Summer Game Fest 2024: all the news, trailers, and announcements

The reveal of Assassin’s Creed Shadows mostly focused on its story, characters, and setting. But a new trailer gives a better idea of how the game will actually play. The lengthy gameplay overview, which clocks in at around 12 minutes long, shows off the game’s sprawling rendition of Japan, while also detailing the different skills and approaches of its two playable leads. It’s also very bloody.

This is the game’s second gameplay trailer in as many days. Ubisoft also released a shorter clip during the Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday:

We’re getting very close to the launch of Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft’s Grand Theft Auto-style take on a galaxy far, far away. Which means it’s a good time for another trailer detailing the sorts of criminal escapades players can get into. The new overview focused primarily on the different Star Wars locations you’ll be exploring and the various not exactly legal missions you’ll take on. Among various aspects featured are dealing with the Hutts, riding a speeder bike, and finding new recruits for your scoundrel gang.

You can get a quicker taste of the gameplay in the video above, or check out this 10-minute-long deep dive:

It’s a mad world once again. At its Xbox Games Showcase at Summer Game Fest, Microsoft revealed the latest entry in the sci-fi shooter series: Gears of War E-Day. It’s being developed by The Coalition, Xbox’s internal studio dedicated to all things Gears. The game doesn’t currently have a release date, but it being built on Unreal Engine 5.

The announcement trailer harkens back to the classic “Mad World” commercial for the original Gears. Fittingly, E-Day is set 14 years before the first Gears, and “tells the story of the first Locust emergence on Sera.” It once again stars Marcus Fenix and is being billed as an origin story.

Microsoft is making the white version of the Xbox Series X official today. The new console option won’t include a disc drive, and will be entirely all-digital. Inside it’s identical to the Xbox Series X, with the same performance for existing Xbox games. This new white model will be available with 1TB of storage later this year, priced at $449.99.

Xbox president Sarah Bond revealed the new white Xbox Series X during the Xbox Games Showcase today, alongside a 2TB “Galaxy Black” version of the original Xbox Series X. There’s also a $349.99 1TB Xbox Series S coming in white, too.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is arriving on Xbox and PC on November 12th. The next installment in the legendary franchise will include hot air balloon trips, aerial firefighting, and much more.

During the Xbox Games Showcase, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 developer Asobo showed off commercial flight, air ambulances, and even aerial advertising. Asobo has been working on adding a variety of new planes to the game, and you’ll even be able to fly as part of a search and rescue team, or help with agricultural aviation and aerial firefighting. Asobo has also been working on additions like air racing, skydive aviation, and even VIP chartered services.

Microsoft is officially putting a release window on Fable, which is now set to arrive at some point in 2025. After an initial trailer at last year’s Xbox summer showcase, today, we got to see some early gameplay.

The new footage was mostly focused on the characters and story of the fantasy game. Fable will be centered on a hero named Humphry, who “will be forced out of retirement when a mysterious figure from his past threatens Albion’s very existence.” It appears that choice will once again play a big part in the experience, though not a lot of hard details have been revealed about the game just yet.

It’s been four years since we first found out that a new Perfect Dark game was on the way, and now Microsoft has revealed the first gameplay during the Xbox Games Showcase today.

The new Perfect Dark is a reboot of the original game, being developed by The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics. In the gameplay trailer we got a first look at Joanna Dark in a near-future Cairo setting. “Team Perfect Dark has pulled inspiration from elements of the first two games, but crafted an entirely new story and universe around them for this reboot,” says Xbox wire editor in chief Joe Skrebels.

The Fallout games have seen a big boost in popularity since the live-action TV series, and Fallout 76 is primed to take advantage of that with its next major expansion. It’s called Skyline Valley, and for the first time, it will actually expand the game’s map, introducing a new Shenandoah region in the south. Bethesda says that players will “investigate the cause of an electrical storm circling overhead and unveil the mystery around Vault 63 where they will meet its dwellers and discover a shocking new Ghoul type – The Lost.”

You can get a feel for the expansion in the trailer above, though it won’t be long before you can play it, as Skyline Valley launches on June 12th. The trailer also teased a much-requested feature coming to the game in early 2025: you’ll finally be able to play as a ghoul, though maybe not one quite as cool as The Ghoul.

Bethesda’s sci-fi universe is about to get bigger. Bethesda has finally unveiled Shattered Space, the first major expansion for Starfield, which comes nearly a year after the open-world RPG debuted. Based on the first trailer, it has a much darker tone than the main Starfield campaign. No release date was revealed, but it’s coming sometime in 2024.

Here’s the official premise:

The rumors were true: the next Doom is heading to a dark fantasy realm. At Xbox’s big June showcase event, id Software officially unveiled the next entry in the demonic shooter series, which is called Doom: The Dark Ages. As the name implies, it takes the franchise back to a medieval-like era, with the slayer killing enemies in a more fantasy realm. In that way, it seems to serve as a prequel of sorts. It still looks as gruesome and gory as ever, though. Also, you can fly on some kind of cyberpunk dragon.

The game is launching in 2025, and will be coming to Xbox (including Game Pass), PC, and PS5.

Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will debut on October 25th. The next installment in the popular franchise will be set in the early ’90s, and it will launch day one on Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service. Developed by Treyarch and Raven Software, Black Ops 6 will include a new campaign, a multiplayer mode with 16 new maps at launch, and a new zombies experience.

The main campaign is set after Black Ops Cold War and even includes flashbacks to Black Ops 2. It’s all set in the early 1990s during the end of the Cold War. Raven Software has developed the campaign, which includes immersive spy missions amid government conspiracies. The game will be set across Southern Europe, the Russian Tundra, the US, and the Middle Eastern desert.

Microsoft is back with another Xbox Games Showcase this year, and this time around, there’s a Call of Duty direct straight after the main show. This is Microsoft’s first Xbox Games Showcase to feature games from across Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda, and Xbox Game Studios, as well as third-party titles.

I think this is going to be a big Xbox showcase, with a runtime that could approach the two-hour mark. Get ready for new game reveals, lots of release dates, and some potential surprises.

Despite its cozy appearance, Wholesome Direct 2024 is actually shaping up to be the most packed event of Summer Game Fest. The hour-long presentation featured more than 70 different games. Some were brand-new announcements, some were previously known games that got a fresh trailer or release date, and a handful of titles even launched during the event.

Now, 70 is a large number, so to help, I’ve curated the games that stood out to me the most. You can also watch the full presentation right here to soak in every detail. Even better: many of the games have demos on Steam that you can check out. Anyway, here are my picks, in no particular order.

Devolver Digital’s keynote events tend to be, let’s say, unique. And the publisher’s presence at Summer Game Fest 2024 was no exception. Like last year, Devolver focused on just a handful of really interesting indie games, which ranged from a game about fighting through an interdimensional catastrophe to an expansion that somehow makes Cult of the Lamb even weirder. There was both a first-person kicker and a thirst-person shooter. If you missed it live, here are all the reveals.

A slick side-scrolling action game from the creators of Solar Ash and the Hyper Light games, Possessor looks absolutely gorgeous. It also sounds like it’ll be plenty challenging. Here’s the official setup:

The Day of the Devs showcase hosted by iam8bit is, to me, far more exciting than the main Summer Game Fest presentation. While it is fun to get hyped for the big releases, Day of the Devs represents something more concrete. The games featured get their own mini-spotlights with developer commentary and gameplay videos. It gives viewers a clearer picture of what these games are about, especially compared to the seconds-long (and apparently exorbitantly expensive) sizzle reels or teaser trailers shown during the Keigh-3 keynote. My only problem, though, is that there are a lot of games to get excited about, making it hard to narrow it down to the 10 best.

Rock climbing isn’t my thing. In fact, it looks terrifying, and that terror is what makes Cairn look so interesting. In Cairn, you must reach the summit of Mount Kami one piton at a time. You can climb anywhere, but just like in real mountain climbing, you’ll often face sheer walls and unpassable overhangs that force you to find another way up. One of the things I was immediately drawn to was the way the character’s legs shake as they climb, giving the game an air of urgency and danger that I want to experience for myself.