Summer Game Fest 2024 is finally up and running following yesterday’s Opening Showcase. Geoff Keighley’s two-hour show featured a good variety of games, big and small, starting off with a surprise for Switch owners in the form of a flagship Sony series making its debut on a Nintendo platform. Sure, LEGO Horizon Adventures is a fun, tongue-in-cheek spin-off of Guerrilla’s series, but we were still a little taken aback to see that Switch logo at the end of the trailer.
Elsewhere, Switch gamers saw announcements and trailers for Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, Neva, Civilization VII, Battle Crush, Monster Hunter Stories, and Sonic X Shadow Generations, plus the ‘Outersloth’ indie dev initiative from Among Us dev Innersloth will surely yield some fruit on Nintendo’s console, too. Not a huge amount of Switch news, then, but we’ve come to expect as much.
For our money, this opener was a big step in the right direction, with a much more varied palette of game types and an obvious effort from Keighley to address criticism for past shows. The industry-wide layoffs were addressed very briefly right at the start (and the immediate switch to, ‘Hey, but INDIE GAMES, though, right?‘ came across as a tactical distraction from the tyre fire), but the nod to the appalling state of things was there.
And there was a healthy mix of games on show. The dudebro military shooters and farm sims were present and correct, but there was a far better blend of genres and devs, large and small. Add in a few exciting guests and an Alan Wake II expansion which had us crossing our fingers for a ‘Switch 2’ release and a good time was had. We quite enjoyed the little Inside Out 2 clip, as well.
And the Day of the Devs showcase which came directly after is always a joy — definitely worth checking out if you clocked out after Keighley.
But how would you rate the SGF Opening Showcase? Let us know in the polls below.
