The Super Bowl for video games
Hello, gaming fans!
At least, I presume you enjoy video games if you’re reading this. The past week or so has brought us Summer Game Fest and a whole smorgasbord of video game showcases and reveals. Seriously, there were so many showcases that someone should make a showcase previewing all of these showcases (original idea, do not steal).
So this is a special edition of Autofill! There is a lot of text and many, many bullet points, so to sift through this issue easily, just scroll around and see which game titles or showcases in bold catch your attention and suit your personal interests.
If you have any friends who are out of the loop of what upcoming games they should look forward to, send them a link to the web version of this issue, and tell them to subscribe!
Just a note that I’m skipping last week’s PlayStation State of Play, as I briefly touched on that in last week’s issue. Without further ado, let’s talk about what Summer Game Fest is and what we learned from the past week of game showcases!
This issue will fill you in on:
What the heck is Summer Game Fest?
E3, my beloved, where are you?
Image source: Summer Game Fest
For nerdy kids like myself, the most exciting part of summer break was E3—the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The annual trade show, held in Los Angeles, was an explosion of game reveals, trailers, and demos. But after more than 20 years, E3 faded away into extinction, for too many reasons—the shifts to streaming media over in-person press conferences, the industry’s general waning interest in the event, and, of course, the pandemic.
Since 2020, The Game Awards producer Geoff Keighley has tried to fill in that void with Summer Game Fest, a big stage show filled with world premieres and game trailers. And the rest of the industry has largely coalesced around SGF, scheduling their own showcases and trailer montages around this event, essentially creating what many of us call “not-E3.”
So let’s get into what we learned from Not-E3 2026.
Any general takeaways from this summer of video game reveals?
Two trends that personally stood out to me are: 1) this September is getting really crowded, and 2) remakes, remasters, and revivals are very in.
As most big publishers are trying to avoid the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 (set for a November 19 launch), a lot of big game releases have been scheduled around its epicenter. That seems to have inadvertently led to a high influx of games coming out this September alone, including Marvel’s Wolverine, Control Resonant, Silent Hill: Townfall, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, Minecraft Dungeons 2, Orbitals, Phantom Blade Zero, Screenbound, Halloween, and probably more that I’m forgetting.
Quite frankly, it’s ridiculous, and this fall looks like an absolute bloodbath. I’d be curious if any of those games end up moving their release dates as a result of the crowded schedule. The only game brave enough to face Grand Theft Auto 6 in November appears to be a compilation of retro Barbie games called Barbie Rewind.
And then there are the endless remakes, remasters, and such announced and shown off in the past week. Nintendo is putting out a Star Fox 64 remake and a “reborn” The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, while Xbox has Halo: Campaign Evolved. Others include Rayman Legends: Retold, The Wolf Among Us Remastered, Hitman Classic Trilogy Remastered, Final Fantasy VII Revelation, Persona 4 Revival, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, Resident Evil: Veronica, and a lot more.
What other game showcases have there been?
The death of E3 has led to a free-for-all land grab of trailer showcases and game reveal events in early June. Of course, the big three of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo had their own shows, but outlets and other organizations have put out their own showcases with specific framings.
These are game showcases that highlight certain communities and cultures, so I highly recommend you scroll down this list and find a game showcase that might interest you. I think the titles for all of these speak for themselves:
(Also, a lot of these videos begin with a countdown, so be sure to skip that to get to the actual games.)
Day of the Devs (indie showcase)
Access-Ability Summer Showcase 2026 (games developed with accessibility features in mind)
Wholesome Direct 2026 - Indie Game Showcase (cozy games, crafting games, etc.)
Gayming Pride Parade (LGBTQ+ games)
Frosty Games Fest 2026 (games made in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand)
Green Games Showcase (nature-focused games)
Replay: What are some highlights from the big showcases?
An image from Resident Evil Veronica. Image source: Capcom Press Center
Summer Game Fest 2026
A full remake of Resident Evil - Code: Veronica—simply titled Resident Evil Veronica—is coming out in 2027 on PC, Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
The last chapter of the Final Fantasy VII trilogy is called Final Fantasy VII Revelation, and it’s releasing in the spring of 2027 on PC, Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Square Enix (with the help of Matthew Mercer) showed a gameplay deep dive on stage.
They’re making a Guild Wars 3 for PC and PS5! That’s pretty much all we know about it.
The bizarre crime game Stranger Than Heaven from the makers of Yakuza/Like a Dragon has an extensive cast that includes several prolific Japanese performers, along with… Snoop Dogg… and Tupac?? Is that allowed?
A full sequel to Cuphead is in development, but until then, players can look forward to the 8-bit spin-off Mighty Cuphead Adventure.
We’re finally getting Alien: Isolation 2 to scare the crap out of us! It’s coming to PC, Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, but there’s no announced release date yet.
Veterans from Naughty Dog are making the new Crossfire game, a third-person shooter that promises to change how cover systems work.
The creator of Assassin’s Creed is making a very witchy game called 1666: Amsterdam, and you can actually play a “prologue” of the game right now.
The next installment of Sega’s Virtua Fighter finally has a title: Virtua Fighter Crossroads. Speaking of fighting games, Tifa from Final Fantasy VII will be a guest character in Street Fighter 6’s Year 4 DLC.
Among Us is getting a story-based standalone game called Among Us Story: On Guard, and an animated Among Us show is streaming on Paramount Plus right now.
Too much to get into! Here’s the link to the whole Summer Game Fest show.
A screen from Gears of War: E-Day. Image source: Xbox Wire
Xbox Games Showcase
Prequel game Gears of War: E-Day kicked off the show and got its own separate video presentation. It’s out October 6 on PC and as an Xbox console exclusive—though it looks like a PS5 version may have been planned at some point.
Though the upcoming Fable reboot was delayed to February, it still got a new trailer, featuring a villain portrayed by Hayley Atwell.
The Halo: Campaign Evolved remake (which is coming to PS5) will have three new story missions, and it looks like you’ll participate in some space battles.
In Persona news, the Persona 4 Revival remake is out on February 18, and a Persona 6 is confirmed to be in the works after alleged leaks for the game released.
It’s been a long time coming for State of Decay 3, which was announced all the way back in 2020, but the zombie survival game finally has a 2027 release window.
A follow-up to the Hellblade games called Senua (after its protagonist) is in the works, and developer Ninja Theory says it’ll have a more action-adventure focus. Strangely, despite Xbox’s new focus on exclusives, this first-party title is coming to PS5 when it comes out in 2027.
Spyro is back! The purple dragon returns in Spyro: A Realm Beyond, a multiplatform game set for a spring 2027 release.
Crazy Taxi returns with Crazy Taxi: World Tour, but its vibrant Offspring-infused trailer was overshadowed by complaints that generative AI was used to some degree in the production of the game.
The new Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse from the makers of Dead Cells is coming out on October 15 for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, but the Switch release window is an annoyingly ambiguous “2026.”
If you can afford it, they’re making a translucent Xbox Series X called the Xbox Series X25. It looks cool, but probably expensive. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma gave out free Xboxes to audience members like she’s freaking Oprah.
Xbox has a recap video of the showcase, but you can watch the full show through this link.
A screen from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time reveal trailer. Image source: Nintendo Press Center
Nintendo Direct
They finally confirmed The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake for Switch 2! It’s coming out at an unspecified time this year, but the reveal trailer showed… almost nothing, other than the image you see above.
All three Kingdom Hearts collections (1.5+2.5, 2.8, and 3+ReMind) are coming to Switch 2 on October 8. Plus, Kingdom Hearts 4 will be on Switch 2! The Direct featured a new trailer, but predictably, there’s no release date yet.
The delightful Pokémon Pokopia is getting both a free update and paid DLC, with a trailer for the Expansion Pass showing off a new underwater biome.
Wii Sports Resort is getting a proper successor with Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, coming to Switch 2 on October 22. There are 12 sports included, but the presentation was weirdly fixated on the new Thumb Wrestling game.
FromSoftware’s multiplayer soulslike The Duskbloods doesn’t have a release date yet, but there will be a closed playtest of the game sometime this summer.
The three main Xenoblade Chronicles games are getting Switch 2 Edition upgrades, and a new entry called Xenoblade Genesis is scheduled to release on Switch 2 in 2027.
We saw a little more of the single-player Switch 2 game Splatoon Raiders, which comes out July 23. It’ll have its own presentation on June 30.
The amazing-looking retro anime-inspired co-op game Orbitals finally got a release date of September 3! It’s very much cut from the same cloth as It Takes Two and Split Fiction, with some developers from those games working on this Switch 2 exclusive.
Four protagonists star in Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, which comes out on Switch 2 on September 17.
The creators of Untitled Goose Game have been working on the co-op hiking adventure Big Walk, and it’s also coming to Switch 2 when it releases on August 4.
A trailer for the previously announced Switch 1 game Rhythm Heaven Groove revealed that there will be multiplayer games included, along with a turn-based rhythm RPG-like mode.
Ports of Devil May Cry 5, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Lies of P, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Stellar Blade, and Minecraft are also coming to Switch 2.
There is too much other news! Here’s the link to the full Nintendo Direct if you want to catch everything.
We’ll be back next week with a (hopefully) normal edition of the newsletter!
Happy gaming,
Chris Compendio
