Summer Game Fest 2025
My first time attending Summer Game Fest 2025 in person
Video of me attending Summer Game Fest 2025
In June of 2025, I attended Summer Game Fest in person for the very first time. With the death of E3, which I still feel was the greatest gaming event ever, Geoff Keighley who runs The Game Awards took it upon himself to start Summer Game Fest during the COVID 19 Pandemic in 2020 as a fun showcase for companies to show previews and trailers of their games.
Thanks to my old YouTube MCN (Multi Channel Network), Screenwave Media, I was put on the mailing list for Geoff’s events and was able to attend The Game Awards twice in person in 2019 and 2022 and have been invited every year since 2019. This also put me on the invite list for Summer Game Fest which I did watch every year since it’s inception, but never attended in person.
After Geoff made massive improvements to The Game Awards in 2024 for it’s 10 year anniversary after the disastrous 2023 show, I finally decided to act upon the free invitation I would get every year for Summer Game Fest and would finally attend in person in June 2025.
I took time off work during June as I would always take the 2nd week of June off for E3 to honor my long time tradition even though E3 is gone.
I decided to wear my Dragon Quest Slime Tropical Shirt which I got from Play-Asia back in 2020 (which is hard to find now) as I only wore it for my old YouTube Dragon Quest videos and never got to wear it to a proper event thanks to the pandemic. Since I live in Orange County, California, I was an hour away from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood where YouTube Theater was located which hosted Summer Game Fest.
I left at 10AM on Friday, June 6, 2025 in order to beat traffic, but the standard route from the 405 North I mapped days before had a bit of traffic. My phone actually routed me on the old path from the 405 North to the 110 North which I would use to get to E3 back in the day led to some nostalgia. Especially the Los Angeles traffic! It was cloudy that day as we were at the beginning of June gloom.
As soon as I had arrived in Inglewood, I had lunch at the crowded In N’ Out near SoFi Stadium and while it was mostly filled with Inglewood regulars, I did see some discernable gamers there too. In all honesty, I’ll probably eat at The Habit next year which is also pretty close and far less crowded.
After lunch, I arrived at SoFi Stadium for the very first time as I’ve always wanted to visit to see some NFL games there. I had to pay $50 for the parking and the parking attendant asked me what kind of games they were showing and gave me a fist bump.
After parking, I headed towards the ticket pickup and got my physical ticket needed to enter the event. Since I had a ton of time spare, I went around to see the sights of SoFi Stadium. Later on, I waited in line with the crowd and was complimented on my Dragon Quest shirt, although I knew nothing Dragon Quest related would be shown at SGF. I also saw a few Japanese Capcom employees in line which I assume were representing a certain horror sequel…
While waiting in line, I saw a livestreamer panicking that he wouldn’t be able to livestream the event from his phone as it wasn’t allowed. He was also deciding if he wanted to go outside and film his reactions in between trailers. In all honesty, he would have had a much easier time just streaming the event from his home instead of actually going in person. If streaming’s his full time job, then he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do. Luckily, YouTube Theater offered everyone there free WiFi, especially for the journalists and influencers, so I hope he got all the reactions he needed.
As we were getting closer to the start of the event, we were finally let into YouTube Theater. It was definitely very nice inside with a few arcade games and pinball machines along with some fancy bars and food, but there weren’t any kiosks of games to play. The game kiosks were actually at the Summer Game Fest Play Days event which was in downtown Los Angeles the following weekend which I wasn’t invited to since only certain influencers were invited. Sadly, I consider myself a former influencer and now current game dev, so I’ve been out of the influencer game for a long time. If anyone knows how to get into Summer Game Fest Play Days, please let me know :)
After walking through YouTube Theater which had screens all showing the Summer Game Fest logo, we were led in front of the actual theater to wait in line as we were let in according to the assigned seating on our tickets.
Since I got a free ticket and not a paid one, I got seats on the far left which was fine. Luckily the seats at YouTube theater were far more comfortable than the seats at the Peacock/Microsoft/Nokia Theater used for The Game Awards in Downtown Los Angeles. In all honesty, I wouldn’t mind having The Game Awards here at YouTube Theater as there’s definitely more parking available. It was freezing inside, so it was a good thing I took my Sony jacket with me.
After a bit of waiting, we finally see Geoff come on stage and the show starts without a hitch. I won’t go into too many details about the show as there were a ton of great games I wanted to play, but the biggest response from me and the crowd was for Resident Evil 9: Requiem which I’m heavily anticipating. I thought it was going to Resident Evil Outbreak 3 at first due to the main character Grace Ashcroft being the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft who was in both Resident Evil Outbreaks on the PlayStation 2 and a mention in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
Once the show ended, I made my way through the large crowd of people outside and saw several food trucks waiting. I was contemplating if I wanted to drive another hour to downtown Los Angeles and go to some more of the gaming events, but the old man in me just decided to go home in rush hour traffic and have dinner at El Pollo Loco.
Final Verdict
So, would I recommend going to Summer Game Fest in person? It’s alot easier for me to say because I’m local and get invited for free, although I still need to pay for the gas, food, and parking. However, if you’re looking for an alternative to the now defunct E3, I would still say yes, but don’t expect the spectacular glam of the old E3 press conferences.
As a normal viewer like myself, it’s incredibly fun to see trailers for new and upcoming games I want to play and get inspired by. As a small indie game dev, I don’t have the quarter million ($250,000) or more needed to show my trailer there. But, I did hear Geoff’s people are willing to work with devs for a reduced price or for free even. At the time of this writing, I don’t have a game ready to show, but maybe one day.
As for influencers and press, you’ll definitely benefit going there in person to meet Geoff and other high profile AAA developers if you’re also invited to the Summer Game Fest Days of Play which takes place the following weekend behind closed doors. If anyone knows who to contact to get in, let me know!
If you’re a streamer, you’ll have a far easier time just streaming it from home and reacting there as you’re not allowed to record during the show and it’s super inconvenient to get up from your seat after every trailer to broadcast your reactions.
During the weekend of Summer Game Fest, there’s also IGN Live and SoCal Retro Gaming Expo happening in Downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena. I haven’t been to either yet at the time of this writing, but maybe in the future.
Even with E3 gone, the spirit of what it stood for, A special event for all gamers to be excited about still lives on through Summer Game Fest and many other events to fill in it’s place. I definitely recommend watching it online or attending in person. Either way, you’ll have a good time.
See you all next year!