SGF: Summer’s New King of the Beach

Earlier this month, Summer Game Fest (SGF) was streamed live from the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles, showcasing some of the wildest game announcements and news of the year. Key industry insiders and members of the press (plus creatives and leaders from Off Base!) attended in person to see the action up close. The success of 2025’s show and widespread attention reinforced yet again that SGF is the new big trade show in town and  the venue for announcements, gameplay exhibitions, and overall hype. But it wasn’t always this way.

E3: It (Was) the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

For most of the modern video game industry’s history, it was the Electronic Entertainment Expo — E3 for short — that took up all the spotlight in the summer, so much so that nearly everyone in the industry has their own favorite E3 memory. Some remember the console wars between Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft reaching their height at each of their respective rival conferences. Others recall reveals for games that literally shook the room with crowd hype and fervor, like Twilight Princess in 2004, Final Fantasy VII Remake in 2015, or Cyberpunk 2077 (and a sudden dose of Keanu Reeves) in 2019. From its inception in 1995, the showcase grew and grew until it peaked in viewership numbers in 2018, breaking Twitch’s then-record of concurrent viewership with 2.9 million concurrent viewers.

It’s Not You, It’s Me: The Big Players Pull Out

Nintendo was the first major player to pull out, making waves with its decision to launch Nintendo Direct in 2013 — its own independent showcase. Though some missed their presence, Nintendo saw no shortage of success, as proven in 2021 when that Nintendo Direct broke Twitch’s then-concurrent viewership record with 3.1 million viewers. Sony eventually followed suit in 2019, forgoing their usual over-the-top keynote presentation in favor of their own online streaming events (enter Off Base and State of Play).

The Fall of a Giant: E3 Comes to an End

Other factors led to the decline of E3, such as logistical and management difficulties that led to mounting frustrations from major attendees. Organizers also tried to recoup some losses by opening the show to the public and making it something akin to a Comic Con for video games; however, though the crowds that filled the convention center grew and grew, so did the costs of maintaining booths and orchestrating increasingly elaborate presentations.

The COVID-19 pandemic was the critical blow that encapsulated E3’s inability to adapt to the newly digital world. The event shifted to a virtual presentation starting in 2021, but without the flashy in-person spectacles, and without a showcase that could stand alongside rival presentations like the Nintendo Direct (or the rising Summer Game Fest), the attempted shift only demonstrated the event’s fatal flaws. On December 12, 2023, E3 announced what the entire industry had already realized was inevitable; it was shutting down.

Every End is a Beginning: The Rise of Summer Game Fest

And yet, the same lockdown era also birthed Summer Game Fest, which held its inaugural event in 2020. Initially, Summer Game Fest was a four-month, online-only, affair where Keighley helped devs and publishers of all shapes and sizes get the word out for their games. The following year, the branding ran for a little over a month, this time bringing in bigger publishers such as PlayStation’s State of Play taking place during this time. SGF would continue to narrow its scope and focus with each subsequent year, packing bigger punches in a shorter space of time. Its day-long scale was also much shorter than the bombastic nearly week-long conventions of E3, and the efficiency of the event helped it take summer’s center stage.

Strangely, despite its differences in execution, SGF is proving to the world that having a hub for video game insiders and journalists still matters, even in a fully digital world. Not only is it amassing millions of viewers, the event is serving as a crucial outlet of communication for indie developers. Though larger developers and publishers can rely on their established social channels to communicate with wider audiences, smaller developers still require a central hub to magnify their online reach. 

Furthermore, the summer season has remained the ideal season for the video game industry to make its biggest splashes and announce its biggest news. Nestled between the end of fiscal year releases and before the big holiday push, summer is the perfect time to fuel the hype train for releases in the fall and holiday seasons through new footage, release date confirmations, and even surprise same-day releases (aka the “shadow drop”). We saw the latter at SGF with the Lies of P: Overture DLC release and an all-new 007 mission for Hitman: World of Assassination (including a surprise appearance from Mads Mikkelsen on stage). It’s also a great time to look towards the future, with plenty of 2026 releases unveiled to the world from quirky indies like the Punch-Out meets The Muppets inspired Felt That Boxing to continuations of top-tier franchises like the surprise “one more thing” reveal of Resident Evil: Requiem closing out the show.

Nevertheless, despite its growing prominence, Summer Game Fest is still finding its footing as the central online venue for the industry’s presentations. In many ways, the show is a microcosm of an industry still trying to adjust and recover from the pandemic’s boom and subsequent adjustment period. Now, in 2025, Summer Game Fest is a four day affair kicking off with the big keynote presentation followed by “Play Days” where the press and public can get hands-on time with the announced titles. PlayStation and Xbox may not be formal partners with SGF, but they still time big reveal streams to coincide with the event. The end result has the spirit of the original E3, but the vibes are more in-step with the modern communication environment.

Our Final Thoughts

As for Off Base at the event, we had a blast—although the presentation is a much louder experience in-person than watching on stream. As a remote-first company, it was a rare chance to get together in real life and share our love for games with an equally enthusiastic crowd. We all really appreciate what Geoff Keighley and his team have built with SGF,  continuing a long-standing tradition while reinventing it to be more modern, inclusive, and forward-thinking as our beloved video game industry continues to change and evolve.  Now, if you’ll excuse us, it’s time to hit the pool!