The PC Gaming Show turns 10: Looking back at the biggest moments from each show

Gaming IndustryThe PC Gaming Show turns 10: Looking back at the biggest moments from each showWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Future)

The hosts of the PC Gaming Show 2024

Wow! As of this June, the PC Gaming Show, our not-so-little summer showcase, is nine years old. Which means—because numbers are confusing—2024 actually marks our10thPC Gaming Show. I keep pinching myself, but the number isn’t changing. We’ve carried on through the death of E3 (RIP), a global pandemic, and the constantly changing makeup of PC gaming and somehow put on 10 livestreams highlighting everything we love about this wild, untameable platform.

If you’re a PC Gamer oldbie, you may remember an article our global editor-in-chief Evan Lahti wrote in June 2014, imaginingthe E3 press conference PC gamers deserved. It’s a tongue-in-cheek yet vivid concoction:

Unfortunately we’ve neverquitebeen able to live up to the last paragraph of Evan’s original 2014 pitch, which was my favorite bit of the imaginary PC gaming conference… at least not yet:

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

“… Everything seems to be wrapped. The conference room goes quiet, the house lights come up, and Plott exits the stage. Attendees get to their feet, looking toward the exit. But there’s a sound. A weird, rhythmic noise. What is it? The slow trod of a horse ? It can’t be that.

But hey, there’s always lucky number 11. And our first 10 shows have been packed full of wonderful moments we never could’ve dreamed up before we started this mad exercise. Here’s a look back at the ones that stand out the most vividly.

2015: We actually made a show!

Ode to PC gaming - YouTubeWatch On

Ode to PC gaming - YouTube

I was mostly there to serve as a glorified usher, making sure the developers who arrived knew when they were going on and were equipped with a bottle of water. I hadn’t been involved in organizing the show—that was all on the shoulders of PC Gamer bosses Evan Lahti and Tim Clark—so I just got to enjoy watching it all play out with none of the stress of putting it together.

Tim Clark, Brand Director:“Back when all this started in 2015, the debut show was live from the Belasco theater in Los Angeles right before E3. It was insanely overlong because none of us on the editorial side had ever produced anything like it and weren’t sure how many games to book. Sitting backstage, I knew that things could and definitely would go wrong. My girlfriend saw the state of me—imagine a man simultaneously completely still yet also vibrating furiously—and slipped a Xanax into my hand. The rest is both a blur, and history.”

The history was: Overall, it went well! We survived putting on a 2+ hour show, and Day[9] handled the hiccups so well that his easygoing hosting ended up becoming the defining characteristic of the show. To me the standout moment of 2015 was this one, when Hitman developer Hakan Abrak’s microphone crapped out, and Day[9] leaned in to share his lapel mic, quipping “Whisper the hits sweetly into my ear.”

Hitman interview - PC Gaming Show 2015 - YouTubeWatch On

Hitman interview - PC Gaming Show 2015 - YouTube

That’s quality live TV!

2016: Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord debuts siege combat

Mount and Blade 2 siege trailer - PC Gaming Show 2016 - YouTubeWatch On

Mount and Blade 2 siege trailer - PC Gaming Show 2016 - YouTube

For a game first announced in 2012, this was a long time coming: the first look at sieges in Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord. The original Mount & Blade was a big hit, and sure enough this proved to be one of the most popular—and most “PC”—games featured at the PC Gaming Show in 2016. We’re all about giving the people what they want, and what they want is siege towers with multiple ladders on them.

2017: Microsoft announces Age of Empires: Definitive Edition

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition interview at the PC Gaming Show - YouTubeWatch On

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition interview at the PC Gaming Show - YouTube

It doesn’t get much more heartland PC gaming than Age of Empires, and this felt like Microsoft making good on its renewed commitment to PC gaming, revisiting one of its all-time greats. Age of Empires 2 is still getting DLC to this day.

Tim Clark:“Easily one of my favourite reveals was the surprise announcement in 2017 that Microsoft was working on a definitive edition of Age of Empires, remastered with 4K graphics and tweaked gameplay. In the theatre it was a proper gasp-and-cheer moment from the crowd, and felt like a big payoff for the trust Microsoft had put in us (and for me personally the hours spent on conference calls).”

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds trailer and interview at the PC Gaming Show 2017 - YouTubeWatch On

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds trailer and interview at the PC Gaming Show 2017 - YouTube

2017: XCOM 2: War of the Chosen reveal and interview

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen trailer - PC Gaming Show 2017 - YouTubeWatch On

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen trailer - PC Gaming Show 2017 - YouTube

Not only did we get to debut the first showing of the expansion to one of our favorite strategy games, but creative director Jake Solomon joined us to talk about making an expansion centered on the “ultimate enemies” for XCOM.

Evan Lahti, Global Editor-in-Chief:“Videogames are great because a few million people will be on the edge of their seats, genuinely enthusiastic as I was, about what are basically three new villain action figures being added to the XCOM 2 Alien Counter-Insurgency Playset. I love that we’re all that passionate about the granular stuff that makes up games. The Assassin, Hunter, and Warlock (The Chosen) are the closest that the series gets to tangible villains you have to confront, it’s insidious and so great the way they pop up and wreak havoc. 2017 was definitely the peak of XCOM’s reputation, still in the afterglow of the sequel having improved significantly on the 2015 reboot.”

2018: Satisfactory builds hype for building

Satisfactory reveal trailer - PC Gaming Show 2018 - YouTubeWatch On

Satisfactory reveal trailer - PC Gaming Show 2018 - YouTube

I had no idea that this trailer presaged my crippling game addiction of 2020 and 2021, Coffee Stain’s assembly line manufacturing game Satisfactory. While the initial early access release was a bit feature-light, within a few updates Satisfactory delivered a manically compelling optimization game. Much of what makes it so fun to build and optimize is visible in this first trailer, though, which wisely focuses on the detailed animations of assembly lines at work, conveyor belts in motion and the awe-inspiring scale of a massive factory chugging away.

2018: The Forgotten City goes from mod to full game

The Forgotten City reveal trailer - PC Gaming Show 2018 - YouTubeWatch On

The Forgotten City reveal trailer - PC Gaming Show 2018 - YouTube

The debut of The Forgotten City was not only a big hit at the PC Gaming Show, it went on to be one of ourfavorite games of 2021. A Skyrim-mod-turned-Roman-era-mystery may not have fit into your usual Xbox or PlayStation conference, but it was a perfect fit for the PC Gaming Show. The Forgotten City’s standout showing even helped net it an Unreal E3 Award that year.

2019: Frankie rocks the shark suit for Maneater

Maneater interview - PC Gaming Show 2019 - YouTubeWatch On

Maneater interview - PC Gaming Show 2019 - YouTube

Frankie Ward joined Sean Plott as the co-host of the PC Gaming Show in 2018 and brought incredible charisma and good humor to every wild situation we threw at her. In a later show we’d put Frankie in the pilot seat of a mech, but there was no topping this moment, in which Frankie conducted an interview with Tripwire while wearing a floppy shark suit. Don’t miss her knowing wink to the camera when John Gibson says “there’s an awful lot of maneating going on in this game.”

2020: The pandemic made everything harder, but we still somehow put on a show and also built a robot

The PC Gaming Show 2020 - YouTubeWatch On

The PC Gaming Show 2020 - YouTube

Our formerly live-and-in-person show had to pivot to a remote stream in 2020 while we all grappled with our new pandemic reality, but that somehow didn’t lessen our team’s ambitions for the year. 2020’s PC Gaming Show introduced DevBot, an actual functioning robot who made his way to Los Angeles to join host Day[9] in the underground gaming bunker he was broadcasting from (while wearing an excellent tie and smoking jacket as opposed to the pajamas I surely hadn’t changed out of for week-long stretches at that point, I might add).

Evan Lahti:“One of the sentiments I’ve never liked when it comes to games is this idea that they’re ‘an escape’ from life’s hardships, as if the most we can draw from a game is to be distracted for a few hours. We didn’t want the show to feel like it was in a vacuum from everything that was happening in the world in 2020, but we also understood that we were making a lighthearted, two-hour broadcast about computer games. DevBot is one of the pieces of PCGS we’re proudest of—hopefully we can chart some return to Pee-wee Herman-inspired animatronics in another broadcast without the burden of apocalyptic baggage.”

2020: Valheim goes big

Valheim trailer | PC Gaming Show 2020 - YouTubeWatch On

Valheim trailer | PC Gaming Show 2020 - YouTube

While survival crafting game Valheim was playable in alpha as early as 2018, this trailer at the 2020 PC Gaming Show was really its proper debut. It ended up being one of the most popular trailers from the 2020 show and one of the most popular videogames of 2021. Some viewers were skeptical of the lo-fi aesthetic in the moment, but we always thought Valheim was a looker.

2021: We turn a graphics card into a spaceship

Put on one of these kinds of shows for long enough and you eventually have to start coming up with ideas just to entertainyourself. Like, what if the PC Gaming Show was broadcast from space? And our spaceship was a graphics card? This was during the height of the cryptomining craze, so it turned out to be pretty tough to get our hands on a space-worthy ship-sized graphics card, but we went full Star Trek (okay, more like full Mystery Science Theater) this year and I loved every second of it. 2021 also marked the introduction of cohost Mica Burton, who brought a great energy (and a big wrench) to the show.

2021: Gabe Newell bumps New Blood’s Dave Oshry

He didn’t arrive on a unicorn, but we finally got Gaben. Valve founder Gabe Newell appeared via satellite from a location we have to assume can be described as a hacienda, lair, or château to talk about Steam Next Fest, which is now a pillar of this new golden age of game demos.

Wedidunfortunately have to end one segment a little early to squeeze Newell in, cutting off New Blood CEO Dave Oshry before he could finish giving us the latest on immersive sim Gloomwood. The boomer shooter mogul wasn’t too happy about it, muttering something about Gandalf and yelling at his mom before Day[9] cut him off.

That was a joke, obviously, but its origin was in a teeny tiny little mistake we actually made in 2020: We were supposed to show a Gloomwood trailer midway through the show, but, well, we forgot. A good deal of scrambling happened behind the scenes, and we appended the trailer to the end of the broadcast, but it was too late: like the appeal of ’90s graphics, the slight would not be forgotten.

A year later, Gloomwood was bumped to make room for Newell, but the year after that, Oshry finally got to show a full Gloomwood trailer during the2022 PC Gaming Show. Gloomwood also happens to beone of our favorite early access games right now.

New Blood Interactive showcase (PC Gaming Show 2022) - YouTubeWatch On

New Blood Interactive showcase (PC Gaming Show 2022) - YouTube

2022: Half-Life Alyx: Levitation brings a mod to the forefront

Half-Life Alyx: Levitation gameplay trailer (PC Gaming Show 2022) - YouTubeWatch On

Half-Life Alyx: Levitation gameplay trailer (PC Gaming Show 2022) - YouTube

A full-length campaign mod for a Half-Life VR game is as PC gaming as PC gaming gets, and we knew we needed to devote a good chunk of time to this first-person walkthrough of Alyx expansion Levitation. Not many gameplay clips can hold my attention for a full eight minutes, but this one really let viewers soak in the atmosphere of Levitation’s new custom environments. Or in the more to-the-point words of YouTube commenter AmyDentata: “It’s a mod…. PC Gaming is awesome.”

2022: We debuted docuseries Tales From the Hard Drive

We Tracked Down World Of Warcraft’s Legendary Angwe | Tales From The Hard Drive | PC Gamer - YouTubeWatch On

We Tracked Down World Of Warcraft’s Legendary Angwe | Tales From The Hard Drive | PC Gamer - YouTube

2023: The PC Gaming Show goes bi-annual with a winter showcase

PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted 2023 - ENG - YouTubeWatch On

PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted 2023 - ENG - YouTube

So remember how I said this year is the 10th PC Gaming Show? That was kinda a lie—it’s the 10th summer show, but technically the 11th overall, as we debuted the PC Gaming Show Most Wanted in November of 2023. If you crave new PC games when it’s coldorwhen it’s hot, we’ve now got your back. With Most Wanted we introduced The Council, an “elite cabal” of industry luminaries who voted on the most anticipated games of the coming year. If you don’t want to see Sid Meier doing his best Emperor Palpatine impression, well, I just don’t know how to make you happy.

2024: The PC Gaming Show is still going strong

(Image credit: Future)

PC Gaming Show 10th Anniversary Logo

The 2024 PC Gaming Show kicks off on Sunday, June 9, full of new game reveals and a few returning favorites. Hosts Sean “Day[9]” Plott, Frankie Ward and Mica Burton are all back to lead the way—without any disruptions from known puppy threatener Dave Oshry this time, god willing. This year also marks the addition of a new member to the production team, PCGS Editorial Director Jake Tucker, who brings a frankly frightening amount of energy to bear in organizing this whole endeavor.

“Hopefully everyone watching it has as much fun as we had making it, because despite a few stresses along the way this has been a joyful experience and I’m hyped to see everyone’s reaction.”

We’ll be streaming the show onTwitch,YouTube,Twitter, Steam, and Bilibili, and you can also watch via one of ourco-streaming partners⁠.

More about gaming industryLords of the Fallen publisher embraces fear of the DEI boogeyman, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its gamesEpic CEO Tim Sweeney says tech leaders are ‘pretending to be Republicans’ to gain favor with Trump, skirt antitrust laws, and ultimately ‘rip off consumers and crush competitors’LatestToday’s Wordle answer for Sunday, January 12See more latest►

More about gaming industry

Lords of the Fallen publisher embraces fear of the DEI boogeyman, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its gamesEpic CEO Tim Sweeney says tech leaders are ‘pretending to be Republicans’ to gain favor with Trump, skirt antitrust laws, and ultimately ‘rip off consumers and crush competitors’

Lords of the Fallen (2023) promotional image - very large man with a very large hammer on a very large horse charging a very small man with a very small magic sword

Lords of the Fallen publisher embraces fear of the DEI boogeyman, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its games

Tim Sweeney

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says tech leaders are ‘pretending to be Republicans’ to gain favor with Trump, skirt antitrust laws, and ultimately ‘rip off consumers and crush competitors’

LatestToday’s Wordle answer for Sunday, January 12See more latest►

Latest

Today’s Wordle answer for Sunday, January 12

Wordle today being played on a phone

Today’s Wordle answer for Sunday, January 12

See more latest►

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

2015: We actually made a show!#

2016: Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord debuts siege combat#

2017: Microsoft announces Age of Empires: Definitive Edition#

2017: XCOM 2: War of the Chosen reveal and interview#

2018: Satisfactory builds hype for building#

2018: The Forgotten City goes from mod to full game#

2019: Frankie rocks the shark suit for Maneater#

2020: The pandemic made everything harder, but we still somehow put on a show and also built a robot#

2020: Valheim goes big#

2021: We turn a graphics card into a spaceship#

2021: Gabe Newell bumps New Blood’s Dave Oshry#

2022: Half-Life Alyx: Levitation brings a mod to the forefront#

2022: We debuted docuseries Tales From the Hard Drive#

2023: The PC Gaming Show goes bi-annual with a winter showcase#

2024: The PC Gaming Show is still going strong#