With Summer Game Fest 2026 set to kick off in a few hours, here’s what you need to know heading into Geoff Keighley’s latest gaming showcase.
The Game Awards might be the biggest gaming event hosted by Geoff Keighley, but Summer Game Fest is pretty much the same thing but on a slightly smaller scale.
The 2025 showcase was headlined by Resident Evil Requiem, but previous years have debuted the likes of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown, Wanderstop, Lego Horizon Adventures, and others.
With the death of E3, Summer Game Fest is now the closest thing to a multiformat summer reveal event. Although while there are usually a few brand new reveals it tends to focus more on gameplay trailers for previously announced games, such as the first reveal of Elden Ring in action.
Some games have already been confirmed for tonight, but if you’re looking to find out when the show starts, along with some of the most enticing rumours, see below for the full Summer Game Fest 2026 breakdown.
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For UK viewers, Summer Game Fest 2026 starts on Friday, June 5 at 10pm BST and is set to run for two hours.
The start time is far more confusing than it should be though as the official website incorrectly lists it as 9pm GMT, while the YouTube stream is set to go live at 9.15pm BST – although that’s presumably to start a countdown.
Either way, based on host Geoff Keighley’s latest tweet, it’s 10pm BST. Definitely (probably) 10pm BST.
The show will be available to stream live across the Summer Game Fest YouTube and Twitch channels, with the official YouTube channel offering a stream in 4K at 60fps.
Of the confirmed reveals so far, the biggest is the gameplay trailer for XCOM-like Star Wars Zero Company, developed by Bit Reactor and Respawn Entertainment.
We also know Guild Wars developer ArenaNet is at the show, and while we don’t know what they’ll announce, all signs point toward Guild Wars 3.
Other confirmed titles include new driving game Clutch from former Playground devs, along with Blood Message – a Chinese action game from the makers of Naraka: Bladepoint.
Beyond those games, we also know there’ll be updates on Fortnite, Among Us, and Dead By Daylight.
The drums still thunder from the walls.
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) June 1, 2026
The blood on the blade has yet to dry.
Yet the road home lies ahead.@BloodMessageBM is coming to #SummerGameFest live this Friday. pic.twitter.com/frRmeVhITz
One of the big rumours, following the showcase of Resident Evil Requiem last year, is that Capcom will debut the first look at the Resident Evil Code: Veronica remake.
Additionally, a new Hot Wheels game titled Infinite Rush has seemingly leaked ahead of the show, and while it’s unclear if it will appear it does seem like.
Several games have also teased possible announcements. Sega recently posted a teaser for its Crazy Taxi reboot, while a recent short clip related to Alien: Isolation 2 suggested more information is on the way soon – although that doesn’t necessarily mean Summer Game Fest, especially with the Xbox summer showcase taking place on Sunday.
Other rumours include a new definitive edition of Sonic Frontiers, a new Worms game, a possible reveal for Injustice 3 from NetherRealm, and maybe, just maybe, Persona 6.
There’s even a rumour that Nintendo will be at the event, in lieu of a Direct next week, but as ever with all these showcases it’s best to assume you’ll be disappointed by the announcements, so as to have the best chance of being pleasantly surprised by what is actually there.
To put the hype into perspective, the biggest reveal at last year’s Summer Game Fest was the trailer for Resident Evil Requiem. Beyond that, however, there wasn’t a whole lot to shout about.
Other announcements (as rounded-up here) included the shadow drop of Lies Of P’s Overture DLC, Dying Light: The Beast’s release date, new game Wu-Tang: Rise Of The Deceiver, Game Of Thrones: War For Westeros, Scott Pilgrim EX, Mortal Shell 2, Killer Inn, Stranger Than Heaven, Atomic Heart 2, and a release date for Arc Raiders.
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A new trailer for Star Wars Zero Company is confirmed for Summer Game Fest, ahead of an earlier than expected launch this summer.
We have been fervently waiting for more news on Star Wars Zero Company, a new XCOM style strategy game, since its reveal last year.
Fortunately, that wait is nearly over, as publisher EA has confirmed a new trailer will debut during Summer Game Fest this Friday, while also sharing new artwork of some of its characters.
It was already safe to assume the trailer will include a release date, as the game’s only ever had a vague 2026 window, but that date has leaked ahead of time and it’s mercifully not another September release.
According to the consistently accurate billbil-kun at Dealabs, Star Wars Zero Company will launch on August 27.
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It willretail at $49.99 on PC and $59.99 on consoles. While that translates to approximately £37 and £45 respectively, EA will likely price it at £49.99 and £59.99 here in the UK.
Unsurprisingly, there’ll be a more expensive deluxe edition that costs $59.99 on PC and $69.99 on consoles, though while its contents are unknown, billbil-kun adds that it won’t include any sort of early access.
Early access has become increasingly common for new releases, but it’s not yet a standard. Last month, the likes of Forza Horizon 6, the new Lego Batman game, and 007 First Light all offered early access as a pre-order bonus.
Whether or not EA is deliberately avoiding September, it’s a relief as that month is chock-a-block with new games, including but not limited to Sony’s Wolverine game, Capcom’s new Onimusha, and Silent Hill: Townfall.
No doubt this is a result of GTA 6’s November launch as many publishers are eager not to launch too closely to that game and risk being completely overshadowed.
Star Wars Zero Company is set during the prequel era of the franchise, specifically the Clone Wars, and sees you leading a band of mercenaries (the titular Zero Company) as a fully customisable character named Hawks.
Like XCOM, it’s a turn-based tactics game and while you can recruit a myriad of characters, they can permanently die during missions if you’re not careful.
The new key art gives an indication of what sort of characters will appear, including a member of the Lasat; the same alien race as Zeb, one of the main characters from the Star Wars Rebels cartoon and, most recently, The Mandalorian And Grogu.
The guy in the spacesuit seems to be an Umbaran from a memorable arc from the The Clone Wars CGI series (the one with the four-armed Jedi Pong Krell) and the horned alien looks to be a Togruta, the same species as Ahsoka.
The alien in the top left corner seems to be the same species as Tubes, who was affiliated with Saw Gerrera from Rogue One and Andor. Saw’s character originated in The Clone Wars series, so it’s quite possible he’s in the game too.
Considering it’s set towards the end of the Clone Wars, we could even see the game adapt the events of Order 66 and the early rise of the Empire, which could also incorporate elements from Andor.
Zero Company isn’t the only Star Wars game launching this year either as racing game Star Wars: Galactic Racer is scheduled to follow on October 2.
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As the owner of the James Bond franchise, Amazon is keen to have more of a say in the coming 007 First Light sequels.
There’s no denying that 007 First Light has been a tremendous success for IO Interactive and proof that it was the best choice for developing a new big budget James Bond video game.
First Light has already outperformed IO’s Hitman games, as it’s not only the studio’s highest scoring game on Metacritic, but its fastest-selling game ever, pushing 1.5 million copies in just one day. It’s also estimated to have sold over 2.2 million copies so far, according to Alinea Analytics.
This makes First Light’s blatant sequel bait well deserved, but it also means Amazon, the rights holder of the James Bond franchise, has taken a worrying interest in the next game.
Jeff Gattis, the general manager of Amazon’s gaming division, told Polygon any First Light sequel will be ‘done by MGM and, theoretically, by Amazon Game Studios.’
He added, ‘We did not [make First Light]. We do have a stake in it because we now own the IP.’
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1.5 million copies sold!
— IO Interactive (@IOInteractive) May 28, 2026
Thank you for showing up to the launch of 007 First Light, for your overwhelming enthusiasm and for sharing your experience with the game.
Play our re-imagined James Bond origin story today and #EarnTheNumber. Available now.https://t.co/svbhiUOym0… pic.twitter.com/xf4gzZ95YM
Amazon’s name may appear during First Light’s opening credits, but the company was not involved with its development. It didn’t even publish the game; IO handled that itself.
That’s because First Light entered production before Amazon acquired the James Bond franchise as part of its buy out of MGM Studios, which was announced in 2022 but wasn’t approved until 2023.
It’s not entirely clear if Gattis is only referring to taking over publishing duties or if the plan is for new James Bond games to be made in-house and not at IO Interactive.
The latter sounds like a disastrous idea as not only did IO do a great job but Amazon’s efforts at game development haven’t been very successful. It’s cancelled multiple projects, including two attempts at a Lord Of The Rings MMO, and has found no real success with the games it has released.
The one exception has been MMO New World, but even that is now scheduled to shut down in early 2027, just over five years after launch.
If Amazon is smart, it’ll maintain a partnership with IO Interactive and let it continue to work on future Bond games. It’s doing this with Tomb Raider, striking a deal with series developer Crystal Dynamics to handle the Legacy Of Atlantis remake and the all-new sequel Tomb Raider: Catalyst.
Even so, it may exert more creative control on how Bond is depicted, especially once its plans for the next movie solidify. It’ll also probably try and squeeze more money out of the process for itself, potentially making a sequel far less profitable for IO.
Despite having a new Tomb Raider TV show in the works, Amazon Games’ vice president Christoph Hartmann very much downplayed the idea that it’s in any way connected to the new games.
‘Look at Spider-Man. There’s amazing, amazing games. There’s great animated content, there’s great live action, and everyone seems to be very happy with that. So it does not need to be always that everything is mingled together,’ he told Variety in 2024.
They may well take the same approach with 007, although there’s clearly going to be some awkward conversations with IO, who in the end may have ended up being too successful.
Update:
Amazon has issued a statement on the issue but, as you can see, it doesn’t address any of the issues and only increases the impression that they might not allow IO to make the sequel.
We asked them to clarify this but have received no reply, although they have insisted that no sequel has been confirmed – which will be news to anyone that’s completed the game.
‘Amazon MGM holds the rights to any future James Bond video games but it’s still too early to discuss future projects. We have a great relationship with IO Interactive and are proud of what we’ve accomplished together on 007 First Light. Our partners at IO will reveal more about 007 First Light in the near future and we’re looking forward to sharing what’s next.’
What exactly Amazon think they’ve accomplished with First Light is unclear, since IO did all the work, but it’s all sounding very ominous.
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The creative director of Forza Horizon 5 has unveiled the debut title from his new studio, Maverick Games, and it’s an open world racing game called Clutch.
For as good as Forza Horizon 6 is, it is still very similar to Forza Horizon 5, with a change of setting but very little in the way of new ideas.
The eventual Forza Horizon 7 will need to rectify this, since the last thing the series needs is to grow complacent and not offer anything but a change of scenery with each game.
What may help it, is that it’s about to get some meaningful competition that will keep Microsoft and Playground Games on their toes, as a studio comprised of former Forza Horizon developers has announced its own open world racing game, called Clutch.
Based in Leamington Spa (the same town where Playground Games hails from), Maverick Games has been teasing its debut title for the past 10 days, with a countdown on its YouTube channel.
The countdown ended earlier today and led to a video hosted by studio founder and creative director Mike Brown, who previously served as the creative director of Forza Horizon 5 while at Playground Games.
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The video only shows fleeting glimpses of the game, including what could be snippets of gameplay. Like GTA 6, the high fidelity graphics make it difficult to tell when cut scenes end and gameplay begins.
Brown bills Clutch as being ‘about the love of driving, about the connection between car and driver, and the raw thrill of speed’ and boasts about how authentic the cars will appear in-game, promising visible wear-and-tear and citing the advantages of a custom version of Unreal Engine 5 and a three year development cycle (which is very short nowadays).
The cars can be fully customised, right down to the interiors, including the decorations on the dashboard, drinks holders, and hats and jumpers you can leave strewn on the seats.
What’s especially interesting about Clutch, though, is that unlike Forza Horizon it’s going to offer a proper story – one penned by Jamie Brittain, co-writer on the award winning TV drama Skins – about a pair of siblings competing in a prestigious racing tournament.
However, races won’t be confined to the professional tracks as the protagonists will also be involved with underground street races and cross paths with law enforcement, resulting in high-speed getaways.
Right near the end of the video, Brown mentions that cars can also receive special modifications for exploring the open world. One nifty looking example that’s demonstrated is a grappling hook of some kind that attaches to poles and lets you sharply drift – like the Batmobile in the original Tim Burton movie.
While details are slim, the wait for new info won’t be long, as a proper trailer is already scheduled to debut during Summer Game Fest. As a reminder, the event takes place this Friday, June 5 from 10pm BST.
Clutch has a release window of spring 2027 and will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. By that time, Forza Horizon 6 will have arrived for the PlayStation 5 too, so it’ll be interesting to see if Clutch can coax away any Forza players.
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Last week, I blithely commented that the Maw was "taking a break", because we had too much else to do besides feeding our resident cosmic newsbeast. We have now paid a grievous price for my negligence. Friends, I am horrified to report that the Maw has broken containment and eaten Geoff Keighley, the face of Summer Games Fest. In the process, it may also have devoured the very concept of the future.
Time has lost its gradient, and the harvest may never come. Without Geoff, there will be no barrage of hundred-thousand-dollar game trailers and announcements on June 5th, to spin us through the shambles of another year. There can be no Highguard 2. There will be no surprise celebrity cameos, for surprise requires change. In vain shall the children of Gamers ask, "what precise ratio of smart-casual is Mads Mikkelsen favouring right now?" I offer the below list of new PC game releases largely in memoriam for a "this week" that may never truly unfold.
Guild Wars 3 is an action adventure MMORPG set in the enchanting frontier of Orr where you become a Vaelwarden guardian protecting the land and spirits while discovering untold stories alongside fellow players. This modern evolution blends rich action combat with character building and skill collection across a world brimming with mystery, magic, and wonder around every corner.
In Guild Wars 3 you’ll master combat … Read More
The post Guild Wars 3 – Beta Sign Up first appeared on Alpha Beta Gamer.A Game About Chopping Trees is a meditative experience celebrating the simple satisfaction of woodsman life through rhythmic timber felling across serene forest landscapes.
In A Game About Chopping Trees you’ll listen to satisfying cracks as trunks splinter under steady axe swings while gradually investing earnings into upgraded chopping abilities. Sharper blades, stronger swings, and refined techniques make each session feel increasingly rewarding without introducing … Read More
The post A Game About Chopping Trees – Beta Demo first appeared on Alpha Beta Gamer.ONE SKILL Drive or Fall is a precision driving challenge where you navigate intricate platforms suspended high above clouds, testing vehicle control against unforgiving physics and geometric obstacles.
In ONE SKILL Drive or Fall speed becomes irrelevant compared to absolute throttle management and deep understanding of automotive physics. Each uniquely crafted level functions as a vehicular puzzle featuring shifting elements, tight corners, and vertical challenges … Read More
The post ONE SKILL Drive or Fall – Beta Demo first appeared on Alpha Beta Gamer.SLAUGHTER VOID is a brutal hack and slash game that combines speedrunning with 80s arcade action in a blood-spattered fantasy world.
In SLAUGHTER VOID, carve your way through demons and cultists on a path to vengeance. Combat is quick and merciless – a single hit kills you, but the same goes for most enemies. Agility and aggression are essential as you die fast and … Read More
The post SLAUGHTER VOID – Beta Demo first appeared on Alpha Beta Gamer.Scott Pilgrim EX is a brand new pixel art action-adventure brawler where you fight across space, time, and the streets of Toronto.
In Scott Pilgrim EX, Toronto has been taken over by three rival gangs – the Vegans, the Robots, and the Demons. When Scott’s bandmates are abducted by shadowy forces, a brand-new adventure begins. Fight as Scott, Ramona, and more through fractured time … Read More
The post Scott Pilgrim EX – Beta Demo first appeared on Alpha Beta Gamer.Rift Reborn is a roguelike auto battler where you draft and evolve a team of heroes through unstable rifts.
In Rift Reborn, you’ll recruit heroes from an expanding cast, collecting duplicates to level them up. Choose between branching upgrades to make each hero your own, creating game-breaking teams and powerful combos. Every run offers constant decision-making as you create synergies and refine strategies against … Read More
The post Rift Reborn – Beta Sign Up first appeared on Alpha Beta Gamer.33 Immortals is a co-op action-roguelike where 33 players rebel against God’s final judgment as damned souls.
In 33 Immortals, your mortal life has been judged sinful, your soul destined for eternal punishment – but an uprising brews among the damned. Instant matchmaking drops you straight into epic battles in a streamlined distillation of the MMO raid experience. Fight through randomized foes and challenges … Read More
The post 33 Immortals – Beta Demo first appeared on Alpha Beta Gamer.
Happy this week, all! It’s time once again to load the Maw up with new PC games, that we may stave off the apocalypse till next Monday. This week covers a wide spectrum of flavours and textures: papery, Dodo-ish, ducklike, inky, formaldehyde-y, pasty, furry, feculent, and fishy. Once you’re done throwing up, get back here and run your protesting eyes over the full list. As ever, we welcome your urgent suggestions.
The first thing I noticed was how simple it was to get into. Controls? Easy. Combat? Turn-based and super approachable. I didn’t have to read a manual thicker than my notebook to figure out what my character was doing. The combat interface is intuitive, though I did have one tiny “wait… what does this gauge mean?” moment. But hey, one small hiccup in a game that otherwise runs smoothly is pretty standard.
Now, about the gameplay itself. It’s got that dark, moody vibe that you’d expect from a vampire-themed RPG. Honestly, the theme made me feel a little gloomy while playing, dark forests, creepy night skies, the usual gothic aesthetic. I wouldn’t say I was bored, but it didn’t exactly make me jump out of my chair either. I guess my “fun gauge” is simple: if I’m entertained in the first hour, I’m hooked. Vampire’s Fall 2 hovered right around “meh-but-interesting.”
Still, it’s free. And that’s huge. If you’re looking for a lightweight RPG with turn-based combat, a bit of exploration, and zero need for a beastly gaming rig, this is worth a download. Plus, there’s something fun about wandering a dark open world and slowly leveling up your vampire powers without being bombarded by flashy graphics.
In short: I can’t call myself obsessed after one hour, but I also wasn’t tempted to quit. Vampire’s Fall 2 is the kind of game you try, maybe fall into for a night, and then decide if the dark vampire life is your jam. And hey, it’s free, so why not give it a shot?
After becoming a cult classic on PC, strategy game Death Howl mixes elements of Soulslikes with turn-based battles, in this demanding but rewarding new console release.
Polish developer and publisher 11 bit studios make fascinating choices in the games they design and publish. From Frostpunk and its sequel’s austere politics, where there are no right answers and plenty of unintended consequences that spring from trying to find them to The Alters, an offbeat sci-fi base builder in which your operation is staffed by increasing numbers of subtly divergent clones; their output is thoughtful, often tactically demanding, and always hard to predict.
Their latest is Death Howl, which is described as a Soulslike deck builder. Inevitably there’s quite a lot more to it than that, most notably that along with deploying cards from your slowly expanding deck, turn-based battles take place on a square grid, your positioning and movement on it having a powerful effect on the outcomes of attacks and defences. You’ll need to line-up shots and plan for areas of effect, while stabbing foes in the back proves more effective than frontal assaults.
The son of protagonist Ro dies in the opening scene, forcing her to confront the spirits of the underworld in an attempt to win him back. To do that you’ll need to work your way through the distinctive pixel art biomes – each of which comes with its own enemies, cards, and beasts to fight – in search of a way to free him. You’re assisted by your spirit animal, whose guidance is just as elliptical and mysterious as the environments you wander.
Like the Souls games, Death Howl refuses to spell anything out for you, and that includes how to play. First impressions are that it’s literally impossible, Ro dying quickly in only her second encounter with the magical creatures of the forest. What it doesn’t explain, but you soon learn, is that you can return to sacred groves, all of which are marked on your map, to heal after battle.
They behave like FromSoftware’s bonfires, returning hit points and letting you acquire new skills. They also resurrect every nearby enemy you’ve killed. That’s actually extremely useful because when they die, enemies drop crafting materials that you use to create new cards to add to your deck, making Ro incrementally more powerful in battle.
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It’s a peculiar game to play, and we certainly spent the first few hours thinking we must be missing something significant. There are few games that force you to grind before you’ve even really figured out their systems, but Death Howl does just that. In the opening hours, the only way we found to make ourselves viable in battle, was to repeat the first few encounters multiple times, returning to a sacred grove to recuperate before heading back out to fight, gather loot and craft cards.
Combat has something in common with Into The Breach. Although that had a sci-fi setting, and a far smaller selection of units, both sides’ attacks had specific patterns to their firepower as it spread across its grid, along with after effects like knockback, or setting things on fire. Death Howl’s cards are similarly complex, with some working at range and others requiring you to make sacrifices. In your starter deck, that includes surrendering some of your shield capability for an instant boost to defence or disposing of a card from your current turn’s selection in return for a ranged hit.
It means every time you craft a new card, its synergies and demands need to be tested and understood before it becomes useful. Cards also interact with totems, which give Ro extra perks, up to four of which can be equipped simultaneously once you’ve unlocked all their slots. It’s a system that offers an expansive depth and range of potential approaches in any given encounter.
Enemies respawn in exactly the same places and configurations after each trip to a sacred grove, which lets you refine your strategies against them, as you gain new cards and learn how best to use them. Since battles are turn-based, there’s no need to hurry any part of the process, yet despite that lack of pressure there are many moments where you kick yourself for hastily making a play, realising just afterwards that there was a better option.
As well as providing inspiringly different looking backdrops to your exploration, the biomes that make up Death Howl’s world bring their own modifiers, providing cover or slowing down enemies in marshes. You’ll also find the game’s plot unfolding as you search. Unlike Hades and its sequel, which kept story beats safely fenced off from their roguelite gameplay, conversations and discoveries abound as you travel and fight.
It’s a dark place, both literally and metaphorically, the map boiling out of the blackness as the screen follows your motion. Its, also Soulslike in the way its lore is revealed to you in tiny pieces, each of which makes little sense on its own, but that gradually start to reveal a pointillist picture of what’s happening, and Ro’s situation within it.
Death Howl is no place for dabblers. Its complexity and refusal to reveal anything without extracting a high price for it, along with multiple interacting systems that jointly affect the outcomes of its turn-based battles, demand concentration and experience. Nothing comes easily, which makes victories all the sweeter in this strange and wonderfully idiosyncratic game.
In Short: A deep, demanding turn-based strategy game-cum-deck builder whose Soulslike sensibilities leave you to uncover the complexities of its combat, story, and world on your own.
Pros: Involving and highly tactical battles with a beautifully bleak art style. Rewarding process of unlocking cards and shamanic totems. Plot delivery is as enigmatic as its shadowy setting.
Cons: Not an easy game to get into and its mental demands, and sometimes brutal difficulty level, won’t suit everybody.
Score: 9/10
Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £17.99
Publisher: 11 bit studios
Developer: The Outer Zone
Release Date: 19th February 2026
Age Rating: 12
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Epic Games’ classic shooter Unreal Tournament 2004 has been resurrected by fans, with a new patch to make it run on modern PCs.
Although Epic Games’ most successful title in the modern gaming landscape is Fortnite, before that they were better known for Gears Of War and, before that, the Unreal series of games.
There were originally two flavours of Unreal games, one a primarily single-player first person shooter and the other a series of arena-based multiplayer titles called Unreal Tournament, with the ubiquitous Unreal Engine powering them both.
Unreal appeared in 1998, with Unreal Tournament a year later. Unreal only got one sequel but Tournament proved more popular and eventually hit the big time with the widely popular Unreal Tournament 2004.
There hasn’t been a legitimate way to play Unreal Tournament 2004 since Epic shut all the servers down in January 2023, and delisted the title from stores. However, thanks to fans, the shooter is now back and available to download and play for free.
The plans to revive Unreal Tournament 2004 were announced last year, as part of the OldUnreal community project to revive and update Epic’s early shooters. The community already got Epic’s approval to bring back Unreal Gold and 1999’s Unreal Tournament, and it’s now done the same with the 2004 game.
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As for how you can claim the download, there are a couple of steps. The original disc image for Unreal Tournament 2004 is hosted on the Internet Archive, and while OldUnreal isn’t allowed to host the game outright, you can download it using an installer from the archive, hosted on OldUnreal’s website here.
After you’ve downloaded the game, you need to download a community patch via GitHub for Unreal Tournament 2004, which enables it to run on modern operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and Mac.
In the release notes for the patch, OldUnreal project manager Stijn-volckaert wrote: ‘Please note that this is the first public patch for Unreal Tournament 2004 in over 20 years. ‘We have implemented numerous fixes and improvements, written a new SDL backend for Linux and macOS, and even a new renderer.
‘We have also migrated the entire codebase to modern build systems. Some new bugs may have slipped in!’
As a classic of the shooter genre, and for champions of game preservation, it’s good news all round. It’s also a bittersweet reminder of how Epic Games ditched development of the Unreal Tournament series in order to double down on Fortnite.
Although you’d have to say, from their point of view, that was unquestionably the right choice.
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Guitar Hero may be be dead but a new studio, founded by some of the original creators, is launching a lookalike game this year.
Back when Xbox was first courting Activision Blizzard, it was clearly implied that the acquisition would lead to the revival of the Guitar Hero series, which has been seemingly dead since 2015.
So far, nothing of the sort has come out of the arrangement. If anything, Epic Games has done more to revive the concept by enlisting Guitar Hero’s original developer Harmonix to make Fortnite Festival, a rhythm action game that’s compatible with the same plastic guitar peripherals that used to clutter peoples’ living rooms.
Now, another Guitar Hero clone has been announced, alongside a brand new guitar controller – one that’s also being created by veterans of the series.
Named simply the Sound System, the game is in development at a new studio called Echo Foundry Interactive, which was founded by Marcus Henderson and Lennon Lange.
Henderson is a musician who served as the lead guitarist on the Guitar Hero games, while Lange worked as a producer on not just that series but related spin-offs like Band Hero and DJ Hero.
The game’s already scheduled to launch on PC via Steam this summer, with plans for PlayStation 5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch versions as well.
One look at the trailer and it’s very apparent it’s just Guitar Hero again (not that that’s a bad thing), with a promise of a curated setlist of songs, frequent content updates, and the ability to create and share your own music.
The announcement coincides with a new guitar peripheral called the InfinaKore Telecaster Edition Guitar Controller, from hardware company Drakong, which will be compatible with both Sound System and Fortnite Festival.
However, the Sound System trailer also mentions ‘classic peripherals,’ which hopefully means that some of your old Guitar Hero controllers will work just fine and you won’t need to go and buy a new one.
The likes of Guitar Hero and Rock Band popularised bespoke controllers shaped like instruments, which were extremely popular in the late 2000s, before Activision oversaturated the market.
The concept fell out of favour in the 2010s, alongside rhythm action games in general, and there’s never really been a comeback since then.
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There’s clearly still a market for it though, if other companies are making such peripherals, even if it’s hard to imagine it once again becoming a mass market phenomenon.
Although Guitar Hero, and successor Rock Band, are now dead franchises Ubisoft’s Rocksmith is still going. Although that’s more of a teching tool than a normal game, not least because it uses a real electric guitar.
It was eventually succeeded by a subscription service called Rocksmith+ in 2022. Surprisingly, that’s still going and seeing updates, having since added piano and keyboard learning.
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