Summer Games Fest 2023: Ahead of the June Showcase, Host Geoff Keighley Talks About What To Expect, E3, More

The Summer Games Fest is back this year with The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley. As we approach June 8, Keighley teased details of the show that ought to get gamers excited. The teases include possibilities of big announcements, live audience, and more. With the Summer Games Fest 2023 set to broadcast around the globe, here are the latest details including timings, schedule, what to expect, and more.

The Summer Games Fest 2023 Timings and Schedule

Summer Games Fest will take place on June 8 (local time) at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles. The show will start at 12:30am (IST) on June 9. The audience from India will be able to catch the show live via SGF channels on platforms including YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, and Steam. The show is expected to run for about two hours and will wrap up by 2:30 am IST.

What to expect

In a recent interview with Epic Games, host Geoff Keighley was asked about the highlights of the Summer Games fest 2023. After the Elden Ring announcement in 2020 and The Last of Us news in 2022, the expectations are high. Here’s what he had to say:

“As I always say with these shows, one or two games kind of makes the entire difference. As the producer, it’s challenging because sometimes you have those games, sometimes you don’t, sometimes you think you have them, and they drop out or change.”

However, he did add that currently there are “three or four things that are going to be ‘pretty big for this audience’.”

The “three or four” “pretty big” things may be associated to most anticipated upcoming games. This list of biggest upcoming releases includes, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, The Last of Us Multiplayer, Marvel’s Wolverine, Mortal Kombat 1, and several Assassin’s Creed titles.

Live Audience in The Summer Games Fest 2023

Keighley also spoke about the fact that the Summer Games Fest 2023 will have a live audience of about 3000 people present at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles. This gives them an opportunity to interact with the developers about their games.

“Whereas The Game Awards is very much straight trailer, trailer, trailer, announcement, announcement, announcement. I think Summer Game Fest has a chance to talk to the developers and showcase games and give a little bit more context around games. We’re not giving out awards in the show. It really is just kind of a showcase of games.

We certainly felt that at the Game Awards last year when fans would erupt in cheers when we revealed Hades or other games. In the world of so many video events, our live show and fan audience is a key differentiator for Summer Game Fest. It adds so much energy to the room to have fans react to the announcements, allowing us to really bring the announcements into the room.”

Keighley on E3 and Summer Games Fest

This is the second time that Summer Games Fest is returning as an in-person event in the absence of E3. As a result, Keighley was asked if there would booths and demo-stations installed like one would see at E3. He clarified that while games and demos would be available online for the fans, the “consumer experience is limited to the live show.”

Addressing the elephant in the room, the cancellation of the E3, Keighley was reportedly “just as surprised as everyone when news came.” According to the report, Keighley was in conversation with E3 organiser ReedPop, after the initial announcement in 2022. But the E3 cancellation did not have much impact on Keighley’s Summer Games Fest. He says,

“We had long planned exactly what we’re doing. We’re kind of building on what we’ve done for three years. I think people just want great video game news, right?”

Summer Games Fest will be a part of Summer of Gaming event which will kickstart on May 24 with PlayStation Showcase. This will be followed by Summer Games Fest and Day of the Devs on June 8, Xbox Games Showcase and Starfield Direct on June 11, and Ubisoft Forward on June 12.