Author: faz_business

Summer Game Fest just wrapped up its sixth year and, like a beautifully cel-shaded version of The Blob, the show just keeps on growing. 

The official Summer Game Fest 2026 showcase took place on June 5, but the surrounding buffet of new game reveals, release date announcements, review opportunities and developer spotlights actually ran from June 1 all the way to June 9. That’s more than an entire week of near-constant video game news and trailers to consume, and here we’ve gathered absolutely all of it in one tidy but lengthy package. We hope you’re hungry.

First up, a collection of Engadget’s previews and reporting from Summer Game Fest Play Days in Los Angeles, which ran from June 6-8:

And now, everything else.

Be like Carl from Summer House and get in the MIX with another high-energy stream filled with great-looking upcoming indie games, gathered by the folks at the Media Indie Exchange. The MIX hosts a smattering of annual online indie showcases, and alongside in-person events, they’ve been spreading the good gaming word for the past 10 years.

The MIX Summer Game Showcase 2026 had more than 60 games from all types of genres, including quaint life sims, surreal adventures, fighting games, twitchy platformers and cute little otter things. In the horror category, the show featured Lucid Falls, Agnii, Un:Me, Broken Lore: Don’t Lie, Echograph, Feed It, Kumarn, Out Fishing, Beyond the Dark: Nightwatch and others, plus it revealed the release date for first-person cardboard shooter Paperhead (September 18). In terms of not-horror, Roverride looks particularly pretty, despite its short tease.

Oddly enough, if you don’t watch this showcase you may end up like Carl from the end of this season’s Summer House. That is, you’ll be a mess. Best not risk it.

Black Voices in Gaming is back with another stellar roundup of video games created by Black artists from around the globe, and this year’s summer showcase had a lot to offer. Fittingly, we got some warm and sunny vibes from RollerGirl, a slice-of-life adventure filled with early-2000s suburban nostalgia and a soundtrack that controls the weather. RollerGirl comes from indie studio Pushing Vertices and it’s up for wishlisting on Steam.

We also saw the cute island builder Ourlands, a hauntingly beautiful “Vampire Soulsvania” Bathory – Heritage of Blood, an ambitious pirate RPG about challenging colonial oppression called Black Sailors: Bay Of All Saints, and a hectic marble-placing game, Oh!Ware, that has some of the most satisfying sound effects we’ve heard in all of the recent showcases (and there have been so many). The fantastical maze game Go North got a release date of July 28, too.

The 2026 Black Voices in Gaming Summer Showcase featured a bunch more rad-looking games from all kinds of genres, plus insightful developer interviews, so make sure to catch it all. The event’s Steam page is also worth a gander.

Black Voices in Gaming first aired in 2022, created by The MIX and Xperience Studios co-founder Justin Woodward. It’s a national 501c3 nonprofit group that not only amplifies the work of Black creators, but also provides financial and production support for developers making games that edify the lived experiences of Black, Indigenous and other People of Color. Just look at the weirdly hateful response to the announcement of a slick new game like Relooted, even in the big year of 2026, and it’s clear why Black creators need and deserve a strong spotlight.

Sony joined the fun of Summer Game Fest with another State of Play showcase packed with AAA delights. The biggest surprise of the show was the reveal of Until Dawn 2, a teenage-slasher sequel coming from Liverpool studio Firesprite, rather than the series originator Supermassive Games. Still, it looks like a campy choose-your-own adventure with lots of sass and blood. 

Here were the highlights from the full showcase:

We’ve since gone hands-on with two of the biggest items from this summer’s State of Play, Silent Hill: Townfall and Control Resonant.

This summer’s Latin American Games Showcase featured more than 80 titles from 12 countries across Latin America, so settle in for a long and lovely watch. Among the deluge of adorable, action-packed, creepy, complex and gorgeous games on display, the show included the world premiere of Ornament Tower, a release date for Kernel Hearts, and a Kickstarter campaign launch for SHADE Protocol. 

Ornament Tower is a retro-styled action-puzzle game from the former lead pixel artist of Fields of Mistria, and it looks divine. Kernel Hearts is an anime-styled, co-op roguelite action RPG starring four magical girls on a quest to save the world, and it’s due out in September. Meanwhile, SHADE Protocol is a 2D Metroidvania with cyberpunk and fantasy aesthetics, and it’s already absolutely smashed its Kickstarter goal.

That’s just three of more than 80 total games in the Latin American Games Showcase, so you know you’re in for a treat with the full stream. The Latin American Games Showcase Steam page and official site have all the details, so give those a browse while the show feeds you its gaming goodies.

The Women-Led Games Showcase contains multitudes, obviously. The summer 2026 edition of the show certainly proved this point with a vibrant swathe of games, including hyper-feminine romps, hard first-person sci-fi, online Millennial role-playing, narrative-driven card games and dark adventures. There’s something here for everyone.

This summer’s Women-Led Games Showcase included the launch of the Steam demo for lily’s world XD. It comes from streamer LilyPichu, and it’s set inside the folders and messages of a teenage girl’s laptop from 2004, transforming from playful sleuthing to psychological horror as you learn more about her life. Everything about this game looks like my jam.

The showcase also provided an in-depth look at Hope in the City, a stylish detective game from Lofty Sky Entertainment, and also Frieda is Changing, a creepy-cute point-and-click adventure from Mucks! Games. We received new demos for Playing Mantis’ Tiny Capsule Collector, an idle game that populates the bottom of your screen with adorable animals and tiny toys, and also Lucky Punk: a push your luck Deckbuilder, which seems like a lot of cross-your-fingers fun. Another sweet-looking idle game called On-Together: Virtual Co-Working pushed a batch of Summer Studies DLC live during the showcase, complete with accessories inspired by the Women-Led Games mascot, Artemis.

That covers just a small portion of the full show, which was absolutely packed with delicious surprises, as always.

Here it is: The big Summer Game Fest 2026 showcase, hosted by Geoff Keighley and Lucy James, live from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Tupac even made an appearance, weirdly enough.

Enjoy the experience in full, or take our word for it on the show’s biggest news and reveals with the following collection of stories:

See? That’s Tupac, right there in the middle of Summer Game Fest 2026. It wasn’t on our bingo cards, either.

Day of the Devs does it right every single time with a laser-focus on interesting, in-development indie games, and that includes this year’s summertime extravaganza.

One of these titles may stand out because it was included in a few other showcases, but also because it looks downright frightful: Tenebris Somnia blends retro survival-horror mechanics with grotesque live-action cutscenes, and it’s being developed by multimedia terror experts Airdorf and Andrés Borghi. We got the game’s release date, October 16, during the Day of the Devs show.

While the entire showcase is well worth a watch, here are some highlights lovingly selected especially for you:

Saturday, June 6 was jam-packed with streams all day, and it kicked off with the fantastic Southeast Asian Games Showcase. It’s the kind of show that can smoothly transition from the cozy cat-based idle game Neko Station, to a blocky first-person horror sim set in a surreal nightmare world called Nol. And in between, there’s a little bit of everything: Dungeon Hotpot is a narrative game about serving delicious-looking fantasy food to adventurers in a torchlit pub; Sepak U is an athletic fighting game based on the sport Sepak Takraw (which looks very rad); Hoa 2 is breathtaking and slow. The Afterimages DLC for the stunning coming-of-age narrative game Until Then is now set to land on June 18, as announced during the show.

There’s also something called Meaningless Random Numbers, an incremental horror game that looks like pure addictive chaos. Its demo went live as part of the Southeast Asian Games Showcase, so throw it on your to-play list for days when you’re feeling too grounded.

Prepare for things to get supremely cozy. This summer’s Wholesome Direct featured more than 50 games, including a large lineup of world premieres and release window announcements, so there’s plenty of charm to go around. We were particularly taken with the reveal of Hidden Folks 2, a sequel to the beloved 2017 hand-drawn search game. It’s due out on Steam, itch.io and mobile devices next year. Additionally, Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit finally got a PC and console release date of July 15.

If you’re looking for a Summer Game Fest showcase to throw on in the background while you get some work done (or just play more Balatro), Wholesome Direct is the right move. Other world premieres in the show include Beastfolk Barber, Book Nook (from the Camper Van folks), Hokko Spaces, In the Drift, Moomin: Midsummer Madness, Rubber Bird, Tinkernest and WATERFUL: a tiny oasis builder.

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE is notable for its bold, primary-color palette and hand-drawn shakiness, but also its innovative puzzle mechanics. Back in your hometown after graduating college, you communicate with townsfolk through a supernatural cassette player, crafting sentences using only words the NPCs have already said. There’s something weird going on in the town and your conversations help unravel the larger mystery. PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE comes from teaisfortoby! and it doesn’t have a release date yet, but you can wishlist it on Steam.

All of that doesn’t even cover the release dates and other lovely bits included in the full Wholesome Direct summer showcase. The show’s Steam page has a lot of it, if you’re in the mood for a soothing browse. Keeping the heartwarming vibes alive, a portion of proceeds from this year’s Wholesome Direct merch sales benefit the Transgender Law Center.

Publisher Fellow Traveller hosted its first showcase this summer and, may we just say, it was a smash. The Story-Rich Showcase was dedicated to highlighting narrative-driven games from developers of all kinds — no paid spots or secret ads, just great-looking games chosen because they look great. Fellow Traveller is the publisher behind the fabulously written Citizen Sleeper games, the Hugo and Nebula-nominated sci-fi adventure 1000xRESIST, and the organizer of LudoNarraCon. That is to say, they really know what they’re doing here.

The inaugural Story-Rich Showcase featured 26 games over 45 minutes, and overall it was a captivating blend of levity, penguins and existential terror. The penguin part comes from Penguin Colony, the next game out of Umurangi Generation studio Origame Digital. It’s a Lovecraftian horror story set in 1939 and told from the perspective of a penguin who’s witnessing a cataclysm of Nazis and Indigenous Kaitiaki in the mind-melting Antarctic wilderness. This is also the existential terror part, it turns out.

There was also the reveal of Burn-9, a “reverse-Metal Gear” that places you in the role of a handler for a secret agent who’s on a job that’s gone all wrong. Communicating through the radio, you have to balance the demands of a military command against the field agent’s needs and your own moral compass. It’s a little bit Papers, Please, a little bit Metal Gear, and it looks fantastic.

The second and final act of Soft Rains’ Ambrosia Sky lands on August 6, closing out Dalia’s journey of death cleaning and finding closure amid a lethal outbreak of alien fungus. Act one is available to play now (with a Very Positive rating on Steam) and the second part will be a free update to the base game.

The showcase included release window announcements for a lineup of titles we’ve personally been anticipating: Mother-daughter psychological horror game Am I Nima is due out on October 8; the escape room comedy-horror Janet DeMornay is a Slumlord (and a witch) is coming to PC and PS5 this year; Rusty Lake’s ambitious point-and-click adventure Servant of the Lake is out on August 13; and SFB Games’ detective title The Mermaid Mask will hit PC, PS5, Switch and Switch 2 on July 16. Plus, Building Relationships is coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S later this year, alongside the Steam version.

We also want to take this moment to say SHE: Seraphim Helix Experiment from Rocket Adrift Games looks and sounds incredible. Here’s the full Story-Rich Showcase Steam page.

The Green Games Showcase highlights interactive experiences about the beauty and fragility of nature. These are games that (funnily enough) help us reconnect with nature, reminding us of where we come from and what we need to protect. When someone says, “Touch grass,” these are some games you could pull up.

The Green Games show featured 28 games, and if you buy any of them through the Planet Play website, you’re helping to fund credible, long-term planet-saving projects. The showcase itself was split into sections: Play as an Animal, Save the World, Ravaged Worlds, Green Thumb and Explore Natural Worlds. It highlighted existed acclaimed games like Spilled! and Haven, and also upcoming titles like Doomsday Diner, which looks like a supremely entertaining first-person restaurant management sim that’s due out on July 23.

Included in the showcase was a brief interlude about Cairn, one of the most enchanting games of the year. Set on the face of a looming and dangerous mountain, Cairn is a feat of slow and methodical gameplay, ultra-precise mechanics and stunning scenery. It’s a deliciously excruciating experience and is absolutely worth your time, especially with its first batch of DLC landing on August 13 (for free, no less).

The first-annual Gayming Pride Parade was a huge success. It was hosted by online creator MiladyConfetti and RuPaul’s Drag Race queen Jax, and featured an in-depth look at nine eye-catching games featuring queer themes, from queer creators. This is where the magic lives.

The Gayming Pride Parade included spotlights on Kitty Powers Matchmaker Makeover, Cute Patoots, Spill the Beans, Neon Death Drop, Tako no Himitsu: Ocean of Secrets, Wylde Society and Art of Solitaire, which features art this month by queer Polish illustrator Kamila Krol. The showcase also had a demo drop and release date announcement for the ultra-cute pixel-maximalist flirting game Rizz Dungeon: Skeleton Key to My Heart. It’s coming to Steam on September 17, so start clearing out some brain space now.

And remember when we mentioned SHE: Seraphim Helix Experiment up there in the Story-Rich Showcase? Yeah, this game is so gloriously unhinged that it was also included in the Gayming Pride Parade segment, complete with a breakdown of its anti-fascist themes and grotesque brand of femininity from character artist and Rocket Adrift co-founder Lindsay Rollins.

Gayming Pride Parade was organized and produced by Gayming Foundation and Gayming Magazine, and it also highlighted the Qweerty Gamers and Boston Gaymers nonprofit groups.

Brr, it’s cold in here. There must be some games from Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand in the atmosphere. Just picture Kirsten Dunst saying it and it kind of works. 

Frosty Games Fest returned this summer with another hour of super-chill games, both already out and still coming, from creators deep in the Southern Hemisphere. This year’s showcase featured everyone’s favorite Janet DeMornay Is A Slumlord (and a witch), a cooking sim starring a giant sea serpent called Cooking for MA!, a pixel-art adventure that looks like a mix of Below and Cocoon named Straycloud, the minimalist cube-rolling game TOYA, the tactical roller-skating RPG Canvas City, and a trippy romp through a decomposing world in PUTRID/SHARP, among other fabulous-looking titles.

The whimsical desktop idle game Ghost Writer was seemingly made out of my purest daydreams, as its Steam description reads as follows: “The perfect desktop work companion if you require a little tired ghost typing away at a typewriter.” I do. I really do. There’s no release date for Ghost Writer yet, but it’s coming from Lemon Jolly Games.

One title that received a release date during Frosty Games Fest was Cozy Game Restoration, a relaxing first-person simulator about lovingly restoring old video game cartridges. It’s all right there in the name, really. It’s coming out on September 24. The complete Frosty Game Fest Steam page can be found right here.

This was the first Xbox showcase without Phil Spencer at the helm of Microsoft’s gaming division since the dawn of Summer Game Fest, and truth be told, it was fairly juicy. New Xbox head Asha Sharma made an appearance in the Xbox Games Showcase to introduce a range of titles from Xbox studios and beyond, plus a fresh bit of hardware. 

While the confirmation of Persona 6 was a high point for us locally, here are the main beats from the Xbox summer show:

After the event, we spoke with developer Toys for Bob about Spyro: A Realm Beyond, the little purple dragon’s first new game in over a decade.

Following the Xbox show on Sunday, June 7 (happy birthday to my littlest and best sister), there were three excellent showcases with distinct focuses: The PC Gaming Show, Deutsche Indie Showcase and India Games Showcase. 

The PC Gaming Show was a contained blast, as usual, and it featured the reveal of Signet City from Citizen Sleeper creator Gareth Damian Martin. Signet City is a first-person “fungalpunk” RPG with an eye-catching monochromatic color scheme and droning post-punk music. Martin describes the game on YouTube as follows: “You are a parasite, in a city where strange technologies and radical ideas are taking root. Grow into and through its inhabitants, uncover and change their stories, and witness the terminal season of the signet city.” Aye aye, Martin. Signet City is available to wishlist on Steam now.

The Deutsche Indie Showcase was a non-stop stream of rad-looking new games from German creators, including Mops & Mobs: A Sweeping Dungeon Adventure, Silberheim Evolving Card Game and My Dear Emma. Do yourself a favor and check out the Steam listing for the Deutsche Indie Showcase.

The India Games Showcase was absolutely packed with incredible games from developers that don’t tend to get a ton of mainstream airtime, and it’s definitely worth a watch. Take it from us, people who are brutally up-to-date on all the new game releases — shows like this one are where you’re going to find your next favorite title. 

So many games here caught our eye, but we’ll call out Abashed, Fishbowl, Sojourn Past, Raji: Kaliyuga and Dodo Duckie, which is coming out on July 23. Browse the complete India Games Showcase Steam page here.

And then there was Nintendo. The house of Mario snuck into Summer Game Fest with a last-minute Nintendo Direct livestream held on Tuesday, June 9, just when we all thought it was safe to relax. The show brought us a lifelike baby Link in an Ocarina manger, a trailer for Kingdom Hearts IV and the following bits of news, lovingly gathered here in one tidy list:

And that is absolutely it. Thank you for joining us for Summer Game Fest 2026 and we’ll catch you at the next one.