The SGF kickoff show is getting a splashy new venue
Spooky season has only just begun, but the team behind Summer Game Fest is already hard at work planning the next installment of Hot Geoff Summer. The live kickoff showcase will take place on June 5, 2026, at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. If that venue rings a bell, it should: It’s been home to the Oscars since 2002. The showcase will unite a live audience of thousands with an online viewership in the tens of millions for a gaggle of game reveals, updates, and more surprises. But will there be Muppets? Lord, I hope so.
Just down the block from the iconic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Dolby has hosted a number of starry events over the years, including several seasons of American Idol, The BET Awards, and America’s Got Talent. With three balconies and clusters of opera boxes flanking the sides, it’ll give Summer Game Fest a more intimate and elevated feel. (It’s worth bearing in mind that this venue change purely applies to Geoff’s summer event, for now. The Game Awards 2025 will take place on Dec. 11 in the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, where it’s been held since 2015.)
Summer Game Fest began as a streaming event in 2020, after E3 was canceled due to pandemic social distancing measures. Event organizers added an in-person media event for 2022. The fourth Summer Game Fest, in 2023, was the first to combine a live theater showcase in the vein of The Game Awards, as well as a separate media preview event. For the past two years, the live kickoff event has been held in the YouTube Theater in Inglewood. It’s part of the same complex as SoFi Stadium, best known for hosting Kyle Richards’ annual white party in the season 13 finale of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, as well as the occasional Rams and Chargers home game.
