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In February when Geoff Keighley announced that it would be Retiring from his annual role as host of the E3 Coliseum event, he was pretty sure he was going to have a long break.
And even when E3 was canceled in March due to COVID-19, he still thought he would take several months off before taking the stage for Gamescom Opening Night Live in August.
But then, people started to approach him, asking him if he was doing something. And, as Keighley does, she started talking to the editors. And to platforms. And to the fans. At first, he says, everyone seemed to think that there would essentially be a digital version of E3. But when it became clear that was no longer the case, everyone Keighley spoke to still wanted some sort of unifying concept for their announcements and summer events.
“I found out it didn’t have to be me on a shiny black floor stage that put on a show every day,” says Keighly. “It’s more like being a traffic cop to navigate all of this for everyone and line things up.”
“I found out it didn’t have to be me on a shiny black floor stage putting on a show every day. It’s more like being a traffic cop to navigate all of this for everyone.”
The result is Keighley’s Summer Game Fest, a four-month “global festival” of everything that runs from May to August, fostered by partnerships with more than a dozen major publishers and platforms.
Keighley describes the Summer Game Fest as less than a single event and more than a “Google calendar” for industry digital exhibits, game trailers, releases, in-game events, and free digital demos. He says it is not a forum, nor is it competing with other media, not even GameSpot and IGN, which are also doing their own E3 substitute events in June.
His goal, he says, was simply to give the industry something to mobilize. And it seems to have worked, at least in that it has many of the biggest names in the industry on board. 2K, Activision, Bandai Namco, Bethesda, Blizzard, Bungie, CD Projekt Red, Digital Extremes, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sony, Square Enix, Private Division, Riot Games, Steam and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment are all confirmed participants, and Se He hopes they will join more in the coming weeks.
A remarkable admission? Nintendo But Keighley says she hopes the remaining console maker will join later, as the Summer Game Fest is open to all publishers and platform owners.
Unifying the industry under one banner is something Keighley often talks about. We talked about it last year, following the Gamescom Opening Night Live announcement, when Keighley was still trying to bring together the top companies moving away from E3.
Things have changed since then, of course, with COVID-19 canceling all live industry events for the foreseeable future and forcing major companies to reconsider how they market and display upcoming games, all in the midst of new announcements. consoles. But Keighley says that while the pandemic accelerated the transition to digital events, he believes the industry was starting to move in that direction anyway.
In fact, he mentions that the reluctance to adopt the ideas of a digital and global event was one of the reasons why he himself withdrew from what would have been E3 2020.
“What I launched at E3 initially was something that was more digital and global, because that’s where I wanted to see how things were going.”
“I just didn’t feel confident that the show would better represent the industry, and honestly, what I presented at E3 initially was something that was more digital and global, because that’s where I wanted to see things anyway.”
Now, without E3, Keighley says we shouldn’t be anticipating a single week of big publisher-led ad announcements in early June, even digitally. Although early June might be a little more crowded than the rest, one of the reasons Keighley opted for a four-month-long festival is because the industry has already turned to air its ads during that time.
The headlines of the platform, of course, will have their own digital events around which other announcements will be attached, and these will be the most important of the season. But, he adds, much of the rest of the Summer Game Fest will focus on individual games hosting their own events and announcements, rather than each publisher or platform leaving everything at once.
“It seemed clear that gaming companies would continue to host events. But for a time, it was unclear if their timelines changed due to coronaviruses and working from home. The demo they were going to do for E3 is probably the first thing to cut. of their production schedule because they are still trying to fulfill [deadlines]. So there were a lot of conversations between all the platforms and publishers about what they were going to do. And it was clear that not everything was going to be aligned until two or three days when everything was going to happen.
Geoff Keighley
“… I think it’s an old-school vision: that there is a moment in time for 90 minutes, and then we turn off the lights and see each other next year. Now it’s more like, ‘We have a great game that will come out and we’re going to do a showcase all day long. ” Like what Riot did with Valorant on Twitch was really interesting, or the launch of the new season of Fortnite. It is not a press event, but it is still something that people cover. And yes, it’s hard to keep the momentum going for that long and I’m not. I want people to think that this is a very scheduled event. But it is like a concert hall. There will be dark days and there will be great days. The key is that it will be cured in a way where things happen, they will matter. “
That said, Keighley still plans to do at least part of her own programming. Despite the fact that Gamescom is now fully digital, it still plans to host a version of Opening Night Live for the second year in a row, an event that will conclude the Summer Game Fest in late August. But Keighley also says that as important as such shows can be, she hopes the industry will embrace the move to digital and global events and exhibits even after COVID-19 allows in-person events to resume.
“[Summer Game Fest] It’s not a big press conference with 5,000 people in an audience that screams, screams and cheers. So how do we create those new moments in this new world order? ”
“You have to open your mind to different ways of receiving news about games,” he says. “[Summer Game Fest] It’s not a big press conference with 5,000 people in an audience that screams, screams and cheers. And I miss those things. Those things are great times. So how do we create those new moments in this new world order? I think people just have to accept that it is different. Maybe some things are even better. And maybe you will get more content at home.
“When people watch me on YouTube, it’s a very passive experience. Now I think it will be a more engaging experience, with content that will come out and feel more connected to the community rather than traveling somewhere when many other people across the world hypocrisy. “
One particular way that Keighley thinks digital events can evolve is through the increasing prevalence of free digital game demos, something that some publishers and platforms are already embracing, and one element that he says will be absolutely part of the Summer. Game Fest.
“I think the idea of giving people reproducible content is only going to grow,” he says. “And now you have to download these things, but I think there is a future where, through xCloud or something like that, you will start to make things stream and play instantly. I think these barriers will not be lowered this summer , but in the future, and I think we will get to the point where they will be playable trailers, where you can have a really amazing four minute experience in a game and then you want to take a look at it.
All of Geoff Keighley’s recent efforts – The Game Awards, Gamescom and now Summer Game Fest – stem from a greater desire to unite the industry to celebrate games.
“And playable content will be here all summer long, but I also don’t want people to think, ‘I’m getting a demo of Cyberpunk. Now I’m getting a demo of Halo Infinite.’ Not all games will deliver on that promise, especially this year given work at home situations and development challenges, but conceptually, I think that’s where it ultimately goes.
“And I think in a few years we are going to fully digitize and virtualize consumer event space and make this content accessible to everyone for a limited period of time. I have crazy ideas for demos that have virtual keys. Play for ten minutes or something like that. I think there are lots of fun ways to replicate the urgency of a live event. But it’s kind of silly, the concept of waiting in a four-hour line to play a game for ten minutes. I got new consoles: holding the DualSense, that’s special and people will line up for that. But to play a demo of the new Avengers game, I don’t know, come on. Let’s broadcast it somehow. “
“In a few years we will fully digitize and virtualize consumer event space and make this content accessible to everyone for a limited period of time.”
Another reason Keighley is so interested in bringing everyone together under one banner is in an effort to promote smaller publishers and indies. Although the Summer Game Fest participant announcement list is a success, Keighley is also working with the production company and former partner E3 Iam8bit, which has historically worked closely with individual independent studios as well as the Indie Megabooth.
Keighley believes that bringing smaller companies alongside them is key to amplifying their voices as well, especially for those studios that otherwise would not have the money to attend an E3 or host their own digital event.
“When PlayStation talks about its next console, don’t worry. People will know. But if you’re an independent developer or a smaller developer, that’s where I think you could really miss out. Those are the games you need. Run into a kiosk. at E3 or listening to something in the hallway. That’s what I’m trying to figure out how to simulate some of these playable things. “
Several times in our discussion, Keighley emphasizes that she doesn’t really have a long-term strategy for Summer Game Fest. It is very open, he says, with the freedom and flexibility to attract new partners or make it whatever it takes for the industry. Honestly, at the end of the four months, you may never have to go back again and the industry could get back to business as usual in 2021.
“You don’t have to buy thousands of dollars on airline tickets and hotel rooms and badges to go do something. You can simply make it available to everyone around the world.”
But he clearly doesn’t think that’s really the case, especially in light of his continued attempts to rally the industry around some form of gaming celebration. He says that, like when he transitioned from the Spike VGA to The Game Awards, now is a time when the industry may need a “full reboot,” but he acknowledges that it’s hard to change the momentum of something everyone has been doing. for decades on something totally new.
“You don’t have to buy thousands of dollars on airline tickets and hotel rooms and badges to go do something,” says Keighley. “You can just make it available to everyone around the world. That is a guiding principle for all the things that I have done, and I think it is something that will go forward. Whether that means Summer Game Fest coming back in 2021 or becoming In I don’t know throughout the year, I always do things in collaboration with the editors.
“Maybe next year we will have a physical Summer Game Fest somewhere and all these digital things will also be part of it. For me, you lead with the digital and the global, and then you physicalize it, so it’s a 100% show Digital that only has a few thousand people in an audience somewhere, compared to the legacy of a fair trying to become a consumer fair.
“[Events like E3] They were such a formative part of my life and career. So how do we digitally recreate that magic? Is that inside Fortnite? Are you at Zoom meetings? How do we build that energy? I want to find that idea that inspires people to want to get into games and be a part of it. “
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