As part of Summer Game Fest 2022, Devolver Digital will host their annual games showcase on June 9. The Austin-based publisher of games like Hotline Miami and Inscryption announced the upcoming livestream on June 3, which they have named the “Devolver Marketing Countdown to Marketing.” Devolver have confirmed that the showcase will be hosted by No More Heroes series creator Suda51 and will feature at least three new game reveals, one of which is being developed by Free Lives, the masterminds behind Genital Jousting.
The announcement arrived in the form of a new teaser trailer for the event, depicting members of the Devolver Digital marketing team discussing an end-all-be-all media tactic to make consumers “climax in their G Fuel-soaked gamer chairs.” The not-so-subtle jab at the games industry is nothing new for Devolver, who have been using their conferences to satirize AAA publishers since their 2017 E3 showcase. Each summer, Devolver picks popular new marketing gimmick to mock; a randomly-valued cryptocurrency called Lootboxcoin was featured in their 2018 E3 conference, and a pointless subscription service called Devolver Maxpass+ was the focus of their 2021 showcase. This year, their gimmick is (as the name implies) an over-the-top marketing countdown.
The new trailer also revealed that Devolver will continue the ongoing fictional narrative about their company in the 2022 showcase, another practice that began in 2017. Each conference centers around Nina Struthers (played by Mahria Zook), a “chief synergy officer” at Devolver who is either working with her team to come up with the publisher’s next big moneymaking scheme or using said scheme on a captive E3 audience. Either way, Nina wants to show the world that Devolver is working to push gaming into the “future’s future future.”
For those who want to “check a look” at what games Devolver Digital will be releasing in the coming year, the Marketing Countdown to Marketing Event will go live on both the Summer Game Fest website and Twitch at 3 pm PT on Thursday.