Summer Game Fest 2023: all the news and announcements – The Verge

Devolver Digital’s showcase featured just four games, but they look like good ones

2023-06-08T18:57:56-04:00

Devolver Digital shared details and trailers about some projects in development during its latest showcase on Thursday. However, much of the presentation revolved around a tongue-in-cheek mascot, "Volvy," a fictionalized history of the mascot's impact on gaming culture, and the "return" of the character as a robot (VOLV-E). It was weird, but that's kind of Devolver's thing for its presentations.

You can watch the whole 22-minute show right here or catch up on the four featured games below (well, in addition to everything involving Volvy):

Wizard with a Gun

Devolver showed a trailer for Wizard with a Gun, a survival game that's themed kind o …

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Summer Game Fest featured no women onstage

2023-06-08T17:33:20-04:00

With the death of E3 nearly complete, Summer Game Fest has become the go-to summer event for gamers to get hyped about. But this year's Summer Game Fest, while it featured games that included a wide range of genres and a great diversity of characters, did not feature a single woman onstage.

Throughout the almost two-hour showcase, host Geoff Keighley brought up a number of personalities to interview onstage. He had industry veteran Ed Boon up to talk about Mortal Kombat 1. Nic Cage made an appearance to talk more about his Dead by Daylight character. Bryan Intihar came on stage to reveal the release date for Marvel's Spider-Man 2. But not o …

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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will be released in early 2024

2023-06-08T16:50:32-04:00

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the sequel to the remake of the beloved RPG, finally has a release window. It'll be coming to the PS5 in early 2024. The announcement was made as part of Summer Game Fest.

In a trailer, we got a major new look at the upcoming game. Cloud and crew wandered grassy fields, visited what looked to be Cosmo Canyon, and took on some fearsome enemies. Even Yuffie, who first came back in Final Fantasy VII Remake's DLC, showed up in the trailer. The game will be available on two discs, according to the trailer.

The second chapter of the elaborate remake project was unveiled last year, following the launch of Final Fantasy …

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Fortnite gets wild in new season trailer

2023-06-08T16:46:25-04:00

It looks like Epic Games is doing a little rewilding on the Fortnite island. Ahead of the battle royale game's next season - Chapter 4: Season 3, if you're counting - the developer gave a brief taste of what to expect through a trailer that debuted at Summer Game Fest. The new season is called "Wilds," and it introduces a new jungle biome to the map. The change shouldn't be too much of a surprise; Epic has been teasing the wild theme over the past week. Oh, also, Optimus Prime is in the game now.

While we don't have much to go on in terms of gameplay changes or other additions - though it looks like you can ride the raptors now - it won't …

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Marvel Snap adds a competitive ladder with new Conquest mode

2023-06-08T16:45:21-04:00

Marvel Snap is one of the best collectible card games this side of vanilla Hearthstone, and it's getting a new feature players have been asking for since the release of Battle Mode. During Summer Game Fest, Marvel Snap frontman Ben Brode announced the all-new Conquest mode would be launching on June 13th.

"For our most competitive, high-skilled players, we wanted to give them the ultimate challenge with Conquest," he said in a press release. "Players can now find out who truly is the best of the best and worthy of ultimate Marvel Snap glory!"

Conquest mode is kind of like a competitive ladder standard in other digital card games, and it ma …

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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 finally has a release date

2023-06-08T16:29:11-04:00

After relentless teasing, showcases, and extended gameplay trailers, we now know when we can play Marvel's Spider-Man 2. During Summer Game Fest, game director Bryan Intihar made an appearance to share the last bit of the game we haven't seen - a release date. On October 20th players can suit up as Miles and Peter to take down Kraven the Hunter and Venom in Spider-Man 2.

Also during the presentation, Intihar shared a bit more about one of the game's villains, Kraven the Hunter. Intihar said that Kraven was unlike any character they've ever featured because he's not superpowered or uses magic; he's simply the best at what he does. Kraven's c …

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Horror legend John Carpenter is making a new video game

2023-06-08T16:25:15-04:00

Horror legend nerd John Carpenter is helping make a new game called John Carpenter's Toxic Commando. Based on a brief trailer, it looks like you'll be taking on hordes of zombies in a first-person shooter - fortunately, there were a lot of cars featured in the trailer that were used to fend off the enemies.

Carpenter is known for his work on some iconic horror franchises, including Halloween and The Thing. But he's also a big gaming nerd - in a recent interview with AV Club, he said that he's "addicted" to Fallout 76, "loved" Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and thought that Assassin's Creed Valhalla was "pretty damn good." Hopefully he takes t …

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Here’s an extended look at Alan Wake 2 gameplay

2023-06-08T16:05:14-04:00

After a long period of relative quiet, Alan Wake 2 now seems to be everywhere. The latest: a lengthy clip of gameplay was shown off at this year's Summer Game Fest live keynote, which shows just how much of a survival horror experience this sequel will really be.

This fresh look at the game comes not long after developer Remedy Entertainment revealed a new trailer at Sony's big PlayStation Showcase at the end of May. If you missed it, here's that clip:

Alan Wake 2 was first revealed at the Game Awards in 2021 as the long-awaited sequel to a game that first launched back in 2010. In the intervening time, Remedy released a number of acclaime …

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Sonic’s back with a new 2D side-scroller

2023-06-08T15:56:44-04:00

2D side-scrolling Sonic is back, and this time, he's bringing his friends (and a very old enemy).

I have remained fixed at Sega's headquarters, demanding daily that it release Sonic Mania 2. And while my efforts have not yet been recognized, it seems like Sega's giving me the next best thing. Announced during Summer Game Fest, Sonic Superstars looks like a beautiful mix of 3D graphics and classic 2D Sonic side-scrolling.

Sonic Superstars' trailer came as a true and wonderful surprise. We're greeted with 2D, 16-bit Sonic running through Green Hills before passing a barrier transforming him into 3D. Sonic Superstars will let you play as Soni …

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The Witcher season 3’s new trailer has portals, parties, and plenty of bloodshed

2023-06-08T15:30:00-04:00

Despite the name, Summer Game Fest isn't entirely about games - case in point, we got a brand-new trailer for The Witcher's third season. The clip shows off just about everything the series is known for: bloody battles, terrifying monsters, fiery magic, and Geralt looking very awkward at a social affair. And, of course, he spends lots of time talking about how neutral he is.

Season 3 of The Witcher starts streaming on Netflix on June 29th - or at least, some of it does. Just like Stranger Things before it, the latest season of the fantasy show will be split into two parts. Volume one will debut in June, while the second volume will premiere …

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