Summer Game Fest 2025: Xbox handheld, Resident Evil Requiem and more!

Early June means that there will be a ton of video game events! Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest, which rose from the ashes of E3, is now the year’s top gaming event, barely surpassed by Geoff Keighley’s Game Awards in December. In contrast to its predecessor, Summer Game Fest is an inclusive event that features both AAA and independent games in a variety of livestreams. The Summer Game Fest 2025 schedule is available here, and we’re currently right in the middle of 15 separate events that will take place from June 3–9.

We have a small team in LA covering SGF 2025, and a much larger group of writers are watching the various livestreams from a distance. Over the next few days (the show’s in-person portion runs from Saturday to Monday), expect to see a ton of new trailers and release date announcements, along with game previews, interviews, and reactions.

Here, we’re compiling the most significant announcements from throughout it all, along with links to more in-depth coverage where available, in time order.

June 3rd Tuesday.

The Witcher IV and Fortnite AI are examples of State of Unreal.

This year, Epic joined forces with SGF to coincide the consumer event with its yearly developer Unreal Fest conference, which was last held in the fall of 2024. More than 100 developer sessions centered around Unreal Engine took place during the June 2–5 conference in Orlando, Florida. The first event on the official Summer Game Fest schedule, State of Unreal, was the highlight. We received some significant updates on CD PROJEKT RED’s upcoming The Witcher IV and Epic’s own Fortnite amid a number of really awesome tech announcements and demos.

Since its initial reveal at last year’s Game Awards, we haven’t heard much about The Witcher IV. We watched a real-time tech demo of Unreal Engine 5.6 on a base PS5 at State of Unreal. The approximately 10-minute slot showcased a vibrant, detailed world with a blend of gameplay and cinematography. Nanite Foliage was UE5’s extension of the Nanite system for geometry, which renders foliage without the amount of detail pop-in that is arguably the most common graphical aberration still present in games today. This was possibly the technical highlight. We observed a town with hundreds of NPCs going about their daily lives on the game side. Although the town itself wasn’t quite as large as Novigrad City in The Witcher III, it felt more alive than the previous game did.

Fortnite’s moment in the spotlight was, let’s face it, less spectacular. Epic revealed later this year that developers will be able to incorporate their own AI NPCs into the game, following the announcement of a profane Darth Vader AI.

Tuesday, June 4.

State of Play on the PlayStation: Lumines’ comeback, Silent Hill F, and Marvel Tōkon.

A few days prior to the opening night event, Sony threw its third State of Play of the year onto the Summer Game Fest schedule, giving them another advantage over the competition. With more than 20 games and even a surprise hardware announcement, it was a packed stream by Sony’s standards.

Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, a new tag fighter from PlayStation Studios that blends Marvel Superheroes with anime graphics, received the most time. It’s crazy that it’s 4 versus 4. Perhaps best known for the Guilty Gear series, Arc System Works is working on its development. In 2026, it will be available on PC and PS5. Not coincidentally, Sony also revealed Project Defiant, a wireless combat stick that will be available in 2026 and support both the PS5 and PC.

The release dates for Sword of the Sea (August 19), Baby Steps (September 8), and Silent Hill (September 25) were all announced in detail. Additionally, we received confirmation that the brand-new Final Fantasy Tactics remaster will be available on September 30. For the sake of argument, Pragmata’s aspirational “2026” date was promoted concurrently with the PS5’s release. Well done, Capcom!

Several smaller announcements completed the show. We learned about Suda51’s latest oddity, Romeo is a Dead Man; the long-awaited return to the Lumines series from the developer of Tetris Effect; and the upcoming 2026 release of Nioh 3, a new Nioh game.

Thursday, June 5.

Diddly squat.

On Thursday, there were no Summer Game Fest events planned at all. Given that New Zealand observed Arbor Day on June 5, we presume that this is done out of respect for antipodean trees. (This is most likely due to the fact that everyone was playing Nintendo Switch 2. ).

June 6, Friday.

Resident Evil Requiem, Stranger Than Heaven, and other sequels are all available at Summer Game Fest Live.

Previous opening night streams for Summer Game Fest have been, to put it mildly, mediocre. The fact that there were significantly fewer advertisements for mobile games and MMOs throughout the presentation this year was one reason why the performance was unquestionably better. Although the Silksong crowd is still depressed, lonely, and unloved, and people following Gabe Newell’s yacht were disappointed that Half-Life 3 didn’t arrive, there were some significant announcements made.

The “ninth” (Code Veronica and Zero are real) Resident Evil game was possibly the most significant of all. Compared to Resident Evil Village, the previous game, Resident Evil Requiem is said to have a different tone. I hope it revitalizes the series, much like Resident Evil VII did after the disappointing 6.

Ryu Ga Gotoku, a Sega studio, also gave us more information about Project Century, which appears to be a 1943 adaptation of the Yakuza series. A (literally) jazzy new trailer has been released for it, and it’s now called Stranger Than Heaven.

Beyond those major swings, there were follow-ups to a number of mid-sized games, such as Atomic Heart, Code Vein, and Mortal Shell, as well as a sort of spiritual follow-up: Scott Pilgrim EX, a beat-em-up that continues the story of the 2010 Ubisoft brawler Scott Pilgrim vs. The Game: The World.

There were countless other announcements at the show, including:.

The big cheese in Mouse: P is Troy Baker. I. on hire.

This is an absurd puppet boxing game that you may not have realized you needed.

Werewolf is made into a multiplayer action game by Killer Inn.

Epic Games’ Out of Words is a comfortable stop-motion cooperative game.

The same studio that created Builder’s Journey also created the cooperative puzzle game Lego Voyagers.

Arriving on Halloween is Mina the Hollower from the Shovel Knight creators.

The latest game from Wu-Tang Clan combines Afro-surrealism and anime.

Day of the Devs: Escape Academy II, Blighted, and Snap and Grab.

A Day of the Devs stream, which concentrated on independent games and smaller projects, followed the kickoff show as usual. The entire stream can be viewed here.

For a while now, Escape Academy has been a top pick for couch cooperative games, and now a sequel is in the works. The basic cooperative escape room experience is expanded in Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, which shifts from a level-select map screen to a fully 3D school campus for players to explore. It appears to be the winner as long as the puzzles are as enjoyable as the original.

Relooted is a brand-new heist game with a distinctive twist from Semblance studio Nyamakop. Western museums are filled with artifacts that were stolen from African countries during colonization, just like in the real world. In Relooted, the colonial powers have signed a treaty to return these items to their original locations, unlike in the real world. However, things aren’t going as planned because many artifacts are ending up in private collections. Your task is to reclaim them. The Museum of Britain is trembling.

These are a few more games that drew our attention.

The campy, photography-based heist game Snap & Grab is developed by No Goblin.

A depressing clown and eerie paintings can be found in the puzzle game Please, Watch the Artwork.

Enjoy Neverway’s hideous pixel-art splendor.

Pocket Boss transforms the manipulation of corporate data into a puzzle game.

In the absurd open-world adventure game Tire Boy, you can walk everywhere.

The others are 007 First Light, Ball x Pit, and Hitman.

Devolver followed the Day of the Devs. A little more subdued than usual, its Summer Game Fest show concentrated on just one game: Ball x Pit. It’s the next game from independent developer Kenny Sun, who created the sleeper hit Mr. Sun’s Hatbox before. Unlike Sun’s primarily solo previous works, Ball x Pit is being developed by a team of over six developers. There is currently a demo available on Steam, and it appears to be an intriguing combination of base-building and Breakout mechanics.

Hitman’s creators, IOI, then arrived and produced a classic E3-style shambles, complete with awkward pauses, sluggish demos, and repetitious trailers. As someone who has watched game company presentations for the past twenty years or so, I must admit that it was a pleasant nostalgic moment.

With a lengthy preview of the new James Bond-themed Hitman mission, a reveal that Hitman will be available on iOS and tabletops, and a presentation on MindsEye, a game developed by former Grand Theft Auto producer Leslie Benzies and published by IOI, the show did have some real content, aside from the wonder of a presenter attempting to handle everything going wrong.

Saturday, June 7.

Eggs, Camper Van: Make it Home, niche streams, and Monument Valley 3.

We all experienced a strange hangover following the IOI showcase, but the Wholesome Direct arrived on Saturday just in time to relieve it. This year’s Wholesome Direct, which celebrates everything cute, charming, serene, and sweet, featured general news about Monument Valley 3’s arrival to consoles and PC after a period as a Netflix exclusive. The release date for Discounty, a quaint yet twisted shop-management simulation that is as eerie as Wholesome Direct can get, was also announced. Although we’re still unsure if the ominous atmosphere of Discounty is due to demons or simply the specter of capitalism, we do know that the game will be available on PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on August 21.

Omelet You Cook, meanwhile, gave a pleasant little surprise by hitting Steam during the showcase. Making eggs for finicky cafeteria patrons and, of course, winning over Principal Clucker—who is, after all, a chicken—are the goals of the game. It looks delicious, that’s all. Finally, we would like to highlight Camper Van: Make it Home, a game from this year’s Wholesome Direct that perfectly combines interior design elements with slightly scaled-down objects to create an adorable experience. It was released during the showcase and is currently available on Steam.

Watch the entire 2025 Wholesome Direct stream, which included dozens of other announcements. Here, you can do it whenever you want, preferably while cozying up with a blanket and a nice beverage.

Additionally, all of the extremely specialized game streams were at their peak on Saturday. We witnessed the Northeast Asian Games Showcase, the Latin American Games Showcase, the Women-led Games Show, the Green Games Showcase, and the Frosty Games Fest. Celebrate!

June 8th, Sunday.

Black Ops 7, Outer Worlds 2, and a new Xbox handheld.

With its customary breathless showcase, Xbox was the final major event of the weekend. The ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, two new Xbox-focused PC handhelds, were the big news, especially for a publisher like Engadget. On the inside, they resemble ASUS’ ROG Ally handhelds quite a bit, but the grips have been streamlined to make them feel more like an Xbox controller.

Additionally, the software experience differs. Compared to standard Windows handhelds, the Xbox Ally handhelds run Windows 11, but there will be fewer background processes and a generally lower overhead in Microsoft’s version of Steam Big Picture mode. Fortunately, Microsoft is allowing access to other “popular storefronts,” which we interpret to mean Steam and Epic, so it is not locking anything down. Price is a major concern because the ROG Ally is substantially more expensive than the Steam Deck and Switch 2, but the Xbox Ally will be available closer to the holidays. Will these be subsidized by Microsoft, or will they cost between $600 and $800 like ASUS’s own-brand versions?

Just a quick reprimand to Microsoft for showcasing the new handheld in Hollow Knight: Silksong. This was not helpful, and we’re all starving out here. The fact that it will be playable on the handheld on launch day, I suppose, at least limits the release date to “between now and whenever this thing comes out.”. “.

Outer Worlds 2, which Microsoft had promised would be at the show well in advance, was less of a surprise. In addition to a detailed look at the game’s new systems, we were given an October 29 release date. With a better fighting system and a more developed cast of companions, it appears to be a larger game than the original. We anticipate reporting more on the latest developments soon.

Black Ops 7, a brand-new Call of Duty video game, was the show’s One More Thing. If Microsoft had a handheld device bearing the Xbox logo to flaunt, that would have been a really cool way to cap off the show. Really, is it worth spending your last penny on a game that comes out every year?

These are the other interesting tidbits from the Xbox show that are worth reading.

There will be a PS5, PC, and Xbox version of Persona 4 soon.

It already appears that At Fate’s End will be the must-play independent game of 2026.

Clockwork Revolution’s latest teaser is an incredibly steampunk and crazy experience.

On October 17, the psychedelic island adventure Keeper, developed by Psychonauts, will be released.

The “one-person, one-dog” role-playing game Beast of Reincarnation will be released in 2026.

The Xbox Series X/S unexpectedly gets Final Fantasy 16.

The upcoming Plague Tale prequel from Asobo Studio is scheduled for release in 2026.

The others are Blippo+ and Paralives.

Although Paralives has been in development for what seems like an eternity, you will be able to play it this year when it launches on early access on December 8. The latest trailer for the independent version of The Sims looks incredibly charming, and I am really looking forward to it.

Since its debut with Playdate season 2, Blippo+ has been a fantastic diversion. On Sunday, we learned that it will soon be available on other platforms, including the PC and Nintendo Switch, in full color, no less.

Monday, June 9.

You’ve all caught up now. On Monday, the Black Voices in Gaming showcase is the only event scheduled. We’ve included the steam below for your enjoyment, and it begins at noon ET.