Tonight’s Summer Game Fest showcase marks the start of a weekend of announcements, filling the typical June slot that the now-defunct E3 used to fill.
But how much does a trailer in Geoff Keighley’s showcase actually cost?
An industry insider told Esquire, as part of a report on Summer Game Fest, “Geoff is a black hole of information.” Still, the trailer cost was revealed and has since been confirmed by Kotaku.
Would you like a one-minute trailer in the showcase? That’s $250,000 in Keighley’s pocket.
One and a half minutes jumps to $350,000, two minutes is $450,000 and two and a half minutes is $550,000. A document obtained by Kotaku adds that this money also includes a certain number of social media posts.
Based on these costs and last year’s showcase, Esquire estimates that Keighley earned $9.65 million. Additionally, Keighley is the only person listed on his company’s most recent LLC filings with the California Secretary of State, so it’s unclear how many people work there as part of Summer Game Fest.
As one PR pro said, “Current pricing levels make Summer Game Fest an unattainable goal for most indie developers and publishers.”
Still, Kotaku confirmed through a number of indie publishers and developers that some “free slots” are being offered to smaller, non-AAA games and studios. This is part of ‘Earned Editorial Placements’ which provide free airtime for certain projects.
However, these placements are also likely reserved for the biggest reveals from companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. That begs the question: who exactly pays these prices?
That’s not all. Summer Game Fest will continue as a physical event after the showcase. A biz developer partner badge for one day of access costs $500 – upon approval. A cabana for private meetings costs $50,000 for three days, including space for six people, table service, free parking and six access badges, or $20,000 per day.
A “full hands-on pod” can also be purchased, including four large HDTVs and more, with publishers and developers able to spend more on custom locations and spaces.
On the other hand, a PR professional told Esquire that “overall brand awareness is the impact [of the showcase] is quite large”, although this “depends on the placement and length of the trailer”. “Longer slots perform better and appear to generate more coverage, while short trailers don’t quite attract the same attention,” they said.
Another marketing professional added that fans can buy tickets for the showcases, suggesting that proceeds here could be used to reduce entry costs for smaller customers.
In a Twitch stream earlier this week ahead of the showcase, Keighley set expectations by specifying certain games that will and will not appear. He described 2024 as a “brighter year” and said his excitement was an 8/10, which seems a bit mean for the developers spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to participate.
An important reason for the ‘lighter year’ is of course the thousands of layoffs that have rocked the games industry – the number of layoffs in 2024 has already passed 10,000.
Keighley was criticized after The Game Awards last year for failing to acknowledge the redundancies or the state of the industry. He admitted afterwards that the speeches were too short, although there is no danger of a ‘wrap it up’ at Summer Game Fest.
Still, Summer Game Fest has spawned a number of other showcases specifically focused on indie games and minorities. We’ve got a list of all the showcases for you to check out, including not only events from Keighley, Microsoft and Ubisoft, but also the Access-Ability showcase, Wholesome Direct, Women-Led Game Showcase and more.