As we attempt to pin down the character of a weeklong period of game announcements and demos, there’s a tendency for the collective memory to settle on a single line. “You’re breathtaking”, or “My body is ready”, or “This is how you share your games on PS4”. It’s perhaps appropriate that the equivalent words in 2022 weren’t uttered on any conference stage but rather on a Twitter audio livestream, before the sprawl of events and showcases had even begun: “Manage your expectations”.
A stark warning, especially from Geoff Keighley, a man whose name has become synonymous with hype. And when Keighley’s Summer Game Fest kickoff show airs a week later, it’s clear just how much he meant it. There’s the unmistakable impression of a show struggling to fill the two-hour slot to which it has already committed – something which is, admittedly, a bit of a relief for those of us in the air during its broadcast, as we discover that its entire contents can be scrubbed through in roughly the time it takes to pass LAX customs. Watched in this fashion, the show becomes one long blur of grey steel corridors, body-horror aliens and sluggish on-stage interviews, all leading, surely, towards the inevitable ‘one more thing’ bombshell.
Of course, it never comes. Instead, we’re treated to the (already leaked) announcement of a Last Of Us remake and lengthy examinations of a still of its TV adaptation and a single piece of key art for a new, standalone multiplayer spin on the sequel. And we’re not the only ones disappointed, it seems.But, as the man himself acknowledged in the replies to that poll, he doesn’t make the games. The showcase – the entire month of them, in fact, mostly huddled under the umbrella of ‘Summer Game Fest’ for lack of a better name – is naturally at the mercy of the industry’s current situation, as it continues to wrestle with the long-term impact of COVID.
