I still don’t miss E3

Welcome to video games every week on Engadget. Expect a new story every Monday, divided into two parts. The first is a space for short tests and ramblings on video game trends and related subjects of me, a journalist who covered the industry for more than 13 years. The second contains the video game stories from last week that you need to know, including titles outside of Engadget.

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It is Summer game weekSo I am mentally wrapped in a complex network of embargoes, meetings, schedules and cryptic invitations, and I can already feel the air plasticky and disinfected that accompanies video game Conventions of all sizes. Mmm, smells of pixels.

It will be my third SGF and I look forward to, as usual. I appreciate the accent put by the event on independent projects, various creators and publishers on a smaller scale, in particular with programs like Day of the developers, direct healthy games, led by women and games of Latin America and Southeast Asia. I deeply believe that innovation in the industry comes from these experimental spaces without attachment and SGF has always provided room for these types of experiences.

I appreciate even more SGF after spending seven years wandering in the cavernous rooms of the Los Angeles Convention Center, covering the Electronic Entertainment Expo. E3 was exciting in its own right and I feel privileged to have assisted him so many times, but it was also a kind of soulless spectacle. E3 was unwilling has Independent creators And full of corporate loot, and when Sony decided to stop attending it in 2019, it looked like an expensive and uncontrollable false declaration of the video game industry as a whole. The best parts of the E3 in recent years have been the unresolved events organized by Devolver Digital, which has taken place in a nearby parking lot filled with air trailers, food trucks and fabulous promising independent games. It looked a lot like SGF, in fact.

I wrote on this phenomenon In 2018, in a story that wondered if the video game industry needed the E3. Perhaps because I am a witch but especially because of the pandemic, the E3 closed in 2020 and he never reappeared as a spectacle in person. The association of entertainment software organized a virtual session in 2021, but nothing afterwards, and E3 was officially died in December 2023. In the meantime, the video game market has continued to growmotivated by an independent maturation segment, a mobile game and a hard Crunch-Layoff cycles At the AAA level.

Now ESA is back with a new video game showcase called disadvantagesThe interactive innovation conference, heading to Las Vegas in April 2026. The biggest names in the industry are involved, including MicrosoftSony, Nintendo, Epic Games, Electronic Arts, Disney, Amazon and Take-Two Interactive, and the spectacle is about to be “a space for visionaries through the industries to meet”, ” According to the President of ESA Stanley Pierre-Louis. E3 2.0 has arrived, and it seems to be also focused on AAA as never. For what is worth, Summer Game Fest has its own version of an AAA summit in the leaders of thought this year with Live game activity.

Meanwhile, ESA remained silent – even When asked directly – While some of the most influential companies in industry refer their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, at a time when employees of women, POC and LGBT + endure active existential threats. And During the month of prideNo less.

All this to say that I am delighted for the summer game this year. It all starts with A live show Friday, June 6, and we have an overview of the complete calendar here. We will publish practical overviews, developer interviews and news directly from SGF during the weekend and beyond, so stay attentive to listen to Engadget game hub.

The news

Layoffs Playtonic

Playtonic, the studio behind Yooka-Layleehas dismissed a non -disclosed number of employees in several departments, including production, art, game design, narrative design and user / ux interface. In a message shared on X, the studio leaders said: “It’s not just a difficult moment, it is a period of deep change in the way the games are created and funded. The landscape changes, and with it, we also have to.” Playtonic’s latest game, Yooka-replayleshould be released this year. Although Playtonic is a small private company (with a minority investment from Tencent), the calendar of layoffs corresponds to the established gaming book of many AAA studios, which operate with periods of crunch and loose layoffs cooked in their business plans.

EA cans Black panther

Electronic Arts revealed his plans to make a third -person Black Panther game in 2023 in 2023 as a wider Marvel push in the studio, but apparently things have changed. EA canceled its Black Panther project and closed the studio that built it, Cliffhanger Games. EA motif, the team behind the stellar Dead space remakealways work on An Iron Man gameas far as we know it.

Roll7 is steaming

Every time I can gas Rollerdrome Or Olliolli worldI’ll do it. After being struck off from Steam over a year ago, Rollerdrome And Olliolli world returned to the window to meet all your debit needs. The two games come from Roll7, a studio based in London that Take-Two bought in November 2021 and close in May 2024, deleting Rollerdrome And World Olli Olli steam in the process.

Playdate The season 2 is live and it’s good

Have we still convinced you to get a game game? Whatever your answer, Playdate Season 2 is live at the moment, adding two new games to the system powered by the crank every week until July 3. The resident of Engadget Playdate Expert Cheyenne Macdonald has an initial batch exam, which includes Defender of the support point from sub-assembly games, You! You! Dino! from Dom2d and Fáyer, and Blippo +A fever dream emerges like a video game. And while you are in this head space, consult Igor Bonifacic Lighting With the co-founder of Jay Ma sub-assembly games.

Ex-bosses are faced with a trial on sexual harassment in France

Three former managers of Ubisoft appeared before the French court on June 2, accused by several employees of the studio of sexual harassment, intimidation and, in the case of an accused, tried sexual assault. The trial alleys that Serge Hascoët, Tommy François and Guillaume Patrux regularly engaged in bad behavior and favored a toxic culture in Ubisoft, and he follows a Public Céché in the studio in 2020more Arrests in 2023.

Switch 2 arrives

Nintendo’s Switch 2 officially releases this week on June 5. We will have an examination of the new console as soon as possible, but in the meantime, you can find all the information you need regarding pre -orders in our practical guide.