Despite the slow-motion train wreck that led to the ultimate demise of video games preview-athon E3 this year, the 2023 summer season – and especially the month of June – is turning out to be a uniquely spectacular time for games. The groundswell of excellence building up to this crescendo included both Jedi Survivor and Tears of the Kingdom, two of the best games in recent memory. They were soon followed by the similarly epic Street Fighter 6 and Diablo IV, with Final Fantasy XVI right on the horizon.
There have been very few years with this kind of density of excellence in such a short period, and even fewer summers. For those of us that require mundane things like work, sleep, and time with tolerant loved-ones there already aren’t enough hours in the day to possibly enjoy all of these games to their fullest. I have a tendency to be a serial monogamist with games, but I’m also easily distracted by shiny new things – so my journey since Jedi shipped in April has just been a series of disappointing incompletions culminating in an insatiable Diablo habit.
The Road to The Biggest Summer of Gaming
Unbelievably, there’s still more to come. Since E3 first went off the rails in 2020 we’ve been wrapping all of the big summer livestreams and preview events into our Summer of Gaming schedule. This year it kicked off on May 24 with the PlayStation Showcase that delivered 35 trailers capped off with a spectacular demo of Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 that hinted at the sequel’s expanded game world. This was followed by the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase on June 1 with its acknowledgment of Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, and glimpses of Samba de Amigo: Party Central, Stranger Things VR, and the VR reboot of 90s classic The 7th Guest.
The next couple of weeks will be the real meat of what used to be E3. As I’m writing this, there are no less than 18 scheduled livestreamed events that we’ll be covering and carrying across our platforms in the first two weeks of June. If things continue the way they did last year, there will no doubt be even more shows announced before the end of the month. Those events include indie showcases from The Guerrilla Collective and Day of the Devs, programming from Dames 4 Games, Black Voices in Gaming, and Wholesome Direct along with the PC Gaming Show, the Future Games Show, an UploadVR event, and a Sega Summit devoted to Yakuza games.
There are really three upcoming mega-events that will drive the bulk of the conversation through the summer though. First up is the Summer Game Fest live show on June 8 which should feature an extensive batch of trailers. Last year’s show was 33 games strong and there are lots of signals that this year’s show will be even more packed. Then there’s the Xbox Showcase (which includes a 45-minute Starfield blowout) on June 11, followed by Ubisoft’s Forward event on June 12. We’ll be carrying all of these with pre- and post-shows from our studios in LA. But before that, let’s take a stab at guessing what we might get to see.
Expectations and Wishes
Despite the headline, I’m loath to call any of the following “predictions” because really this is just some stuff that we already know for sure blended with some educated guesses and a healthy dose of wishful thinking. Years and years ago I used to do this every summer with my co-hosts on a podcast that some of you might remember called 1UP Yours, and we got pretty good at it. We’ll see in a couple of weeks whether I’ve still got it…
- Starfield, duh.
- Microsoft will lean hard into Forza Motorsport, and it’ll go out of its way to show how much prettier and even-more unnecessarily attentive to detail it is than Gran Turismo. See the individual carbon fibers, or something. However long the segment of their showcase is, people will complain that it’s too long.
- I think there’ll be a Gears 6 teaser with little to no gameplay shown. I know this isn’t exactly that bold of a guess, but it’s time. It’s not a stretch to assume there’s a Master Chief Collection-style Gears bundle in the works too.
- All the glitter-inspired fuss about Playground Games’ Fable reboot will turn out to be true. I’m guessing it’s way further along than anyone thinks, and we may even get a release date.
- This one’s probably obvious after Phil Spencer made such a point of saying he’s played it a bunch, but there’ll be a big segment on Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity-expanding first person RPG Avowed.
- We’re about due a longer and even weirder Death Stranding 2 trailer.
- We’ll certainly see more from Ubisoft on Assassin’s Creed Mirage, but I think we’ll learn that it’s just the sneaky stealth-focused amuse-bouche before the real main course: whatever it is that Codename Red is going to be called. I think we’ll get the name for the game and a reveal showing that it’s a gigantic ninja-filled RPG-style thing that’s even bigger than Valhalla.
- The only whiff of anything that smells even vaguely like an acknowledgement of a new Splinter Cell will be in anything Ubisoft shows of XDefiant.
- Ubisoft will show Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora in all its glory. The comments on every platform will basically be yawns and claims of not giving a shit, and then we’ll see that the trailer has done a gajillion views in the first 12 hours.
- If you’re hoping there’ll be anything on Beyond Good & Evil 2, you’re just stressing yourself out. We’re all going to have to let it go.
- Ubisoft’s megaton will be its Star Wars reveal. There are all sorts of rumors going around about this one, but my favorite is that it’s a Mandalorian game. Not based on the show, but on The Purge that’s often referenced. Various flavors of wishful thinking have it as an Assassin’s Creed-alike with space flight and combat in-between planets.
- We already know the gameplay reveal of Mortal Kombat 1 will be at Summer Game Fest thanks to Geoff Keighley’s frequent reminders, so we can safely file this one under “expectations.”
- Warner Bros. Games used Summer Game Fest to show Gotham Knights last year, so it’s possible it may use this year’s event to show something redemptive for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The game isn’t due until next February, but its last showing definitely soured a lot of people to it, so there’s an opportunity for recovery.
- I think we’ll see more Sonic stuff at Summer Game Fest. I have no evidence to back this up, I’m just guessing. This may end up being little more than a trailer for the Frontiers DLC featuring playable Tails, Amy, and Knuckles, but I honestly think there’ll be something more than that.
- Sega will show a new Hyenas trailer because everyone has forgotten that the game exists.
- We’re well overdue for a new update on the many Silent Hills, particularly Silent Hill 2. Time for a new trailer, surely?
- Phantom Blade Zero will surely pop up again. After wowing everyone at the PlayStation Showcase, first-time studio S-Game’s tough-to-describe steampunk kung fu maybe-soulslike action RPG was an early surprise that we’ll hopefully see much more of.
- Lies of P emerged at Gamescom last August under similar circumstances – a trailer during a showcase that wowed everyone with its gritty visuals and soulslike gameplay. Round8 debuted at Opening Night Live at Gamescom – which is hosted and curated by Keighley – so it seems like a fairly safe bet we’ll see a follow-up at Summer Game Fest. At the very least we’ll get a more specific release date than “August.”
- There hasn’t been a Warhammer 40k game announcement in the last five minutes, so there’ll probably be one of those.
- Capcom will probably continue down its path of regurgitating itself with the announcement of another remake. The divisive Code Veronica, perhaps? (Yeah, yeah, I know they said last October that they weren’t doing it right now, but do you really believe them?)
- We’ll get our first glimpse of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. I’m guessing at Summer Game Fest.
That’s 21 guesses about what we’re going to see. I’ll return to this when the dust has settled in the middle of June and see how I did. I’m sure some of them will turn out to be laughably incorrect, but we shall see. Regardless of what happens, this is already a uniquely phenomenal time for games no matter what platform you play on. Enjoy.
John Davison is IGN’s publisher and editorial lead, and has been writing about games and entertainment for more than 30 years. Follow him on Twitter.