According to Summer Game Fest PR manager Jasmine James, unlike E3, where Xbox, Nintendo, and PlayStation dominated, the festival, and in particular the Play Days event, gives individual and not very large studios the opportunity to participate. However, this participation can cost a lot.
«These shows are really expensive», — says one insider Esquire about Summer Game Fest and Game Awards, which are organized by is managed by Jeff Keighley. According to anonymous sources, the trailer screening during the main show of this year’s Summer Game Fest cost $250 thousand for one minute, $350 thousand for one and a half, $450 thousand for two minutes, and $550 thousand for two and a half. the same prices were at last year’s Game Awards.
If you add up all the trailers lasting from one to two and a half minutes released during Summer Game Fest last year, you will get $9.65 million for the main show alone. Of course, last year’s prices could have been different, and it is also unknown how much scenes of 30 seconds or long segments inviting developers to the stage cost.
For many small and independent studios, these amounts are astronomical, sometimes much more than the entire marketing budget of a single game. «The current price levels make Summer Game Fest an unattainable goal for most indie developers and publishers,» a PR specialist representing indie games told the publication. But marketing and public relations specialists from large studios say that trailer premieres are worth the cost. They have an impact on brand awareness, and long demonstrations are much more useful than the shortest ones.
This year, Summer Game Fest is also selling tickets for fans to the main demo. Earlier this week, first-party tickets were still available on Ticketmaster for $41. But even if Summer Game Fest sells out all the seats in the 6,000-seat theater at that price, it will only bring in about $246 thousand, not including reserved seats.
Play Days, a three-day event for invited media and VIPs only, allows studios to purchase a «full package» participation for $150 thousand, or a meeting place for $50 thousand. Visitors to the show walk between the stands, try out demo games and talk to developers — and this is also beneficial.
Participation in this in-person event is free for invited media representatives, but some of them would like Summer Game Fest to be a bit more transparent.
«Many upcoming journalists and creators ask me how to get an invitation. When I first started out, I went straight to the official E3 website and applied for a media badge, but I’ve never seen anything like Summer Game Fest,» says Danny Pena, founder and co-host of the Gamertag Radio podcast.
Summer Game Fest will run from June 7 to 10. The festival will feature games such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Monster Hunter: Wilds, possible Mafia 4, and others.
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