Summer Game Fest: Sonic, Sephiroth and zero women

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we react to last night’s Summer Game Fest opening livestream, which offered us a first look at new Sonic and Prince of Persia games, plus a mouth-watering glimpse at Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth.

What didn’t we see? A little oddly, Square Enix decided not to showcase Final Fantasy 16 – the one which actually goes on sale in a couple of weeks. Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty was also missing, as was host Geoff Keighley’s best pal Hideo Kojima. Once the conference concluded, discussion online focused on the lack of any women on stage, following appearances by a string of male developers – and also Nic Cage.

On the upside, no one unexpectedly walked on stage and got arrested. So, how do we feel about all that, and how would we rate the conference overall? Was it a satisfying alternative to E3? Or are we hoping for more now from Xbox, Ubisoft and Capcom over the coming days? Joining me to discuss all that are Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy.