I vividly bear in mind the second I really realized Summer time Recreation Fest 2025 was a rotten occasion and an instance of the business attempting to fake all the things is alright.
It was when the trailer for the upcoming third-person generic motion recreation MindsEye began enjoying. The trailer included a brand new, gradual, somber cowl of “Madworld”—a tune that was lined already and have become notorious for its utilization within the authentic Gears of Struggle advertising marketing campaign. That was once I realized the vibes had been off. Everybody was working on fumes. Individuals had been determined. Geoff, the grasp of throwing huge, glitzy recreation occasions, was unable this time to distract from the reality: Issues aren’t all proper within the recreation business.
However even earlier than that, this 12 months’s Summer time 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 completely 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 recreation. A Recreation of Thrones RTS. And a bunch of trailers for issues which are already out or about to be launched. The 2-hour occasion (YEAH) dragged on and on, with every time a trailer ended the gang sounded far much less enthused about being there.
Certain, we bought a enjoyable Resident Evil 9 reveal, and there have been just a few cool video games introduced throughout the present, like a puppet boxing recreation, and Jurassic World Evolution 3 seems neat. However there was additionally a section the place a man walked up in a hat that learn “Make FPS Nice Once more” and yelled about Name of Responsibility being the identical after claiming he simply wished to make one other Halo.
Even Hideo Kojima, a man who can often deliver a extremely superior trailer for Geoff’s exhibits, appeared with little pleasure, confirmed off a two-minute clip of individuals speaking in Dying 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 like different issues that individuals purchased.
Geoff, carrying what gave the impression to be $750 sneakers, appeared determined from the soar to persuade followers watching at house that the shortage of massive AAA video games wasn’t a nasty factor. He devoted the opening minutes of the present to praising indie video games and the way superior they’re and the way standard 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 adverts is a horrible strategy to showcase something. And doing it for this lengthy must be categorized as torture.
As summed up lately and completely by Luke Plunkett over at Aftermath:
Video games—or not 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 responsible for each horrible resolution at EA, as a result of he’s the manager of a publicly-traded firm in 2025, and every other individual in his line of labor would and is doing the identical factor. Nearly each main business on the planet, whether or not it’s video games or vehicles or music or power, is now on the mercy of Wall Avenue Weirdos, personal fairness specifically. We’re not taking a look at a nasty time for the online game business, we’re taking a look at simply dangerous occasions.
However hey, Resident Evil 9 seems neat, I assume.
