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# You Don't Have To Watch It
- URL: https://aftermath.site/summer-game-fest-e3-gamescom-2024/
- Published: 2024-06-13T23:14:42.000Z
- Updated: 2025-10-27T17:14:45.000Z
- Author: Luke Plunkett
- Tags: Blog, Video Games, e3, geoff keighley, peaceful slumber, Summer Game Fest, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-10-27 13:00

Hello. I am here today with a lifehack: in the wake of another week of[ BIG SUMMER VIDEO GAME REVEALS BABY OHH YEAHHHHH](https://aftermath.site/summer-game-fest-keighley-hype/), evenings full of ads hyped solely to get you to sit there and watch all the ads, have you ever considered...not watching them?

I get it, that's a tough thing to ask! This is a wider community that is so indebted to the concept of June being a huge showcase for what’s big and next that it has [repeatedly eulogised](https://www.google.com/search?q=e3+eulogy&sca%5Fesv=13f83d3e4d744b27&sca%5Fupv=1&rlz=1C1CHBF%5Fen-GBAU1030AU1030&sxsrf=ADLYWIJlrsqK22Mg6e5t99x4E-RBEtQvZQ%3A1718320166591&ei=JnxrZqLlI8-64-EPp6agoAI&ved=0ahUKEwiikI-52dmGAxVP3TgGHScTCCQQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=e3+eulkogy&gs%5Flp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiCmUzIGV1bGtvZ3kyBBAAGEcyBBAAGEdIowVQAFgAcAB4ApABAJgBAKABAKoBALgBA8gBAJgCAaACBJgDAOIDBRIBMSBAiAYBkAYCkgcBMaAHAA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp&ref=aftermath.site) a *trade show*. Apparently there must always be an E3, and even if that show itself failed ([repeatedly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E3?ref=aftermath.site#2007%E2%80%932008:%5FMedia%5Fand%5FBusiness%5FSummit%5Fbiennium), over [decades](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E3?ref=aftermath.site#2020%E2%80%932023:%5FImpact%5Fof%5FCOVID-19%5Fand%5Fdiscontinuation)), its core premise--selling upcoming video games to people watching and following at home via loud and expensive trailers--is clearly eternal. E3 is dead, long live Summer Game Fest.

Let me tell you what I did last weekend, though. For the first time since E3 2006, the last one before I started at Kotaku, I managed to not only *completely* avoid having to do any work as trailer after trailer hit the big screen, but I decided to skip the whole damn thing. Didn’t watch a second of it. Why not avoid some bullshit you hate, as a little treat.

That meant I didn't have to watch a show I didn't want to watch, I didn't have to write about a game I didn't want to write about. I didn't have to stay up through the night working, I didn't need to get mad at former colleagues for using screengrabs with watermarks on them (sorry, everyone!), and I definitely didn't have to publish over 40 blogs in one day (get in the bin, E3 2009).

I realise I have a particular distaste for events like this based mostly on my previous employment, and that's a pretty niche complaint, all things considered. This used to be the busiest, most stressful working week of the year for me, so of course I feel liberated. I don't want to frame this as me telling you as a reader and fan of video games that enjoying these shows is *wrong*, or that you wasted your time if you watched them. Some of you probably just watched a few of them, or even just caught up later that evening with a roundup post. But since (based on everything from our Discord to my social media feeds) so many of you clearly watched a lot more than that, even with E3 cold and in the ground, I still wanted to share some feelings about what it felt like giving the whole event a pass.

For the entire 2024 showcase I just...slept in. Every day there was a major show I snoozed (I'm on Australian timezones!) right through it. I woke up later, didn't scour the internet looking for roundups, didn't even scan Twitter for highlights (though I did get *one* notification about the bean game, thank you, you know who you are, I appreciated it). While everyone else was digesting news, firing off takes and decrying winners and losers, having spent entire evenings sitting down watching advertisements played one after the other, I eventually made my way downstairs, made some coffee and had a wonderful long weekend.

I felt like a million bucks. Not a care in the world. These games are coming, whether I saw their trailers or not. I'll probably play a lot of them, and enjoy some of them, regardless of when or how I first found out about them; I didn't need to be there at the time to somehow validate them. I was also free of the need to absorb a ton of knowledge against my will (nobody is ever into *all* these announcements!), and can instead now just learn about all these games as time passes, the way nature--not Geoff Keighley or video game marketing--intended.

Like I said, I know this is a very particular complaint that’s probably got more to do with me spending too long at Kotaku rather than being a normal person who is just into video games. But still, I found the whole exercise very liberating regardless, so maybe next year you could try it out, see how it fits!