Summer Games Fest 2025: A Recap
The gaming industry is still buzzing weeks after this year’s Summer Games Fest which delivered two hours packed with trailer after trailer for heavy-hitters like Resident Evil: Requiem, Lego Party!, and Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver.
Since it launched in 2020 and effectively replaced E3, Summer Games Fest has become the unofficial pulse check of the gaming world. Hosted by veteran game journalist Geoff Keighley, the main event showcases the industry’s most anticipated upcoming releases, followed by a “Day of the Devs,” a segment that promotes indie titles.
This year, it wasn’t just a parade of big-name franchises. The show also gave us a glimpse into where the gaming industry is headed next. Clue: it’s all about the underdogs.
Much Awaited Releases
From long-awaited sequels to unexpected crossovers, the main showcase delivered a steady stream of high-profile reveals and franchise revivals. Here’s a quick look at our top picks:
Galactic Battle V: Death Star Sabotage (Battle Royale) kicked things off with a June 7 release date and a bold promise to reinvent the classic sci-fi franchise as a high-stakes multiplayer experience. Meanwhile, Death Stranding II: On The Beach returned with a cinematic trailer introduced by Hideo Kojima, reminding everyone why he’s still gaming’s reigning auteur of the weird.
Sonic fans were treated to Sonic Racing CrossWorlds ft. Hatsune Miku, dropping September 25, 2025. Plus we got a bonus tease of a new Minecraft game, set to be revealed later this year.
Mafia: The Old Country, arriving August 8, 2025, takes the series back to its roots with a 1920s Sicily-set prequel, promising richer storytelling and a more expansive open world than ever before.
Deadpool, coming in late 2025, brought the laughs, and the fourth-wall breaks, in a bloody, and classically irreverent trailer.
Firstlight 007, which explores James Bond’s origins before formally becoming the 007 we know, is set to be released in 2026. Mads Mikkelsen, the actor behind the iconic character of Le Chiffre, teased his character’s multi-layered nature in the trailer for HITMAN: Elusive Target, slated for this summer.
Fighting game fans got a pleasant surprise with Street Fighter 6: Years 1–2, now live with new characters, mechanics, and ongoing content drops. And of course, Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver showed off its genius blending of hip-hop culture with kung fu cinema, a wild combo that somehow works.
From Capcom, Onimusha: Way of the Sword brought a stylish return to form for the iconic samurai action series, now confirmed for 2026. Most anticipated of all, Resident Evil 9: Requiem closed the show with a bone-chilling trailer and a firm release date: February 27, 2026.
Indie Games Stole the Show
While the AAA titles brought the flash, the real heartbeat of the event came from the indie scene.
This year’s Fest showed that the future of gaming doesn’t just belong to billion-dollar franchises; it belongs to bold, creative ideas, most of which are coming from independent studios.
Some of the top-selling games on Steam this year weren’t developed in well-funded studios with hundreds of employees, but in humble setups with teams of thirty or fewer.
Take R.E.P.O. as a prime example: a gritty, fast-paced extraction shooter built by a passionate group of ten developers in Upsala, Sweden. It dominated sales charts earlier this year with 13 million units sold and had a cult-like following weeks before it was even finished.
Or Schedule 1, an open-world crime drama made by a solo dev in Australia. No backing from a major publisher, just raw talent and a fresh take on a genre we thought we’d seen it all in.
Keighley also spotlighted Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 during the event. It earned the highest user Metacritic score ever for a game, an incredible feat for a team of under 30. As Keighley said, “It’s inspiring that these indie creations stand side by side with heavyweights like Monster Hunter: Wilds and the Oblivion remake… With digital distribution and engines like Unreal, today’s most innovative projects increasingly emerge from outside the traditional publisher system.”
And it makes sense. Big studios are often tied to established franchises and the need for safe returns. It’s why we’re seeing riskier, more emotionally resonant storytelling come from outside the system.
This year’s showcase made that point loud and clear. Out of Words (coming 2026) stood out with its hand-crafted stop-motion animation and heartfelt co-op gameplay. Acts of Blood (Summer 2026) brought gritty, hand-to-hand combat to the forefront, built by a first-time developer and nine friends, set in their hometown in Indonesia. Then there’s Felt That Boxing, a weirdly hilarious (and strangely touching?) puppet-based boxing game where you fight to save the orphanage you grew up in from demolition. It’s goofy, it’s creative, and it absolutely blew up online with gamers buzzing about its distinct visual style and refreshingly original concept.
Behind the Indie Boom: What’s Fueling the Trend?
So what’s the catalyst behind this trend? For one, tools like Unity and Unreal Engine have never been more accessible, and digital distribution platforms have leveled the playing field. But it also seems that gamers are hungry for new experiences, ones that challenge conventions, explore untold stories, or just do something weird and wonderful.
That’s not to say AAA gaming is dead, far from it. The crowd erupted when Capcom dropped the Resident Evil 9 trailer, and rightly so. These games are stunning, polished, and still very much at the center of the industry.
But this year proved that indie games aren’t just along for the ride– they’re driving the future of gaming.
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