Xbox handheld, Resident Evil Requiem and extra

It is early June, which suggests it is time for a ton of video game occasions! Rising from the ashes of E3, Geoff Keighley’s Summer season Recreation Fest is now the premium gaming occasion of the 12 months, simply inching forward of… Geoff Keighley’s Recreation Awards in December. In contrast to the present it changed, Summer season Recreation Fest is an egalitarian affair, spotlighting video games from AAA builders and small indies throughout a various set of livestreams. SGF 2025 consists of 15 particular person occasions operating from June 3-9 — you’ll find the full Summer Game Fest 2025 schedule here — and we’re smack dab in the course of that programming proper now.

We’re protecting SGF 2025 with a small workforce on the bottom in LA and a far bigger group of writers tuning in remotely to the varied livestreams. Anticipate recreation previews, interviews and reactions to reach over the approaching days (the present’s in-person part runs from Saturday-Monday), and a boatload of recent trailers and launch date bulletins in between.

Via all of it, we’re collating the largest bulletins proper right here, with hyperlinks out to extra in-depth protection the place we’ve it, in chronological order.

Tuesday, June 3

State of Unreal: The Witcher IV and Fortnite AI

Epic hitched its wagon to SGF this 12 months, aligning its annual developer Unreal Fest convention, which final occurred within the fall of 2024, with the buyer occasion. The convention was held in Orlando, Florida, from June 2-5, with nicely over 100 developer periods targeted on Unreal Engine. The spotlight was State of Unreal, which was the primary occasion on the official Summer season Recreation Fest schedule. Amid a bunch of very cool tech demos and bulletins, we bought some significant updates on Epic’s personal Fortnite and CD PROJEKT RED’s upcoming The Witcher IV.

The Witcher IV was first unveiled at The Recreation Awards final 12 months, and we have heard little or no about it since. At State of Unreal, we bought a tech demo for Unreal Engine 5.6, performed in actual time on a base PS5. The roughly 10-minute slot featured a mixture of gameplay and cinematics, and confirmed off an in depth, bustling world. Maybe the technical spotlight was Nanite Foliage, an extension of UE5’s Nanite system for geometry that renders foliage with out the extent of element pop-in that’s maybe essentially the most widespread graphical aberration nonetheless plaguing video games right this moment. On the sport facet, we noticed a city stuffed with a whole lot of NPCs going about their enterprise. The city itself wasn’t fairly on the size of The Witcher III‘s Novigrad Metropolis, however nonetheless felt alive in a manner past something the final recreation achieved.

It is honest to say that Fortnite‘s second within the highlight was… much less spectacular. Scorching on the heels of smooshing a profane Darth Vader AI into the sport, Epic introduced that creators will be able to roll their own AI NPCs into the sport later this 12 months.

Wednesday, June 4

PlayStation State of Play: Marvel Tōkon, Silent Hill f and the return of Lumines

One other firm getting a headstart on proceedings was Sony, who threw its third State of Play of the 12 months onto the Summer season Recreation Fest schedule a pair days forward of the opening evening occasion. It was a packed stream by Sony’s requirements, with over 20 video games and even a shock {hardware} announcement.

Essentially the most time was given to Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, a brand new PlayStation Studios tag fighter that fuses Marvel Superheroes with anime visuals. It is also 4 versus 4, which is wild. It is being developed by Arc System Works, the workforce maybe finest identified for the Responsible Gear collection. It is coming to PS5 and PC in 2026. Not-so-coincidentally, Sony additionally introduced Undertaking Defiant, a wi-fi battle stick that’ll help PS5 and PC and arrive in… 2026.

Elsewhere, we bought a parade of launch dates, with concrete dates for Sword of the Sea (August 19) Baby Steps (September 8) and Silent Hill f (September 25). We additionally bought affirmation of that Final Fantasy Tactics remaster (coming September 30), an an all-new… let’s name it aspirational “2026” date for Pragmata, which, if you happen to’re retaining rating, was marketed alongside the launch of the PS5. Nice going, Capcom!

Rounding out the present was a bunch of smaller bulletins. We heard a couple of new Nioh recreation, Nioh 3, coming in 2026; Suda51’s new weirdness Romeo is a Dead Man; and Lumines Arise, a long-awaited return to the Lumines collection from the developer behind Tetris Impact.

Thursday, June 5

Diddly squat

There have been completely no Summer season Recreation Fest occasions scheduled on Thursday. We assume that is out of respect for antipodean bushes, as June 5 was Arbor Day in New Zealand. (It is most likely as a result of everybody was enjoying Nintendo Change 2.)

Friday, June 6

Summer season Recreation Fest Dwell: Resident Evil Requiem, Stranger Than Heaven and sequels abound

It is honest to say that earlier Summer season Recreation Fest opening evening streams have been… whelming at finest. This 12 months’s displaying was actually an enchancment, not least as a result of there have been exponentially fewer cellular recreation and MMO advertisements littering the presentation. Sure, folks tracking Gabe Newell’s yacht had been disenchanted that Half-Life 3 did not present up, and the Silksong crowd stays unhappy, alone and unloved, however there have been nonetheless some large bulletins.

Maybe the largest of all was the “ninth” (Zero and Code Veronica erasure is actual) Resident Evil recreation. Resident Evil Requiem is alleged to be a tonal shift in comparison with the final recreation, Resident Evil Village. This is hoping it reinvigorates the collection in the identical manner Resident Evil VII did following the disappointing 6.

We additionally heard extra from Sega studio Ryu Ga Gotoku about Undertaking Century, which appears to be a 1943 tackle the Yakuza collection. It is now called Stranger Than Heaven, and there is a (actually) jazzy new trailer on your consideration.

Exterior of these huge swings, there have been sequels to a bunch of mid-sized video games, like Atomic Coronary heart, Code Vein and Mortal Shell, and a non secular sequel of types: Scott Pilgrim EX, a beat-em-up that takes the baton from the 2010 Ubisoft brawler Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Recreation.

There have been numerous different bulletins on the present, together with:

Day of the Devs: Snap & Seize, Blighted and Escape Academy II

As all the time, the kickoff present was adopted by a Day of the Devs stream, which targeted on smaller tasks and indie video games. You’ll be able to watch the full stream here.

Escape Academy has been firmly on our best couch co-op games list for a while, and now it is bought a sequel on the best way. Escape Academy 2: Again 2 Faculty takes the identical primary co-op escape room enjoyable and expands on it, shifting away from a level-select map display screen and in the direction of a totally 3D college campus for gamers to discover. As long as the puzzles themselves are as enjoyable as the unique, it looks as if a winner.

Semblance studio Nyamakop is again with new jam known as Relooted, a heist recreation with a novel twist. As in the actual world, museums within the West are full of things plundered from African nations below colonialism. In contrast to the actual world, in Relooted the colonial powers have signed a treaty to return these things to their locations of origin, however issues aren’t going to plan, as many artifacts are discovering their manner into personal collections. It is your job to steal them again. The British Museum is quaking in its boots.

Listed below are a few of the different video games that caught our eye:

The remaining: Ball x Pit, Hitman and 007 First Gentle

After Day of the Devs got here Devolver. Its Summer season Recreation Fest present was slightly extra muted than typical, specializing in a single recreation: Ball x Pit. It is the following recreation from Kenny Solar, an indie developer who beforehand made the sleeper hit Mr. Solar’s Hatbox. Ball x Pit is being made by a workforce of greater than half a dozen devs, in distinction to Solar’s principally solo prior works. It seems like an fascinating mashup of Breakout and base-building mechanics, and there is a demo on Steam available right now.

Then got here IOI, the makers of Hitman, who put collectively a traditional E3-style cringefest, stuffed with awkward pauses, ill-paced demos and repetitive trailers. Truthfully, as somebody who’s been watching recreation firm displays for twenty years or so, it was a pleasant second of nostalgia.

Away from the marvel of a presenter attempting to deal with all the things going incorrect, the present did have some precise content material, with an prolonged demo of the brand new James Bond-themed Hitman mission, an announcement that Hitman is coming to iOS and table tops, and a presentation on MindsEye, a recreation from former GTA producer Leslie Benzies that IOI is publishing.

Saturday, June 7

Monument Valley 3, eggs, Camper Van: Make it House and area of interest streams

The Healthful Direct arrived on Saturday, simply in time to assuage that bizarre hangover all of us bought after the IOI showcase. The Healthful Direct is a celebration of all issues lovable, quaint, peaceable and candy, and this 12 months included mainstream information about Monument Valley 3 coming to consoles and PC, following a stint as a Netflix unique. There was additionally a launch date announcement for the comfortable however twisted shop-management sim Discounty, which is about as spooky because the Healthful Direct ever will get. There’s one thing sinister in regards to the small city in Discounty, and whereas we’re nonetheless undecided if it’s demons or simply the looming specter of capitalism, we all know for sure the game is coming to PC, Change, PS4, PS5 and Xbox Sequence X/S on August 21.

In the meantime, Omelet You Cook hit Steam through the showcase as a pleasant little shock. It’s a recreation about making eggs for choosy college students in a cafeteria, and naturally pleasing Principal Clucker (who’s a rooster, sure). Merely put, it seems scrumptious. The ultimate recreation we need to shout out from this 12 months’s Healthful Direct is Camper Van: Make it House, an ideal little crossover of inside design mechanics and barely miniaturized objects, which makes for a brilliant cute expertise. It came out during the showcase, and it’s stay now on Steam.

There have been dozens of different bulletins through the 2025 Healthful Direct stream, and all the factor is value a watch. You are able to do so at your leisure, ideally cuddled up with a blanket and a pleasant drink, right here.

Saturday was additionally the time for the entire hyper-specific recreation streams to shine. We noticed the Women-led Games present, Latin American Games Showcase, Southeast Asian Games Showcase, Green Games Showcase and Frosty Games Fest. Occasion!

Sunday, June 8

A brand new Xbox handheld, Outer Worlds 2 and Black Ops 7

The final huge occasion of the weekend was Xbox, which had its typical breathless showcase. The most important information, particularly for a publication like Engadget, was the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, two new Xbox-focused PC handhelds. Internally, they’re lots like ASUS’ ROG Ally handhelds, however the grips have been smoothed out to really feel extra like an Xbox controller in your arms.

The software program expertise can be completely different. The Xbox Ally handhelds run Home windows 11, however in Microsoft‘s model of Steam Large Image mode there will be fewer background processes and… only a usually decrease overhead in comparison with common Home windows handhelds. Fortunately, Microsoft is not locking issues down, because it’ll be capable to entry different “in style storefronts,” which we’re taking to imply Steam and Epic. The Xbox Ally will probably be obtainable nearer to the vacations, however worth is a large query mark: The ROG Ally prices considerably greater than the Steam Deck and Change 2. Is Microsoft going to subsidize this stuff, or are they going to value $600-$800 like ASUS’ own-brand variations?

Facet observe: A fast screw you to Microsoft for utilizing Hole Knight: Silksong to indicate off the brand new handheld. We’re all ravenous out right here, and this was not useful. I assume the information that it will be playable on day one on the hand-held at the very least narrows down the discharge date to “between now and every time this factor comes out.”

Much less of a shock was Outer Worlds 2, which Microsoft mentioned can be on the present nicely forward of time. We bought a launch date — October 29 — and a deep dive into the sport’s new methods. It seems like an expanded title in comparison with the unique, with an improved fight system and a extra fleshed out set of companions. We hope to have extra on what’s new actual quickly.

The One Extra Factor of the present was a new Call of Duty game, Black Ops 7. Actually, when a recreation comes out yearly is it actually value blowing your another factor on? If solely Microsoft had an Xbox-branded handheld to indicate off, that might’ve been a very cool observe to finish the present!

Listed below are the opposite bits and items value studying about from the Xbox present:

The remaining: Paralives and Blippo+

Paralives has been within the works for what seems like perpetually, however you’ll play it this 12 months: It enters early access on December 8. The indie tackle The Sims seems charming as all hell in its newest trailer, and I can not wait.

Blippo+ has been an important distraction because it launched with Playdate season 2, and we came upon Sunday that it will be coming to extra platforms quickly — in full color, no less! It will arrive on PC and Nintendo Change in fall 2025.

Monday, June 9

Now you are all caught up. There’s only one occasion on Monday, and it is the Black Voices in Gaming showcase. It begins at midday ET, and we have embedded the steam beneath on your viewing pleasure.