June is a quiet month for games. For nearly a quarter century, game journalists would trek out to Los Angeles for the Electronic Entertainment Expo and split time between crawling the busy, loud, show floor and diving into often much-too-cold meeting rooms for a half-height bottle of water and a meeting with developers.
But with the departed E3 now in the rearview mirror, Summer Games Fest has taken its place as a less formal, less centralized, and more optional version of that previous event. Because these events pack the month so full of game news, it's often been a slow time for actual game releases.
This month, though, there's one huge release you can't ignore in the form of Elden Ring's long-awaited expansion, along with some worthy smaller games to check out. Here’s what we’re looking forward to playing in June.
Note: All of the games listed below are traditional or "Web2" video games. None have crypto or blockchain elements, as far as we know.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape
Release Date: June 4
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Destiny 2's ongoing story has been working up to this moment for years. The Final Shape brings the ongoing Destiny storyline to an end, opening Bungie's slate up to begin a new storyline or even announce Destiny 3. (Don't worry, we don't know anything you don't).
Along with bringing the current storyline to a close, this expansion introduces the Prismatic subclass, which allows you to combine Arc, Solar, Void, Statis, and Strand powers into the perfect subclass of your own design.
Star Wars: Hunters
Release Date: June 4
Platforms: Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch
While Star Wars Outlaws—set to release late this summer—is getting all the attention right now, it's not the only Star Wars game on the horizon. June will bring us Star Wars: Hunters.
Get ready for video game buzzwords: This is a free-to-play, player-versus-player competitive arena game with a cast of all-new characters cast from familiar molds. Character types include a Wookie, a Trandoshan, and a Rodian. There are bounty hunters, Jedi, and scavengers.
Picking from the varied list of characters, you'll participate in the kind of modes you know and love from other games. There's a team deathmatch-style mode called Squad Brawl, a Domination-style one called Power Control, and a capture-the-flag or keep away-style game called Trophy Chase. Again, this game is free-to-play, and it's on all of the most popular mobile platforms, so it's worth a look if you're itching for a Star Wars experience right now.
Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game
Release Date: June 4
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Horror movies are almost perfect subject matter for asynchronous multiplayer, where some players are powerful, seemingly immortal beings and others are hapless victims who can do little but escape. The formula works in Dead by Daylight and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Game, but no one would've bet money on the 1988 cult classic horror movie “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” getting its own adaptation.
In this adaptation, three players take control of one of five unique Klowns—a race of malevolent clown-like aliens who come to earth to prey upon humans—while seven others play as the townspeople of Crescent Cove, and must avoid the Klowns and their hilariously horrifying weapons. In the movies, that includes a popcorn bazooka, cotton candy cocoons, sentient balloon animals, people-shrinking shadow puppets, and more. In zombie movies, you aim for the head. In Klown movies, you aim for the nose.
Still Wakes the Deep
Release Date: June 18
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Set in December 1975, Glaswegian electrician Caz McLeary is trapped aboard an oil rig off the coast of Scotland when disaster strikes. The player, as McLeary, must survive not only the dangerous weather and deteriorating oil rig but also the pursuit by a mysterious monster now aboard the rig. With Still Wakes the Deep, developer The Chinese Room returns to narrative horror. This studio previously worked on Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, Dear Esther, and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
Release Date: June 21
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Much like an Elden Ring player dodging the Fire Giant, other games are dodging the release of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. Elden Ring was one of the best-reviewed and best-selling games of 2022, so this expansion is almost certain to be massive.
This expansion will bring a large new area to explore, new weapons and equipment to use, and new enemies and bosses to repeatedly die to… and then triumphantly defeat. The new area itself, the Land of Shadow, is reportedly as large as Elden Ring's first area, Limgrave. That's not huge in comparison to the overall Elden Ring map—but the Elden Ring map is gigantic, so we're expecting to have plenty to do.
Luigi's Mansion 2 HD
Release Date: June 27
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
For our US-based readers, you might remember Luigi's Mansion 2 as Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, the name it was released with in the United States in 2013. Everywhere else, it was just called Luigi's Mansion 2. Luigi's Mansion 2 HD updates the Nintendo 3DS game for the Switch with new visuals, leaving the game otherwise largely intact. The game will also feature cooperative multiplayer for up to four players.
Edited by Andrew Hayward