Our Favorite Things from Summer Game Fest 2025

One of the biggest gaming events of the year is Summer Game Fest, which showcases upcoming games through announcements, premieres, and updates. This event partners with numerous studios, publishers, and other corporate partners in the industry, taking place in June in Los Angeles, and Den of Geek returned to join in on the fun firsthand this year, not just attending the events and showcases, but playing some of the games themselves and speaking to the developers.

With so much news coming out of Summer Game Fest 2025, we’ve got a lot to share with you, but first, we wanted to highlight some of our personal favorite moments this year. And if it seems like some of the bigger projects may be missing from this list, rest assured, they’ll be making an appearance later as embargo dates are fulfilled. Here are our favorite moments from Summer Game Fest 2025.

The Livestream

The inaugural event of Summer Game Fest is a livestream with a live presentation hosted by organizer Geoff Keighley at the YouTube Theater by SoFi Stadium. Packed with sneak peeks and world premiere game announcements, this event sets the tone and pace for the wider in-person event that follows. While there was a noticeable uptick in hack-and-slash titles, including Soulslike games, there was enough variety in announcements and trailers, offering a welcome break from the ubiquitous first-person shooters that dominated the industry for years.

2025’s presentation included guest appearances from Mads Mikkelsen and Hideo Kojima, each providing sneak peeks at various projects they are associated with. As far as game announcements, reveals like the co-op brawler Scott Pilgrim EX and the period piece action game Stranger Than Heaven by Like a Dragon studio Ryu Ga Gotoku certainly got our attention. However, it was the formal reveal of Resident Evil Requiem after a fake-out coordinated by Keighley and Capcom that got the biggest audience reaction and officially closed out the main presentation.

Day of the Devs

Following the main SGF livestream, the event segued into a Day of the Devs presentation, highlighting projects by numerous indie developers and their respective titles. As an added way to pay it forward to the indie developers that make up the backbone of the industry, especially in terms of pushing the creative boundaries of what games can be, the Day of the Devs initiative is a non-profit organization, including the spotlight time during the presentation. This year’s Day of the Devs presentation ran for over an hour and a half and contained what’s sure to be some imaginative bangers set to debut in the months to come.

Some of the big announcements coming out of Day of the Devs 2025 included Sword of the Sea, a sweeping traveling game that feels like the spiritual successor to the 2012 PlayStation 3 game Journey by Giant Squid. Annapurna Interactive has several interesting projects with indie developers in the works like Mixtape by Beethoven & Dinosaur, Bounty Star by Dinogod, and Snap & Grab by No Goblin, each unique and exciting in their own way. All of these games are available to wishlist and really showcase the best of indie gaming on the biggest stage.

IO Interactive Showcase

Mads Mikkelsen wasn’t at SGF 2025 to talk about Death Stranding—slight spoiler warning, but his character in that game series reached a pretty definitive ending. Instead Mikkelsen reprises his Bond villain role of Le Chiffre for a special Hitman crossover level with the James Bond franchise that pits Agent 47 against the sadistic mastermind. IO Interactive hosted an in-person showcase at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood where it not only highlighted this crossover but also its eagerly anticipated Bond game, 007 First Light, and new science fiction action game Mindseye.

The showcase included a livestream presentation and panel with Mikkelsen and the developers behind all three of the titles. Additionally the crossover Hitman level was available to play following the presentation, with game stations featuring it in full on the Nintendo Switch 2 and PlayStation Portal. Yes, we sat down and managed to assassinate Le Chiffre, but it definitely took more than one try as the Bond villain was among the most formidable targets Agent 47 has yet faced.

Xbox Showcase 2025

Xbox Game Studios has been a fixture at Summer Game Fest for the past several years, notably with an in-person showcase as part of SGF 2024. This year’s showcase was a digital-only event with a pre-recorded presentation that was streamed online, hosted by a number of key Xbox Game Studios personnel. Just as last year’s big highlight was Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, this year’s showcase put a spotlight on The Outer Worlds 2 developed by Obsidian Entertainment and out on Oct. 29, 2025 for the Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.

One of the big games that stood out from this year’s Xbox Showcase was the steampunk shooter Clockwork Revolution, developed by InXile Entertainment. Arguably the biggest announcement to come out of the event was Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, published by Activision and set to release sometime later in 2025. As has been the publisher’s trend, major games published by Xbox Game Studios and its subsidiaries will be available on launch day to Game Pass Ultimate subscribers at no additional cost.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Premiere

Hideo Kojima’s appearance at the kickoff SGF 2025 event wasn’t his sole appearance this past weekend, of course. With Death Stranding 2: On the Beach coming soon, a special premiere for the game was featured at the Orpheum Theater, less than a mile from the Play Days campus. In an event that was also live-streamed, never-before-seen footage from the upcoming sequel was displayed while Keighley served as a moderator for a panel featuring Kojima, the game’s composer Woodkid, and actors Troy Baker and Shioli Kutsuna.

The opening scene from the game, with Norman Reedus reprising his role as the protagonist Sam, was shared, showcasing how dynamically the music was incorporated into the gameplay, changing based on player actions in real-time. The gameplay highlight, however, was a boss fight against the new antagonist Neil, played by Luca Marinelli, as Sam fought the villain and his squad through candlelit ruins. Closing out the premiere was the announcement of a double-disc soundtrack album, available for preorder, as well a world tour led by Kojima further showcasing the game.

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