I vividly bear in mind the second I actually realized Summer season Recreation Fest 2025 was a rotten occasion and an instance of the trade attempting to faux every little thing is alright.
It was when the trailer for the upcoming third-person generic motion sport MindsEye began taking part in. The trailer included a brand new, sluggish, somber cowl of “Madworld”—a tune that was coated already and have become notorious for its utilization within the authentic Gears of Battle advertising marketing campaign. That was after I realized the vibes had been off. Everybody was operating on fumes. Folks had been determined. Geoff, the grasp of throwing huge, glitzy sport occasions, was unable this time to distract from the reality: Issues aren’t all proper within the sport trade.
However even earlier than that, this yr’s Summer season Recreation Fest was a boring slog. It was a present dominated by the identical sorts of video games getting introduced and showcased again and again and over. There have been six trailers for six totally different Souls-like/Elden Ring-inspired video games. A ton of anime motion issues that blended collectively. A trailer for a Fortnite Star Wars occasion. A Deadpool VR sport. A Recreation of Thrones RTS. And a bunch of trailers for issues which can be already out or about to be launched. The 2-hour occasion (YEAH) dragged on and on, with every time a trailer ended the group sounded far much less enthused about being there.
Positive, we obtained a enjoyable Resident Evil 9 reveal, and there have been a couple of cool video games introduced through the present, like a puppet boxing sport, and Jurassic World Evolution 3 seems neat. However there was additionally a phase the place a man walked up in a hat that learn “Make FPS Nice Once more” and yelled about Name of Obligation being the identical after claiming he simply needed to make one other Halo.
Even Hideo Kojima, a man who can normally convey a extremely superior trailer for Geoff’s reveals, appeared with little pleasure, confirmed off a two-minute clip of individuals speaking in Loss of life Stranding 2, and left. The one point out of Silksong was a joke about it being absent. It was an empty present that felt lifeless and unhappy. It’s clear that publishers are chasing traits and solely greenlighting and funding video games that appear to be different issues that folks purchased.
Geoff, carrying what gave the impression to be $750 sneakers, appeared determined from the soar to persuade followers watching at dwelling that the dearth of huge AAA video games wasn’t a foul factor. He devoted the opening minutes of the present to praising indie video games and the way superior they’re and the way fashionable they’re. In hindsight, this was him setting the stage for his viewers: You aren’t getting Half-Life 3, GTA 6, or the rest like that tonight. These video games take 10 years to make now and are available much less typically than ever earlier than. And whle I do agree indie video games are cool and doing awseome stuff, this showcase sucked. Two hours of the identical video games squeezed between advertisements is a horrible strategy to showcase something. And doing it for this lengthy ought to be labeled as torture.
As summed up not too long ago and completely by Luke Plunkett over at Aftermath:
Video games—or no less than the type of video games this week was about—are trapped within the stomach of the machine. We love to speak shit about Andrew Wilson, however he isn’t accountable for each horrible determination at EA, as a result of he’s the manager of a publicly-traded firm in 2025, and some other individual in his line of labor would and is doing the identical factor. Virtually each main trade on this planet, whether or not it’s video games or vehicles or music or vitality, is now on the mercy of Wall Avenue Weirdos, personal fairness particularly. We’re not taking a look at a foul time for the online game trade, we’re taking a look at simply unhealthy instances.
However hey, Resident Evil 9 seems neat, I suppose.
