Summer Game Fest continues with XBox and Developer Showcases This Week

Even though E3, Gamescom, and other summer gaming events have become online-only or outright canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has already been a lot of gaming news this summer. The “Summer Game Fest” is a shorthand phrase for all the gaming events that have sprung up in the wake of COVID cancellations. Originally, Geoff Keighley, who created The Game Awards, created it as a series of digital events throughout the summer featuring “breaking news, in-game events, and free playable content.” Many large publishers joined on, including Bethesda, Blizzard Entertainment, CD Projekt Red, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Riot, Sony, and Square Enix.

This week’s big event is another Xbox digital games showcase, taking place Thursday, July 23rd, at 12PM ET. The whole show will be about an hour long and focused on games, with “no business, devices or similar news,” said Aaron Greenberg, general manager of Xbox games marketing at Microsoft.

There’s one more notable event this week, too — on Monday at 11AM ET, you can look forward to the second Summer Game Fest Developer Showcase, which will include reveals from iam8bit, Panic, Ustwo Games, and more.

Summer Game Fest Developer Showcase

What: The two Summer Game Fest Developer Showcases (one in June and one in July) will feature “a select group of upcoming indie and AAA video games” curated by Geoff Keighley and the Day of the Devs team, which includes Double Fine founder Tim Schafer. The July showcase will feature a number of games, including reveals from iam8bit, Panic, MWM Interactive, Team17 and Ustwo Games, and a live performance of the Bugsnax theme song.

When: Monday, July 20th, 11AM ET

How to watch: Watch Summer Game Fest events on Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube. (Note that some of these are the accounts for The Game Awards.)

Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase

What: Microsoft is hosting a digital event to show off Xbox Games Studios games. That means we can expect to finally get a good look at Halo Infinite, and it seems likely that Ninja Theory’s Hellblade II, Double Fine’s Psychonauts 2, and Rare’s Everwild could also make appearances.

When: Thursday, July 23rd, 12PM ET

How to watch: Watch on xbox.com and on Xbox’s Facebook, Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube pages

There were multiple Summer Game Fest events in May and June, and more are planned for July and August. You can see the full schedule here, which is updated as events are added, and watch them on a variety of platforms including Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube. (Note that some of these are the accounts for The Game Awards.)

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