Now there is no E3. Summer Game Fest has become the main event.
With E3 now a memory after 28 years, the gaming world has reorganized itself around a new center of gravity: Summer Game Fest, running June 6 through 11, 2024. What began as an upstart alternative has matured into the industry's primary stage, hosting over fifteen distinct showcases spanning major publishers, indie creators, accessibility advocates, and regional voices. The absence of a single monolithic expo has, paradoxically, produced something more pluralistic — a festival that reflects how fragmented, expansive, and alive the medium has become. Yet even amid the abundance, one anticipated announcement — Nintendo's next hardware — waits offstage, a reminder that no single event can hold the whole story.
- E3's permanent closure after 28 years left a structural vacuum at the heart of the gaming calendar, and Summer Game Fest has stepped into that space with unmistakable ambition.
- The 2024 edition has ballooned to fifteen-plus showcases running across six days, forcing audiences to choose between simultaneous streams covering everything from Latin American developers to accessibility-focused design.
- Xbox is bringing its heaviest artillery — Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda, and a dedicated Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct — while Ubisoft, EA, and BioWare each command their own dedicated stages.
- Nintendo looms as the event's most conspicuous absence: a Switch successor has been confirmed to exist, but its reveal is promised elsewhere, casting a long shadow over an otherwise packed week.
- The festival is landing as a legitimate institution, no longer scrappy or provisional, but still incomplete — the industry's biggest hardware secret remains just out of reach.
For the first time in three decades, there is no E3. The Electronic Entertainment Expo closed its doors at the end of 2023 after 28 years, and the space it left behind has been filled — ambitiously, expansively — by Summer Game Fest. Running June 6 through 11, 2024, the event has grown from a scrappy alternative into the gaming calendar's undisputed centerpiece, organized by Geoff Keighley and now comprising over fifteen separate showcases.
The week opens Thursday with Guerrilla Collective's indie premieres, then accelerates Friday into the festival's core: the Access-Ability Summer Showcase, the flagship Summer Game Fest Live presentation, Day of the Devs, and Devolver Digital's irreverent 15th birthday showcase — all in sequence. Saturday fractures into parallel tracks, with Wholesome Direct, the Latin American Games Showcase, Women-Led Games, Future of Play Direct, and GamesRadar's Future Games Show all competing for attention across different platforms and time zones.
Sunday brings the week's heaviest programming: Xbox's double-header of its Games Showcase and a dedicated Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct, with anticipated appearances from Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and possible updates on long-dormant projects. The PC Gaming Show marks its 10th anniversary the same day. Monday hands the stage to Ubisoft Forward for extended looks at Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin's Creed Shadows, and Tuesday closes the week with 15 minutes of Dragon Age: The Veilguard gameplay from BioWare.
Nintendo remains the festival's defining absence. A June Nintendo Direct has been confirmed but not scheduled, and while the company has acknowledged a Switch successor exists, that announcement will come elsewhere. Summer Game Fest 2024 is vast and consequential — and still waiting for the one reveal that could change everything.
For the first time in three decades, there is no E3. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, which had anchored the gaming calendar every June since 1995, officially ceased to exist at the end of 2023. The organizers at the ESA simply closed the doors after 28 years, leaving a void that needed filling. That void is now Summer Game Fest, and this year it has grown into something far larger than a single event—it has become a week-long festival of announcements, previews, and reveals that sprawls across June 6 through June 11.
Geoff Keighley, the man behind the Game Awards, has been organizing Summer Game Fest since 2020, but it was always positioned as an alternative to E3, a scrappy upstart competing for attention. Now it is the main event. The 2024 edition reflects that shift. Where once there was one big stage, there are now fifteen separate showcases, each with its own focus, its own audience, its own reason to exist.
The week begins on Thursday, June 6, with Guerrilla Collective, a coalition of independent publishers promising world premieres and new trailers. The next day, Friday, June 7, is when things accelerate. Access-Ability Summer Showcase opens at 8 a.m. Pacific time, spotlighting games designed with disabled players in mind—a category that has grown in visibility and importance. Then comes Summer Game Fest Live itself at 2 p.m. Pacific, the flagship two-hour presentation where the year's biggest announcements are expected. Immediately after, without pause, Day of the Devs takes over, celebrating indie games and their creators. By evening, Devolver Digital launches its own showcase, described with characteristic irreverence as the company's 15th birthday party, complete with new game reveals.
Saturday, June 8, is when the festival truly explodes into parallel tracks. Wholesome Direct showcases over 70 games described as artistic and emotionally resonant. The Latin American Games Showcase features more than 70 titles from that region, presented by Devolver Digital and Raw Fury. Women-Led Games returns with a Summer Game Fest edition celebrating studios run by women. Future of Play Direct highlights emerging developers. And GamesRadar's own Future Games Show presents over 40 upcoming titles. All of this happens on the same day, across different time zones and streaming platforms, forcing viewers to choose which conversations to join.
Sunday, June 9, brings the heavyweights. Xbox returns to Summer Game Fest with a double presentation: the Xbox Games Showcase, which will feature games from Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda, and Xbox Game Studios, immediately followed by a dedicated Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct. Titles like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle are expected, along with possible updates on long-quiet projects like Perfect Dark and Marvel's Blade. The PC Gaming Show, marking its 10th anniversary, runs simultaneously with over 50 games on display.
Monday, June 10, belongs to Ubisoft Forward, where Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin's Creed Shadows will receive extended looks. Tuesday, June 11, closes the main event with a Dragon Age showcase featuring 15 minutes of gameplay from Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the newly renamed sequel that BioWare has been developing for two years.
Nintendo's participation remains a question mark. The company has confirmed a Nintendo Direct will happen sometime in June, focused on the Switch's second-half 2024 lineup, but no date or time has been announced. More intriguingly, Nintendo has finally acknowledged that a Switch successor exists and promised to announce it within the fiscal year—but not at this event. That revelation, when it comes, will happen elsewhere, leaving Summer Game Fest 2024 as a week of announcements that, for all its scope, is still waiting for the one reveal that might reshape the industry.
Notable Quotes
Games from our portfolio of studios across Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda, and Xbox Game Studios— Xbox, describing the Xbox Games Showcase
The first in-depth look at all-new gameplay and product announcements— Activision, on the Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Direct
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
So E3 is really gone? After nearly thirty years?
Completely. The ESA shut it down at the end of 2023. It was the institution, the thing everyone circled on the calendar. Now there's this instead—Summer Game Fest.
But Summer Game Fest is just one event, right? One presentation?
It was, five years ago. Now it's become an umbrella. There are fifteen different showcases happening across a single week. It's not one stage anymore; it's a whole ecosystem.
Why so many? Why not just have one big show like E3 was?
Because the industry has fragmented. Publishers want their own stages. Indie developers want visibility. There's an Access-Ability showcase now, a Women-Led Games showcase, a Latin American Games showcase. These communities were always there, but E3 never made room for them. Summer Game Fest does.
Does that feel like progress, or does it feel scattered?
Both. You lose the unified moment—everyone watching the same thing at the same time. But you gain representation. The question is whether that trade-off is worth it. Ask me again in a few years.
What about Nintendo? They're being coy about their next console.
Nintendo always is. They've admitted the Switch successor exists and promised to announce it this fiscal year, but not at Summer Game Fest. They're keeping their own timeline, their own reveal. That's very Nintendo.