Another June, another avalanche of new videogame announcements. But the 2025 Summer Game Fest and related showcases were not quite like the others.
For one thing, Nintendo's Switch 2 console made its highly anticipated debut just a few days before the weeklong string of showcases, on June 5. It stole part of the news cycle, splitting the gaming audience's attention.
Meanwhile, looters ran riot in the streets of Downtown Los Angeles, close to where many of the visiting media and exhibitors were staying. This all led to a slightly fraught weeklong US work trip for little me.
Japan and Asia Steal the Show
Still, while all of this was a little distracting, it was a good week for new game announcements. And as the Western game industry continues to struggle with restructuring, layoffs, studio closures, and game delays, once again, it fell on Japan and Asia to provide many of the biggest and most exciting new game reveals this June.
Japan's game industry in particular has been largely immune to the unpredictable economic conditions of the past few years. This is thanks to a general aversion to risky M&As, the weak yen, and strong overseas sales.
While many Western games have been cancelled or postponed due to a post-pandemic slump, Japanese publishers have mostly managed to keep production lines rolling. The sheer ratio of new Japanese announcements vs Western ones was noticeable.
Yes, the newly unveiled Call of Duty game — Black Ops 7 — from publisher Microsoft will be one of the year's biggest sellers for sure. But given the series' annual release cadence, it wasn't exactly a surprise. It seemed to generate a lot less buzz than some of the bigger Asian games.
Resident Evil Takes Center Stage
The highest-impact new announcement at Summer Game Fest, the livestream that has replaced E3 as the de facto largest annual early-summer showcase, was Resident Evil 9: Requiem.
The long-awaited new entry in the legendary survival horror franchise had been heavily rumored. Summer Game Fest host Geoff Keighley and publisher Capcom played with this expectation with a couple of fake-outs earlier in the two-hour showcase before finally announcing the game right at the end. I was in the room at the YouTube Theater in LA, and the reaction to the trailer and the February 27, 2026, release date was electric.
More Big Announcements
Other biggies included the re-reveal of Capcom's mysterious and long-delayed action game Pragmata, which I got to play at the SGF-hosted media expo Play Days the next day. The game's high-concept futuristic design is clean and attractive, taking cues from anime and Western sci-fi. Its protagonist Hugh and robot girl Diana are also appealing, while its mix of hacking and shooting makes for an interesting action game.
Sega got a great reaction for its new games Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, for which a bunch of guest characters including Hatsune Miku were announced, and a new game from the Like a Dragon team, newly titled Stranger than Heaven.
Meanwhile, the PlayStation State of Play showcase a few days earlier featured Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, a cool new superhero fighting game from ARC System Works, and Romeo is a Dead Man, a bonkers-looking action game from veteran developer Goichi Suda.
Nostalgic Reboot
One favorite demo I got to play was Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, a reboot of Sega's long-dormant 1980s ninja action game, which I loved as a kid. This new version is being made by French developer Lizardcube, who previously worked on modern versions of Sega's classic Streets of Rage and Wonder Boy franchises.
Shinobi updates the 2D side-scrolling ninja action formula set out by the original game with deep and satisfying combat systems. They allow you to build attack combos and unleash flashy special moves, filling the screen with crimson. Most importantly, it feels great in your hands, and the demo left me excited for the full game's release on August 29.
Lumines Returns in Style
I also enjoyed playing Lumines Arise, a new entry in the puzzle game series by the team behind Tetris Effect. The original Lumines was a music-focused puzzle game that had you clear falling blocks in time with the beat. Arise takes this one step further, with a varied selection of excellent songs by Hydelic, the musician who scored Tetris Effect, and the same trippy audio-visual flair that made that game so unforgettable.
As the ever-evolving animations and effects swirled around the screen, my perspective kept changing every few minutes as the visuals completely refreshed. I just about beat the demo with barely seconds to spare, my embarrassingly narrow victory eliciting gasps from the development team.
Play Days and IGN Live
Play Days is the official expo of Summer Game Fest — an invitation-only event where media and influencers can play upcoming games. But during the same weekend in LA, members of the public could check out some new games and more nearby at IGN Live.
Now in its second year, IGN Live was a fun and well-curated two-day event filled with game demos and stage events. Top game developers such as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 creator Sandfall Interactive were interviewed in front of an audience.
The event also featured several interactive elements. Visitors could play multiplayer games together with their favorite IGN hosts, or try their hand at hosting a news segment live to the camera. There was even an artists' alley where fans could buy handmade artwork directly from the artists, boosting the community feel. This year's IGN Live was markedly bigger and better than last year’s first attempt, and left me excited to see what our Stateside colleagues can achieve next year.
Celebrating with Kojima Fans
Also that weekend, I attended a special talk event hosted by Kojima Productions to celebrate the release of Hideo Kojima's latest opus, Death Stranding 2. Kojima's fans are extremely passionate. As Kojima and other guests including actress Shioli Kutsuna, voice actor Troy Baker, and musician Woodkid talked about the game, every comment was received by explosive woops and cheers from the audience. It was exciting to be in the room and witness that infectious outpouring of love from the fans firsthand.
I had actually arrived in LA the day before the Switch 2 launch, and as I headed back to my hotel that evening after meeting a friend for dinner, we passed huge crowds in the late-night streets of Downtown LA. This was a few days before the protests and riots kicked off, and eventually, I realized they were game fans lining up for a midnight Switch 2 launch event at a local game store.
In this day and age, where so many of us preorder a game console online and wait for it to be delivered to our homes, it was nice to see a good old-fashioned in-person launch event.
Nintendo Switch 2
That said, I found the Switch 2 launch to be fairly muted overall. Yes, the console sold a mammoth 3.5 million units in its first four days on sale, making it the biggest console launch of all time. But I had expected to see people playing the new Mario Kart World on every street corner, which I didn't see anywhere in LA, nor upon my return to Tokyo. And with no other big AAA Switch 2-exclusive games besides Mario Kart World released so far, my social media timelines haven’t exactly been dominated by it.
Of course, with a new Donkey Kong game due in a couple of weeks, new Pokémon in October, and doubtless more to be announced soon, I'm sure the lineup will grow to a crescendo by the holidays. I'm excited to see what Nintendo delivers in the second half of what will undoubtedly be a record-breaking year for the House of Mario!
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Author: Daniel Robson
