Canadians headline Summer Game Fest in L.A. — one of the industry's top shows

You don't have to look far to find a Canadian presence at what many consider the most important video games industry show in North America.

Geoff Keighley, host and creator of the week-long cavalcade of game trailers, announcements and live theatre showcases, is originally from Markham, Ont., but is currently based in Los Angeles.

"I'm really proud of my heritage. I think there's a lot of amazing game developers across all of Canada, which is exciting for me," he said.

Hosted earlier this month in Los Angeles, Summer Game Fest is only in its third year, having started as an online-only reel of trailers and announcements for new and upcoming video games. But since then it's grown significantly into an in-person event bringing together video game developers, media and fans to drum up excitement for what's coming in the next year of releases.

Think of it like a cross between the Consumer Electronic Show and San Diego Comic-Con, with an attempt at the pomp of the Cannes Film Festival.

It's a spiritual successor of sorts to E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, which stuffed the Los Angeles Convention Center with hundreds of booths and game previews every June.

While much smaller than E3, developers and journalists said they were happy to attend Summer Game Fest in place of E3, even as it wrestled with ongoing questions about its leaders reflecting the diverse people who play games, and whether regular gamers can be enticed to pay the ticket price to attend what has historically been an industry-only show.

Canadian games showcase

Several Canadian games were showcased at Summer Game Fest's presentation in the YouTube Theater to a crowd of a few thousand industry insiders, journalists, social media influencers and gaming fans.

Canadian-made games like FaeFarm, Été and Islands of Insight shared the spotlight with U.S. and Japanese blockbusters like Armored Core 6 and Starfield.

At a press-only panel, Xbox's Sarah Bond gave a shout-out to Toronto indie team Cococucumber, maker of Echo Generation and Ravenlok.

When asked, Keighley said he doesn't actively work to promote Canadian developers ahead of American, Japanese or other powerhouse nations in the growing, multibillion-dollar industry.

"It just naturally kind of happens. We don't really seek it out, right? But I love to highlight Canadian teams when we have them on our shows."

As E3 declines, Summer Game Fest rises

The Electronic Entertainment Expo had been the biggest games industry event in North America since its inception in 1995. 

But it hasn't been back after a forced hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, and several missteps that included leaking media attendees' personal information.

That void was filled by Keighley in 2020 with the launch of Summer Game Fest. Gamers and journalists are familiar with him for the Game Awards, which boasted over 103 million livestreams last year.

"It's obviously much smaller, it's much more focused, it's definitely more intimate. It doesn't have the same sort of spectacle" of past E3s, said Patrick Klepek, a games writer and streamer for Remap Radio who had been attending E3 for various outlets since the 1990s.

Archival videos of E3 from the '90s and early 2000s were laden with convention kitsch, including statues of characters like Mario or Halo's Master Chief, and dancing "booth babes."

SGF eschewed that in favour of comfy couches in front of large TVs promoting new games.

"In a lot of ways, it feels like Summer Game Fest is rising in influence, while E3 is waning," said Todd Martens, games reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

Diversity on the screen and behind the scenes

Questions about diversity and representation persisted in an industry stereotypically known as a boys' club, despite surveys showing a near-equal divide between male and female-identifying gamers.

Keighley interviewed a handful of developers and actors at his live showcase on June 8 — including actor Nicolas Cage. But no women joined him in the program's near-two-hour duration.

Keighley said Melanie Liburd, the actor who plays new character Saga Anderson in the upcoming Alan Wake II, was supposed to appear but couldn't due to scheduling conflicts.

"I think generally we do a pretty good job with diversity in our shows. That was something that's a fair flag," he said. "We also want to be authentic to the games that are being presented on the show and the developers that are making them. So yeah, I think we're conscious of it."

Several games including Clockwork Revolution and South of Midnight and Star Wars: Outlaws featured women of colour as their lead characters.

Tabletop card game Magic the Gathering was the only non-video game on display at SGF, showing off its upcoming Lord of the Rings expansion. In recent weeks it became the target of online racist ire, after its art revealed interpretations of Aragorn, Galadriel and other classic characters as dark-skinned.

Ovidio Cartagena, senior art director for the Lord of the Rings set, said he expected the response. But it was important to him to represent a diversity of people in the cards' art to reflect real life.

"I weighed the positivity against the negativity and the positivity ended up winning. And now ... I get more mail and more comments of positivity than negativity. A hell of a lot more," he said.

But is it for the gamers?

Freelance games journalist Shannon Liao said attendees could be seen networking, giving hands-on feedback on game previews or just having fruitful creative conversations at SGF.

It's good access for journalists, too, who rarely share the room with the industry's power brokers like Xbox head Phil Spencer these days.

"When you're in person, you can keep following up on things that they're saying that are interesting, but you just want to get a little bit more time, and push them on some of their answers," Liao said.

The appeal for your everyday gamer is less certain.

Liao notes that for the average gamer simply hungry for announcements and trailers, watching them from home will likely be enough — no matter who's running the show.

"They don't really care if it's E3 or if it's Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest," she said. 

According to Axios Gaming's Stephen Totilo, the 6,000-seat YouTube Theater did not sell out for Keighley's live showcase, with tickets eventually being cut to $10 each.

"I'm here because, honestly, I got free tickets," said a young man named named Eugene, who declined to give his last name.

During an interview, Keighley gave no indication of planning a pivot or bringing the event to the Los Angeles Convention Center — E3's old haunt, the King's Landing of video game domains.

As far as he's willing to let on, he's focused on staying the course.

"I love this community. I've been a part of it for three decades and the reason we built Summer Game Fest was hopefully to create energy in this community about games and what this medium means to everybody," Keighley said.