Over the past few weeks, the gaming world has been under an onslaught of news, due to the yearly collection of summer showcases. As industry titans like Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft, and more offer presentations on the upcoming projects of 2024 and beyond, gamers can’t help but salivate at all the new content just on the horizon. With a proverbial flood of announcements to discuss, let’s get straight into the biggest news from the 2024 gaming summer showcases!
Sony State of Play
Sony kept things relatively low-key for their summer PlayStation presentation, offering updates on existing titles and a handful of announcements. Two brand new games were revealed, including a first-person hero shooter called Concord from first-party developer, Firewalk Studio. The other new title is Dynasty Warriors: Origins, a flashy installment in the legendary musou action franchise.
Horror fans should be happy to hear that the Silent Hill 2 remake will be launching on October 8, 2024, but that’s not the only big release happening this fall. PC fans will finally be able to get their hands on God of War: Ragnarok, as the big-budget sequel hits Steam on September 19, 2024. After such a big year of first-party releases in 2023, it makes sense that this year would be quiet for Sony. However, fans can expect a few more “State of Play” presentations before the year is up.
2024 Summer Game Fest
Geoff Keighley (that guy who runs The Video Game Awards) put on a presentation of his own to kick off the showcase season, the 2024 Summer Game Fest. As far as game showcases go, it was par for the course, with several cryptic teaser trailers and some truly surprising reveals.
The biggest announcement of the night had to be the premiere of Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, a huge sequel in the strategy genre that’s hitting PC sometime in 2025. However, there were plenty of other big-budget reveals, like Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, a brand new expansion for Alan Wake II, and the release date of Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero(October 11, 2024).
Indie games were also out in full force, with several first looks at brand new upcoming titles. The animated rogue-lite hack and slash game Tears of Metal looks to offer a mix of resource management and frenzied action, while ominous tones brew beneath the surface of a new tea shop management title, Wanderstop. More offbeat experiences await in the mountain climbing adventure, CAIRN, a retro-inspired beat ’em up Power Rangers game, and a bizarre multiplayer prison break called Cuffbust. The 2024 Summer Game Fest might not have had as many massive reveals as fans might’ve wanted, but there was more than enough to make it worth the watch.
Ubisoft Forward 2024
Ubisoft continued the traditional in-studio keynote format with their Ubisoft Forward show, spending roughly an hour discussing a handful of titles, with a focus on their various live-service games over new projects. The show opened with a 20-minute look at the upcoming Star Wars: Outlaws, the open-world, third-person action game where you play as a criminal scoundrel who scours the galaxy for loot and fame. Release day is just around the corner too, as Star Wars: Outlaws launches on August 30, 2024.
Live-service games XDefiant, Skull & Bones, and The Crew MotorFest received new trailers detailing the latest seasonal content, but there was one traditional DLC announcement. The FPS adventure, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora gets its first story pack, The Sky Breaker, on July 16, 2024. There was also a small celebration for the 35th anniversary of thePrince of Persia franchise, with an ultra-quick teaser for the constantly delayed Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake (now slated for 2026).
However, that was mostly overshadowed by the presentation on Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, which occupied the final 15 minutes of the showcase. Set in 16th-century Japan, this latest installment in the open-world action franchise features two distinct playable protagonists: the stealthy assassin, Naoe, and the burly warrior, Yasuke. Assassin’s Creed: Shadows will arrive just in time for the holiday season on November 12, 2024.
Xbox Games Showcase 2024
Out of all the summer showcases, Microsoft offered the biggest buffet of announcements in their yearly Xbox Games Showcase. Running over an hour long and featuring nearly three dozen titles, fans were granted a look at long-awaited sequels, received a slew of release dates, and several world premieres.
In terms of triple-A releases, we got a first proper look at Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, as well as updates on the first-person RPG, Avowed, blockbuster adventure, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and the post-apocalyptic FPS, Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, to name a few. There was also a trio of RPG expansions revealed, including Starfield: Shattered Space, Fallout 76: Skyline Valley, and World of Warcraft: The War Within. All of the aforementioned games and DLCs are either out now or will be available in 2024.
Looking further into 2025 and beyond, several upcoming games were announced, with DOOM: The Dark Ages and Gears of War: E-Day being the biggest of the bunch. New IPs like the turn-based RPG Expedition 33, survival FPS Atomfall, and hack ‘n slasher South of Midnight also turned heads, while new trailers for first-party games like Fable and Perfect Darkkept the hype levels high. Excelling with both variety and quality, Microsoft had a stellar showing, arguably outshining the entire competition.
Overall, the summer of 2024 has been a somewhat reserved season for gaming, at least when you compare it to the bombastic showcases of years past. With many projects still in early development, this has been a recovery year for most studios as they gear up for the second half of this console generation. Luckily, at least a few companies had interesting content on offer this summer, keeping us eager for the games of the future. That said, Nintendo still hasn’t delivered their expected Direct presentation yet, so there could still be a few major announcements in the coming weeks. Even so, if the summer showcases of this year were any indication, 2025 and 2026 should be particularly good for hot new game releases.
Short author bio:
Matt Owen
As a lifelong gamer and overall media fiend, Matt gets his hands on every new game and watches an unhealthy amount of movies and TV: action, horror, mystery, and sci-fi in particular. When not bingeing on entertainment, he enjoys reading and writing short stories, cooking, and producing video and podcast content.