-cafe-orientated Pekoe, a sequel to Button City, focusing on soccer and titled Button City: Soccer Days and I Am A Caterpillar, all about a caterpillar who doesn’t want to become a butterfly.

The Future Game Show’s summer showcase revealed a gameplay trailer for Hashbane’s dinosaur shooter, Instinction, alpha gameplay for Deceit 2, a developer presentation on Life By You and a spine-tingling look at Layers of Fear.

At the Xbox Showcase, we finally got a look at Fable and Richard Ayoade’s character, though there’s still no release date. Star Wars: Outlaws was also showcased, with a look at gameplay coming in Monday’s Ubisoft showcase, while we also got Payday 3, Avowed, a Legend of Monkey Island expansion for Sea of Thieves, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.

An hour-long deep-dive into Starfield showed how truly massive Besthesda’s highly-anticipated title truly is, with vast character customization options, the ability to build ships from scratch, over 1,000 planets to explore and base building. It really does seem like there will be something for everyone.

At the PC Gaming Show, we saw a glimpse of gameplay from Dune: Awakening, a look at the creative mode coming to Teardown, beta details for Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, and another look at the upcoming park-management game Park Beyond, which launches on June 15.

Ubisoft Forward revealed an open beta for upcoming shooter XDefiant ahead of a launch later this summer, as well as providing the first gameplay of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which will be canon in the Avatar universe and coexist with the films. We also had a closer look at Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, which included a controversial teleportation combat feature.

For more of the biggest announcements from Summer Game Fest 2023, check out our Summer Game Fest live blog, everything shown at Devolver Digital’s showcase, everything shown at Wholesome Games show, everything shown at Future Games Show, and our live blog of the Xbox Showcase and Starfield Direct.

Summer Game Fest 2023 schedule: all gaming conferences

Summer Game Fest 2023 looks to be jam-packed and full of action, with a number of developers and publishers hosting their own showcases during the festival.

Here are all the game conferences that have been confirmed for Summer Game Fest so far, along with their dates and times, as well as the details for gaming conferences taking place during this time that don’t officially fall under the Summer Game Fest umbrella.

What is Summer Game Fest 2023?

Debuting in 2020, and set up by The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, Summer Game Fest is a season of digital events, demos, announcements, and news. Publishers and developers tend to keep some of their biggest announcements for Summer Game Fest, making it one of the most significant ‘events’ in the gaming calendar—and one that gamers shouldn’t miss.

Previous announcements have included the reveal of Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, the addition of Junker Queen to Overwatch, and Hideo Kojima announcing his next project, an Xbox game that’ll use cloud technology. 

But Summer Game Fest isn’t exactly an event, trade show, or convention like E3. Instead, it’s marketed as a “celebration” of the gaming industry or a “cross-industry festival,” with individual developer and publisher showcases falling under its wide umbrella. However, each year the season of gaming is kicked off with a live showcase presented by Keighley. This year is no different, with the Summer Game Fest Live showcase kicking off proceedings later today.

Related link: How to watch Summer Game Fest Live 2023

When is Summer Game Fest 2023?

Summer Game Fest 2023 will take place in the coming days. From what we’ve seen so far, it looks like the main events occur between June 8 and June 13, with a Guerrilla Collective showcase taking place on June 7.

Summer Game Fest 2023 certainly appears to be more condensed than in previous years. Summer Game Fest 2020, the debut of the festival, ran from May until August, which—frankly—was way too long. The following year, Keighley condensed his digital season of gaming, so it ran from June until July.

Thankfully last year, the ‘core events’ of Summer Game Fest 2022 took place between June 9 and June 12, which was much more digestible. This year seems to be structured similarly, meaning we can look forward to roughly a week jam-packed with gaming goodness.

Summer Game Fest 2023 attendees

In total, over 40 partners have been announced for Summer Game Fest 2023, which gives fans plenty to be excited about. 

Big names such as Sony, Xbox, Activision, Disney, and Square Enix will take part in the digital gaming festival, along with several indie developers. You can check out the full list of confirmed attendees below:

• Activision
• Amazon Games
• Annapurna Interactive
• Bandai Namco
• Behaviour Interactive
• Capcom
• CD Projekt Red
• Devolver Digital
• Digital Extremes
• Disney
• EA Games
• Epic Games
• Focus Entertainment
• Gearbox Publishing
• Grinding Gear Games
• HoYoVerse
• Kabam
• Larian Games
• Level Infinite
• Magic The Gathering
• Neowix
• Netflix Games
• Nexon
• Niantic
• North Beach
• Paradox Interactive
• Pearl Abyss
• Phoenix Labs
• Plaion
• PlayStation
• Pocket Pair
• Razer
• Samsung Gaming Hub
• Second Dinner
• Sega
• Smilegate Entertainment
• Square Enix
• Steam
• Techland
• Tribeca Festival
• Ubisoft
• Warner Bros. Interactive
• Xbox

What to expect at Summer Game Fest 2023

All eyes are back on Xbox for Tuesday’s Xbox Extended showcase, following Sunday’s exciting reveal of a host of upcoming games and a deep-dive into Starfield, which was a longer stint of the show than many expected.

More game reveals are likely to occur at Xbox Extended, which has already promised a deeper look into Avowed, Microsoft Flight Simulator’s Dune expansion, and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, among others, with a tease of a surprise celebrity appearance.

Games from Xbox partners not featured at the main showcase are also set to appear, which likely means a look at a flurry of games that will join the Xbox Game Pass library.