Summer Game Fest officially began yesterday (June 10) with a special Kickoff Live event.
Over nearly two hours, the livestream, hosted by Geoff Keighley, was crammed with surprise guests, live musical performances, and of course new game announcements, including world premieres.
Kicking things off was Gearbox’s unveiling of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, a spin-off from the Borderlands series.
It was described as a “high fantasy take on a looter shooter” and was confirmed to not take place in the Borderlands universe.
It will however a voice cast of numerous well-known names, including Andy Samberg, Wanda Sykes, Will Arnett, and Ashley Burch. The latter of which has voiced Tiny Tina since the Borderlands series began.
Metal Slug Tactics was announced for PC with a gameplay trailer. A spin-off from SNK’s original run-and-gun series.
According to its Steam page, this new game transforms the “the emblematic run’n’gun and jump into a dynamic tactical RPG with roguelike elements”.
It’s being published by Dotemu, who are well versed in reviving classic Japanese franchises, including last year’s Streets of Rage 4, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge, inspired by Konami’s side-scrolling arcade classic.
Hideo Kojima made a guest appearance on the stream, via a pre-recorded interview, to announce that Death Stranding: Director’s Cut is coming to PS5.
Before this reveal, Kojima talked in vague terms about the future of his work at Kojima Productions after the pandemic, saying, “I’ve been re-thinking my creative process, I guess all creators are thinking the same way. I think that this is a big assignment for us.”
While there is not yet news on the next mainline instalment of Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Warzone confirmed Season 4 is coming next week on June 17.
The popular battle royale game will introduce more weapons, a host of returning maps, as well as new content for Zombies mode.
Jeff Goldblum, star of Jurassic Park, also made a surprise appearance to announce Jurassic World Evolution 2, a sequel to the original 2018 game.
Featuring his narration in the new trailer, Goldblum will reprise his role as Ian Malcolm, a character from both the films and the original Jurassic World Evolution.
While big blockbuster announcements dominated the event, indies also got a look in. Via a live performance from Japanese Breakfast, open world adventure Sable had it release date confirmed for September 23.
It was later also confirmed, along with isometric action adventure game Tunic, to feature among more than 40 free game demos coming to Xbox’s Summer Games Fest Demo Event next week.
Solar Ash also received a new trailer showing off its stylish platform-based gameplay. There could be even more footage to come soon as publisher Annapurna Interactive also announced its own showcase next month.
Another indie highlight came from Swedish developer Wishfully Studios, who unveiled a trailer for Planet Of Lana, a “cinematic puzzle adventure”, with a release planned for 2022.
PlayStation’s Shuhei Yoshida also made a quest appearance on behalf of indies coming to PlayStation, spotlighting painting adventure game Chicory: A Colorful Tale, which released yesterday (June 10).
But he also revealed a trailer for a brand new title, Salt And Sacrifice for PS4 and PS5, a sequel to the hardcore Salt And Sanctuary.
While still a 2D side scroller as with its predecessor, this game also features local and online co-op, and is set to release in 2022.
While Koch Media‘s Primetime Gaming stream is happening later today, the company unveiled its new publishing label Prime Matter, at the same time as unveiling a variety of games including Payday 3 and a new Painkiller game.
Highly anticipated first-person shooter Escape From Tarkov received a new trailer for its Streets of Tarkov map.
Bloodhunt, a new battle royale, was also revealed, which is set in the Vampire: The Masquerade universe.
Set in the city of Prague, the third-person battle royale is expected to release on Steam in late 2021, which sign-ups open for the closed alpha test planned for July 2.
Ahead of Capcom’s E3 showcase on Monday, June 14, a new story trailer for Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin was also shown. The game launches globally on July 9 on Nintendo Switch and PC.
Also due to hold a its own showcase on next week on Tuesday, July 15, Bandai Namco had a couple new trailers, first for Tales of Arise, as well as the first official trailer for the next instalment of The Dark Pictures Anthology, House of Ashes.
The third instalment of the planned eight-part anthology features a group of five soldiers trapped in an underground Sumerian tomb during the Iraq War, and their attempts to escape the supernatural forces within. The game will release on October 21.
After a previous leak, Sega officially announced Two Point Campus, a follow-up to its hospital management sim Two Point Hospital.
This game will task the player with building and running their own university campus environment, where decisions will shape the lives of the students they enrol along with the staff they hire.
Another studio from the publisher, Amplitude Studios, also revealed a new trailer for the upcoming Endless Dungeon. It was accompanied with an instructional voice-over, emphasising the importance of teamwork.
After announcing a change of structure from 6v6 to 5v5 for multiplayer, there weren’t many new details for Overwatch 2. Nonetheless, the new game director Aaron Keller joined Keighley on stage to show off new skins for Sombra and Baptiste.
Amazon announced that it is bringing popular Korean MMORPG Lost Ark to North America and Europe.
Christoph Hartmann, VP at Amazon Games said, “With Lost Ark, Smilegate RPG has created an incredibly deep online experience that players will return to for years to come; it is our privilege to bring this action RPG to new audiences in North America and Europe for the first time.”
An update also came from Innersloth, who provided a content roadmap for Among Us. The massively popular game will be receiving a hide-and-seek mode, new purchasable cosmetics, as well as a 15-player mode.
Another surprise came courtesy of Fall Guys, which announced NieR: Automata‘s 2B as its latest crossover costume.
Premiering their brand new song “Tell Me What You Want” from @WaveBreakGame, this is @Weezer! #SummerGameFest pic.twitter.com/SBVvTGiAeR
— Summer Game Fest – LIVE Today! (@summergamefest) June 10, 2021
Another live performance also came courtesy of Weezer, who debuted new song ‘Tell Me What You Want’, which features as a level in indie developer Funktronic Labs game Wave Break.
Out today (June 11) on PC and Nintendo Switch, it’s described as “the world’s first skateBOATING game, inspired by arcade skateboarding classics”.
Saber Interactive also revealed a new, extended and violent trailer for Evil Dead: The Game, featuring narration from Bruce Campbell, who has played the character of Ash since the original 1981 Evil Dead film.
Players will explore recognisable locales from across the Evil Dead movies and TV show while on the hunt for pages from the Necronomicon. It’s set to launch in 2021.
But just when it appeared everything had wrapped up for the evening, Keighley had one final world premiere. Finally, Elden Ring got its first-ever gameplay footage, with a release date confirmed for January 21, 2022.
A creative collaboration between Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin, Elden Ring has been hotly anticipated since an early announcement in 2019, but with no new information until now – although there reports of the trailer leaking earlier this year.
After the Kickoff Live event, there were even more game announcements to look forward to, as Day Of The Devs had a huge showcase of indie games.
There are still many more game announcements to come during E3 and Summer Games Fest, including Koch Media’s Primetime Gaming stream tonight (June 11).
Check out NME’s E3 Hub for rumours, schedules, and news.
The post Everything you missed from Summer Game Fest’s Kickoff Live stream appeared first on NME.
