Play Days is no E3, that’s a good thing
June 23, 2025This year’s Summer Game Fest Play Days was the best gaming showcase I’ve ever attended.
A little context, first.
There was a time, back when I ran things at Kotaku when I attended every major video game show in the world. It was, of course, a bit easier back then. Brazil’s mammoth show was just getting started, as was China Joy and Korea’s G-Star.
Back then, the major shows included Gamescom (formerly Gamescon), Tokyo Game Show, PAX, GDC, SXSW (to a lesser extent), DICE, and E3. And for years, I went to them all.
Easily, the best of the bunch for big conventions was Gamescom; it wasn’t even a competition. E3 certainly had the best first run of video game shows, but it was growing into a painfully large, sometimes absurd side-show, and then it got so small it was boring, and then it was open to the public, and everyone was confused.
Over the years, I would tell the folks at the ESA that they needed to make their show more like Gamescom: have a public area, but then have a smaller area only for press and business. That way, you got the best of both worlds.
To continue reading this story head over to Game where this ran on June 17, 2025.
