Summer Game Fest & IGN Live! Day 1 Experience and Why YOU Should Attend!
There are three specific times of year gamers around the globe gather together to celebrate the thing we love most: gaming. During these three times each year the crowd that gathers in the halls of the various amphitheaters and venues don't care about who has what plastic box, where someone is from, or what games someone else plays. For brief moments in June, August, and December (or more broadly, the Christmas holiday), gamers are united, catching up with people they may only see once or twice a year, and celebrating the latest exciting announcements from AAA game studios and indie developers alike.
This year I have the privilege of attending one of these main annual events: Summer Game Fest and IGN Live. In this and the articles to follow I'll be chronicling the experience, the games shown and demoed, and the comments and reactions of gamers throughout the weekend.
Hours before the opening of the IGN Live event in Los Angeles, CA, gamers from around the world were already forming a line wrapped around the block.
If you described the events of the weekend as a three-day event, you wouldn't necessarily be wrong. You can describe it more accurately, however, as a three-event weekend. On day 1 was the opening of IGN Live at 10AM, followed by the Summer Game Fest main showcase at the YouTube Theater roughly half-an-hour's drive from the Magic Box. All of the big names are at each, from Jake Baldino and Parris Lilly to Colt Eastwood and Jez Cordon (sadly Rand-al-Thor was unable to attend, so Jez and Colt comprised the NEW Xbox Two for the weekend). Aaron Greenberg can be seen at the doors of the YouTube Theater snapping photos with friends and gamers alike, while a near-literal mosh pit of gamers are raising the roof as IGN's personalities toss merch, plushies, backpacks, and all manner of other goodies towards them hyping up the show. It's a spectacle to behold.
While the camaraderie is definitely one of the major draws to events such as these, it wouldn't be a gaming event without the games. IGN delivers with an entire auditorium full of PCs furnished with Razer keyboards, mice, and chairs, as well as Xbox and PlayStation consoles as far as the eye can see. Everywhere you turn you'll find fighting games, racing games, shooters, and even a hefty number of classic cabinet games lining the walls. This says nothing of the main showcase for the day: Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest showcase.
From wall to wall in all directions you'll fins PCs with the latest peripheral from Razer, whole tables of Xbox and PlayStation consoles serving up the latest titles and some you haven't even heard of yet, and a crowd full of focus and excitement.
If anyone knows how to put on a show it's Geoff Keighley, host of Summer Game Fest, The Game Awards, and Gamescon. His events need no introduction from me as anything I say will simply not do justice to the work he and his crew put into these productions. It's one thing to see the events streaming through YouTube, Twitch, or TikTok. It's quite another to be there in-person.
None of this really answers the question, however, of WHY YOU should attend these kinds of events. To answer that I'll need to paint a picture for you. Throughout the events I enjoyed excitedly firing off post after post here on X as well as through TikTok, not just sharing my excitement with those online by FEELING the electricity in the air with friends I hadn't seen in a year or more. In the moment there's nothing like it, but reality snapped back in with one of the first comments on my collective posts: "show is mid".
I had to do a double-take on that comment -- "Mid? Does this person not feel the energy in the air? Are they not excited at ALL for anything on display today?"
The fact of the matter is that that's the difference between being with other gamers celebrating games and watching a stream through your browser. The social component is missing, much in the same way Call of Duty wouldn't feel right if it were a single-player-only game in today's day and age. The fact is that the excitement and energy doesn't bleed through the screen. It's simply not the same.
Feeling the waves of energy from the crowd from one announcement to the next makes all the difference in both the experience and enjoyment of the events but also in the perspective you walk away with having met and engaged with so many other gamers from so many different parts of the world and from all walks of life.
If you have no choice but to watch the streams from home, I encourage you to find friends and fellow gamers to watch with instead of watching alone. If you ever have the opportunity to attend an event like these, even if just once, I highly encourage you to. Heck, mention me on social media and I'll make it a point to find you and tear up the venue with you! The worst thing that can happen is you make a few new friends. The best thing that can happen is you walk away with a whole new perspective and appreciation for the world of gaming.
Well, you'll also walk away with more merch than you would have ever expected to.
I'll be attending IGN Live all weekend long. This is the first of a series I'll be writing about the experience. In the next article I'll get into more detail about the games on display, the game trailers and previews shown at Summer Game Fest, and the crowd reactions and comments therein. There's plenty to be excited about, from Star Wars Outlaws to some hidden indie gems that will be making their debut, both with trailers and hands-on play time. Check back more tomorrow!
