The Biggest No Shows of Summer Game Fest
Summer Game Fest 2026 began on June 2 with Sony and ended on June 9 with Nintendo. In between that time, there were dozens of showcases, a handful of events and hundreds upon hundreds of new games announced. However, there were some games that were noticeably absent. Here’s the biggest no shows of Summer Game Fest 2026 or the Top 5 Announcements we want to see at Summer Game Fest 2027
WHERE ARE THESE GAMES?
Luigi’s Mansion 4
Next Level Games, the Vancouver based studio responsible for some fantastic Nintendo games including Punch-Out!! for the Wii, Super Mario Strikers for GameCube and more notably Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon for the 3DS as well as Luigi’s Mansion 3 for the Nintendo Switch were acquired by Nintendo in 2021.
After the success of Luigi’s Mansion 3, which has around 15 million copies sold as well as their track record of releasing a game nearly every three years like clockwork dating back to 2013 and their acquisition from Nintendo, it seemed like a sure thing that we would get Luigi’s Mansion 4 for the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025.
After 2025 came and went, the logic was that the launch year for Nintendo Switch 2 was too busy with the release of Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza to release another tentpole title like Luigi’s Mansion 4. It would be best to spread out the high profile releases and avoid long periods without one. It almost certainly meant Luigi’s Mansion 4 would be coming in October 2026, but as Summer Game Fest and the June Nintendo Direct came and went, Mario’s brother was nowhere to be found.
Considering that Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD sold around 2 million, and Next Level Games haven’t released a game since Mario Strikers: Battle League in 2022, Luigi’s Mansion 4 not being revealed is one of the biggest absences of Summer Game Fest 2026.
playdead
It’s hard to believe, but INSIDE came out in 2016, which means that it has now been over a decade since playdead released a game. Granted, over the years, there has been a fair amount of disruptions and turnover within the studio. Co-founder Dino Patti departed in 2016, very shortly after the release of INSIDE and went on to co-found Jumpship. He served as executive producer for Somerville, which was an ambitious platformer about an alien invasion, but fell short of expectations.
Then there was Jeppe Carlsen, lead gameplay designer for both LIMBO and INSIDE, who went on to start Geometric Interactive and release Cocoon, which was an extremely unique and excellent puzzle game, but seemingly fell short of sales expectations with approximately 250k units sold. Both of these games from former key playdead figures failed to capture attention quite like LIMBO or INSIDE were able to, which makes me think that studio co-founder Arnt Jensen might be studio superstar.
The Danish studio feels like the indie equivalent of Rockstar, as they remain extremely reclusive. Concept art has been featured on their website, as well as job postings for their third game with minimal descriptions over the years where we can see that the studio is working on a third person sci-fi adventure, set in a remote corner of the universe. We also know that the game will be 3D as Arnt Jensen, founder of playdead, has said that he is “tired of the limitations of 2D.”
playdead have afforded themselves time to develop on their own schedule due to the success of their first two titles and on their website, they state “development does not include crunching towards arbitrary deadlines”.
Ghost Town Games
At The Game Awards 2024, Ghost Town Games, the studio behind Overcooked and Overcooked 2 revealed their first new IP since 2016: Stage Fright. A two player, co-op exclusive adventure about three friends: Charlie, Drew and Blake who are trying to unravel an ancient mystery.
When it comes to family friendly co-op games, there are basically two groups: Hazelight style games that feature team work and asymmetrical gameplay. The other are games like Overcooked, which is controlled chaos with friends that never gets old and while there have been many imitators, Overcooked has never been duplicated. But what if Ghost Town Games, the incredibly small studio behind Overcooked and Overcooked 2, tried their hand at something more akin to Hazelight?
The trailer was bursting with colors and unique environments that look incredibly fun to explore, but Stage Fright is a big swing for Ghost Town Games. To begin with, the studio has only created games inside the Overcooked IP, which leaves a big gameplay challenge, as both entries in the series were built around a few very small gameplay mechanics.
The other big challenge is in the narrative, because if you ask many people, they might not be aware that there even was a story in Overcooked, as you had to protect the onion kingdom. Not only is the pressure on the studio to deliver an experience that proves they are more than a one trick pony, there is also the added pressure of trying to make an asymmetrical co-op game in a post Hazelight world.
Personally, I think Ghost Town Games are up for the challenge and considering that Overcooked 2 released in 2018, it will mean that the team has been working on it for at least eight years to find the fun and polish the narrative.
Marvel’s Blade
At The Game Awards 2023, Arkane Lyon, the studio behind the critically and commercially acclaimed Dishonored 2 and Deathloop, two titles with sales between 2.5 - 4 million and review averages in the high 80’s announced that they were working on Marvel’s Blade. True to Arkane Lyon and their previous work, the trailer for Blade was visually stunning and dripping with unique style. Details are sparse, but Marvel’s Blade is a single player, third person action, which is a first for the studio that features Blade in the heart of Paris during a vampire quarantine.
To say that things for Xbox and Blade have been tumultuous since then would be an understatement. At the start of 2026, Marvel officially pulled the plug on the cinematic Blade reboot that was supposed to feature Academy Award winning actor Mahershala Ali as the titular anti-hero. On the Xbox side of things, Arkane Austin was closed down as well as Tango Gameworks, another Bethesda studio. we have recently learned that the studios within Xbox that make prestige titles which are great for the medium, but bad for the balance sheet would be scrutinized and looked at for closure. Just days after Summer Game Fest 2026, it was leaked that Ninja Theory, Double Fine and Compulsion Games. With 150 employees, slower development cycles, and games that aren’t blockbuster hits, Arkane Lyon might have dodged a silver bullet for now.
Considering all of this it seems like a miracle that Arkane Lyon hasn’t been closed, but that Blade is also still in full development. According to Creative Director Dinga Bakaba, Blade is still very much in development and that 2027 is the intended target. The hope is that with so much invested into the game already and hopefully a multi-platform release, it would seem sensible that this project would recoup its investment and then some.
Katana Zero DLC
Katana Zero released in 2019 to overwhelming critical and commercial acclaim, which is likely part of the reason why the long-in-gestation DLC has yet to arrive. Very shortly after the release of Katana Zero, Justin Stander, the solo developer better known as Askiisoft announced he was working on a free DLC for all owners of the base game.
However, every time the developer was asked about the DLC, it was always that it was progressing, but the scope of the DLC kept growing, eventually leading to Justin to refer to it as Katana Zero 1.5, as the scope had crept up to about half the size of the original game, which would likely be about 2-3 hours.
After many years of relative silence, leading to questioning if the DLC was still in development, Katana Zero reappeared at Triple iii Showcase in 2025 with a fresh new trailer along with the confirmation that it was still coming and it would still be free. The trailer featured a lot of what fans had come to love, but an all new jungle setting that felt very 80’s.
The entire situation sounds strikingly similar to Team Cherry and their development of Silksong. Development of both games was handled by a very small team, the original game sold beyond expectations, the DLC grew far beyond scope and updates about the project have been extremely minimal. The good news is that we all know how Silksong turned out.
