Summer Game Fest 2024 and not-E3 schedule

Summer Game Fest 2024 returns to take up the mantle of E3, now that the annual expo is gone for good after a run of almost two decades.

The good news, however, is gaming’s biggest conference season isn’t going anywhere. Though the Summer Game Fest showcase is headlining, the likes of Xbox, Ubisoft, and Devolver are all returning to offer a week-long burst of news and announcements.

In this guide, we’ll run down the Summer Game Fest 2024 conference schedule, with dates and times across time zones in North America and Europe, and what to expect from each one.

Summer Game Fest 2024 schedule and all conference times

Here is when every conference will go live over the “E3” conference period. The bulk of the shows will take place around the second weekend of June, headlined by Summer Game Fest on Friday, June 7, and continuing until Monday with the likes of Ubisoft.

By the time Summer Game Fest starts, Sony’s annual summer State of Play will have happened (on Thursday, May 30). We are still waiting for Nintendo to set a date for its June direct (as confirmed on a post on X). Based on previous years, they should fall within the same week as the below – unless one platform holder wants to take the spotlight later in the month.

Thursday, June 6

Though Friday is technically the start of Summer Game Fest, props to Guerrilla Collective (10 a.m. PDT / 1 p.m. EDT, streaming on YouTube / Twitch) for stealing a march on Geoff Keighley with an indie-focused showcase that’s now in its fifth year. Expect “big new game announcements, reveals, trailer premieres, fresh gameplay,” with the likes of Slime Heroes from Whitehorn Games, Neon Blood from ChaoticBrain Studios, and Deathbound from Trialforge Studio confirmed to be showing up.

Friday, June 7

Image: Summer Game Fest/Polygon

Friday is technically the start of Summer Game Fest, with the Access-Ability Summer Showcase (8 a.m. PDT / 11 a.m. EDT, streaming on YouTube / Twitch) beginning proceedings to highlight games by game developers with disabilities, and games with features and settings designed with players with disabilities in mind.

Whitethorn Games (publisher of Botany Manor), Playtonic (Yooka-Laylee creator and publisher of upcoming rogue-like Elsie), and Fiction Factory Games (Arcade Spirits) are all confirmed to be in the mix so far, with showrunner Laura Kate Dale explaining that “our aim is to make sure that if a game looks exciting, you don’t have to worry about getting hyped, only to learn later that a game doesn’t support your needs as a player.”

Following that a few hours later is the big one: the Summer Game Fest showcase (2 p.m. PDT / 5 p.m. EDT, streaming on YouTube / Twitch). There are 55 partners signed up; how many of these will actually appear in the conference is uncertain, but since previous iterations of this event have run for at least a couple of hours, expect a fair few to show up. While specific reveals are under wraps at the time of this writing, we know 2K will at least “reveal the next iteration” in one of its franchises during the show. Any guesses?

As tradition, the Summer Game Fest stream will immediately run into Double Fine and 8bit’s Day of the Devs (exact time TBC, streaming through the same feed as Summer Game Fest). Karma: The Dark World, Phoenix Spring, and Derek Yu’s UFO 50 will make an appearance, among various new reveals.

Finally, Friday ends with Devolver Direct (5 p.m. PDT / 8 p.m. EDT, streaming on YouTube / Twitch). Once famously hosted in a parking lot across the street from E3 (to physically emphasize the contrast between events), the oddball developer eschewed that stunt last year — and there’s no word yet on if it’ll revive this year. With E3 dead, though, it’s unlikely. Anyway, expect lots of offbeat indies at this showcase.

Saturday, June 8

Image: Glitch

The Saturday of not-E3 2024 is packed with back-to-back shows. Let’s break it down:

• First up is the Future of Play Direct (8 a.m. PDT / 11 p.m. EDT, streaming on YouTube). Hosted by the V-tuber A.I. broadcaster Melios, no games have been announced yet. But if you miss the showcase, Glitch, the organizer of the event, said a setlist will be available via its social media channels after the event wraps.
• That’s immediately followed by Wholesome Direct (9 a.m. PDT / 12 p.m. EDT, streaming on YouTube / Twitch), a showcase focused on cozy games. For an example of what to expect, in previous years, Wholesome Direct has featured the likes of Moonglow Bay, Bear and Breakfast, and Pupperazzi.
• The Latin America Games Showcase (10 a.m. PDT / 1 p.m. EDT, streaming on YouTube / Twitch) comes right on the heels of Wholesome Direct, and puts a spotlight on games developed in Latin America. More than 45 games are planned to appear at the event; you can see the whole list here.
• Shortly after that comes Women-led Games Summer Games Fest (11:30 a.m. PDT / 2.30 p.m. EDT, streaming on YouTube / Twitch). With a focus on games developed studios that are either led by or are majority staffed by women, Women-Led Games hosts a number of showcases per year. You can see the one from March 2024 here.
• Finally, the day wraps with the Future Games Show (12 p.m. PDT / 3 p.m. EDT, streaming on YouTube / Twitch). Unaffiliated with the earlier Future of Play event, the Future Games Show is GamesRadar’s annual not-E3 event. This year, it’s hosted by Red Dead Redemption 2’s Arthur Clark and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s Britt Baron.

Sunday, June 9

Image: Microsoft

Headlining Sunday is the Xbox Games Showcase (9 a.m. PDT / 12 p.m. EDT, streaming on YouTube / Twitch). This is Microsoft’s first showcase since its nearly $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard was finalized. Since then, Microsoft has closed studios and laid off nearly 2,000 employees across its gaming department. This, of course, is the giant elephant in the room. While the matter likely won’t be addressed during the show, it will no doubt overshadow rumored announcements of things like a new entry in the Doom series or a potential reveal of an all-digital Xbox Series X.

Following the Xbox Games Showcase, Microsoft will host the Black Ops 6 Direct (exact time TBC, streaming through the same feed as Xbox). Immediately after its 2023 showcase, Microsoft held a 45-minute, in-depth stream for Bethesda’s Starfield; it’s safe to assume the Black Ops 6 Direct will be along the same lines. As with all of Microsoft’s first-party games to date, Black Ops 6 will launch “day one” on Game Pass.

The Xbox-centric series of events is followed by the PC Gaming Show (1 p.m. PDT / 4 p.m. EDT, streaming on YouTube / Twitch). Hosted by PC Gamer, the show will feature 50 games plus interviews with developers, though the publication hasn’t yet announced who will be partaking.

Monday, June 10

Image: Ubisoft

As of this writing, not-E3 wraps up with Ubisoft Forward (TBC, streaming on YouTube / Twitch). The purveyor of icon-saturated map games already has a heavy slate in the fall, with the likes of Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Expect more details about both games. Less likely? An update on Beyond Good & Evil 2, which has been infamously (and very publicly) mired in development hell for years. But hey, anything can happen!