Summer Game Fest 2025 Preview: Game Predictions and Rumors

It’s finally June, which means that the latest Summer Game Fest is right around the corner, with SGF 2025 kicking off on Friday, June 6 and developers and press participating in the hands-on Play Days through Monday, June 9. The event is the premier video gaming event in North America, featuring a whole host of new game announcements and first looks, from major publishers to indie game developers. In advance of SGF 2025, the event’s official partners have been unveiled, though the specific projects they may be sharing at this year’s event remain tightly under wraps.

With that in mind, we’re at the edge of our seats awaiting the official news coming out of SGF 2025, poring over the announced partner list like an episode of Mindhunter. Keep in mind that until the SGF kick-off event, this is all idle speculation of what’s actually going to be announced this year. With that said, let the anticipation-fueled gaming predictions begin!

Blumhouse Games

Blumhouse Productions has been a major force in producing countless horror and action movies for years and they’ve branched into the world of video games since the launch of Blumhouse Games in 2023. SGF 2024 saw Blumhouse Games unveil its first wave of titles, Fear the Spotlight, Crisol: Theater of Idols, Grave Seasons, Project C, The Simulation, and Sleep Awake, with Fear the Spotlight released later in 2024. With that in mind, hopefully SGF 2025 will offer updates on the other five games, along with potential additional game announcements.

Echoing the early days of its enormously successful film division, Blumhouse Games teams up with smaller developers to craft effective titles favoring creativity and quality over big, bombastic scale. Fear the Spotlight was a lo-fi love letter to horror games from the ‘90s and early 2000s, reminding players that a game doesn’t need a cutting-edge technical presentation to provide a terrifying experience. If that game is any indicator, any announcements or demos at SGF 2025 are sure to be just as atmospheric and creepy in their own way.

Capcom

Capcom definitely came to play at SGF 2024, announcing Monster Hunter Wilds and providing a first look at gameplay at its booth on the Play Days campus. The company also unveiled the Season 2 DLC for Street Fighter 6 and offered a hands-on demo of its cult classic action-strategy game Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. The iconic Japanese publisher’s partnership with SGF continues into 2025 and the possibilities surrounding what it could share this year are electrifying. 

Though Capcom has kept mum on what to expect from SGF 2025, the event does start a mere two days after the last bit of Street Fighter 6 Season 2 DLC is released. If last year’s event set a trend, Capcom could share its future plans for Street Fighter 6, including the announcement of new DLC characters or a full-on expansion to the popular fighting game. It’s also known that Capcom has been working on an unspecified Resident Evil title, marking a return to its best-selling survival horror franchise, though something completely new and left-field could make an appearance instead.

CD Projekt

The Polish video game company CD Projekt has delivered some truly ambitious and widely acclaimed original games over the past decade, including The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077. Since the well-received DLC expansion to Cyberpunk 2077, 2023’s Phantom Liberty, CD Projekt has hinted at other major games that it currently has in development. That leads to several tantalizing possible announcements to take place around SGF 2025.

Both a remake of 2007’s The Witcher and The Witcher 4 have been confirmed to be in development, with the latter shifting protagonists and poised to kick off a new trilogy of games. CD Projekt is also developing a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 along with at least two different new IPs and a Witcher online multiplayer spinoff. Any number of these projects could get follow-up news announcements at SGF 2025, giving fans a wide array of things to be excited about from the publisher.

Funcom

An online open world game based on Legendary Entertainment’s enormously successful Dune movies has been in the works for years and is nearly finally here. Developed and published by Funcom, Dune: Awakening is set in an alternate timeline from the novels and movies where Paul Atreides was never born. This, along with the mysterious disappearance of the Fremen, extends the war between House Atreides and House Harkonnen for the fate of the desert planet of Arrakis and its valuable supply of spice.

After seeing an early build of Dune: Awakening behind closed doors at SGF 2024, Funcom is ready to fully showcase the game just in time for this year’s event. This year’s Funcom presentation could include a launch trailer for Awakening, ahead of its on-sale date of June 10. There’s also always the chance that Funcom could have something completely different up its sleeve, given how increasingly prolific the Norwegian game company is becoming in recent years. 

IO Interactive

IO Interactive has been the developer of the long-running Hitman video game series since its launch in 2000, also helming the successful revival trilogy that ran from 2016 to 2021. In 2020, IOI announced it was working on a new James Bond game, under the working title Project 007, now revealed to be 007 First Light, something distinctly separate from the established film franchise while working closely with MGM and Eon Productions. In addition to 007 First Light, IOI announced in 2023 that they were also working on an online RPG under the working title Project Fantasy.

The smart money here is betting IOI will finally shed more light on First Light, especially since the only major news since the game’s announcement was that it would be available to play on the Nintendo Switch 2. If not a first look at gameplay, a cinematic trailer, confirmation of additional platforms the game will be available on, or even just the game’s official title, would be welcome updates. There’s always the chance that IOI’s presence could focus on Project Fantasy or the announcement of a new Hitman game, but we’re leaning towards 007 First Light news.

Sega

Sega is at an interesting position in its long lifetime, buoyed by a year of recent commercial successes across several of its biggest properties. This includes Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Persona 3 Reload, and Sonic X Shadow Generations, the latter of which featured with a hands-on demo at SGF 2024. With Sega returning to SGF this year and a number of known titles in development, a fresh of announcements is likely from the Japanese publisher.

At The Game Awards 2023, Sega announced that it was reviving five of its classic franchises, specifically Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe, and Crazy Taxi, though only the Shinobi revival has since received its release date. It’s also known that a Virtua Fighter revival is in development with a first look at gameplay unveiled earlier this year. Any number of these properties could be showcased at SGF, with tantalizing updates, though Sega could also throw us all a curveball and announce new entries in its Like a Dragon, Persona, or Sonic the Hedgehog franchises.

Square Enix

Ever since the release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in February 2024, Square Enix has kept a relatively low profile, releasing remasters and remakes of several of its older titles, largely from the SaGa and Dragon Quest franchises. That makes its presence at SGF 2025 all the more intriguing as fans of the venerable Japanese publisher are eager to see what the company is cooking up next. And given what we know about Square Enix’s plans so far, we definitely have some theories as to what could get announced this year.

It’s been over three years since Square Enix formally announced development of Kingdom Hearts IV, so a first look at the game could finally be coming soon. If Square Enix is pivoting more to Final Fantasy, Rebirth could get an announced DLC expansion, similar to Final Fantasy VII Remake getting its Intergrade expansion the year after its 2020 release. Square Enix has hinted that it is leaning more into its classic RPG properties moving forward, and none of its other franchises are bigger than Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts.

Supermassive Games

While the film adaptation of its hit title Until Dawn saw a mixed response earlier this year, British game developer Supermassive Games have been hard at work on new titles to keep gamers at the edge of their seats. The studio’s acclaimed horror adventure game Little Nightmares is set to get its third main installment later this year. For those looking for a more cinematic gameplay experience, like Until Dawn or The Quarry, Supermassive is also continuing its The Dark Picture Anthology game series with a sci-fi title named Directive 8020.

The Little Nightmares games have always felt like the spiritual successors to 2010’s Limbo, combining a richly atmospheric horror environment with side-scrolling puzzle and platforming gameplay. That looks to continue with Little Nightmares III, while Directive 8020 is shaping up to be Supermassive’s most out-of-this-world horror game yet, starring Lashana Lynch as one of the game’s five protagonists. It’s a safe bet that either or both of these titles will get the spotlight from Supermassive Games at this year’s SGF.

Xbox Games

For several years now Xbox Games has partnered up with Summer Game Fest, with last year containing a side event, Xbox Games Showcase 2024. This showcase unveiled Doom: The Dark Ages and a gameplay reveal of the long-awaited Perfect Dark revival, along with a special spotlight on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Xbox Games has already confirmed that it will have its Xbox Games Showcase 2025 during SGF weekend, with this event scheduled for Sunday, June 8 at 10 a.m. PST.

In contrast to last year’s showcase, this year’s event will be digital-only via livestream, with the spotlight game after the main showcase already publicly identified as The Outer Worlds 2. Given Xbox Games is listed among SGF’s partners, it’ll be interesting to see how much coordination there is between the two events. At any rate, hopefully some Xbox-related news separate from Xbox Games Showcase 2025 will make its way to the main SGF events.