Keighley declares devs have more ways than ever to be ‘sustainable’ at Summer Game Fest

It’s Friday night and another Summer Game Fest has come and gone. This year, Geoff Keighley wowed players with trailers that we now know run in the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. But developers who ponied up probably got their money’s worth, what with the high-value production effort and the millions of viewers following along on YouTube and Twitch.

Once you’re done calculating the total revenue, you no doubt are interested in the major trends that ran through Keighley’s megapromo telethon. For the first time since the game industry’s layoff spree beginning in 2023, he acknowledged the ongoing layoffs—before immediately pivoting to praising the power of “newer, smaller creators,” pointing to a list of 2024’s most popular new games on Steam (which included games like Balatro, Hades II, and Palworld) as a sign of the industry’s health.

“It’s a reminder that developers need to treat their developers right, because there are so many paths to sustainability and success,” he boasted.

Sony’s unveiling of LEGO Horizon Adventures, as a day-one cross-platform release on PC, Steam, and PS5 shone a spotlight on how PC and Nintendo Switch are drawing more interest from Microsoft and PlayStation, who have spent the last year lowering their platform-exclusive walls.

Firaxis’ announcement that Sid Meier’s Civilization VII would launch on consoles the same day as PC also showed publishers’ hunger to get games in front of as many players as possible as soon as possible.

Innersloth also showed up to directly acknowledge the industry’s woes and unveil a new publishing label called “Outersloth,” a moment that showed how much Summer Game Fest—and the industry—need indie devs to push themselves forward.

What were the biggest Summer Game Fest announcements?

Despite taking place in the week that would normally host the now-deceased E3, the broadcast contained few high-profile announcements of new games. That said, studios like Sony used the show to show off a Horizon spinoff, and Take-Two unveiled the next entry in the Side Meier’s Civilization series.

The remainder of the broadcast showcased an impressive roster of indie and double-A games. Blumhouse Games and new publisher Outersloth Games were given time to show unveil their first slates of published titles, putting a bit more space between promotions for already-announced titles.

It’s a lineup that captures the conundrum facing the industry at this moment. The games above all look incredible. But that won’t stop the tough economic conditions putting many developers out of work.