Here’s how Geoff Keighley aims to improve on 2020’s neverending summer of not-E3

I’m super grateful to all the organizations and games companies that did their level best to provide convention entertainment last summer when the pandemic closed everything down, but even I have to admit that it wasn’t exactly thrilling; I believe we referred to it as the “neverending summer of not-E3.” We’re facing down a similar prospect once again this summer as companies around the world are clearly unwilling to shove everyone into crowded spaces before the pandemic is remotely over, but the digital shows will be a little different. As Geoff Keighley explains in a new GIbiz interview, his all-season-long Summer Games Fest has picked up what is essentially a pre-E3 announcement show Kick Off Live, slated for June 10th, and will hopefully serve as the buzz-generation machine sorely missing last year.

“[T]he feedback from everyone is that they want these games shows all together,” Keighley says. “So, now we are going to just do a big full-on show for Summer Games Fest that leads into the big publisher events. Which is hopefully more of what people wanted, where things are more condensed and combined together.”

Of note for MMO fans, Amazon, Blizzard, Square Enix, and Frontier are all on Keighley’s docket, in addition to the usual behemoths like Riot, Steam, Sega, Tencent, Activision, and EA.