The History of E3

Mr Nash writes "The Armchair Empire has posted a lengthy article examining the first ten E3s. In it the console unveilings from 1995 to present, as well as game announcements, and the general mood at the various expos is revisited, providing a look at the trends that have developed at E3 over the years." From the article: "..today we're going to take a look back in time at the first 10 E3s. We'll be revisiting the console announcements, the games, and a lot of the general feelings people had regarding what was being shown at the expo over the years. This is by no means an attempt at a complete, encyclopedic recount of everything that happened at each and every E3, but we're hoping this feature of past shows provides a fun look at all that has come to pass over the last 10 years..."

Comments

Had Enough Game Articles?

[Mitaphane]

Wow, I don't think I've every seen a slashdot article so devoid of commments.

Do you hear that Slashdot? It's the sound of a collective yawn from readers sick of one consecutive game post after another.

Coming up next on Slashdot: Games...

Video Games: They're Cool!

Re:Had Enough Game Articles?

[Fred Or Alive]

Well, you do tend to get stories about games in the games section of Slashdot. If you don't want stories about games, try the Apple section or something. If you're looking at the games index, then you expect stories about games, not the latest +0.0.1 Linux kernel patch, or what the latest minor feature change of Google. I think Zonk is probably the most proactive editor on Slashdot at the moment (he's actually written original content for the site!), but I'm sure he'll slip into the pity of incompetant laziness of other editors soon. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

But this is a particularly bad article really. I can see why nobody has any comments about it, even the trolls can't be bothered to actually point out how lame it is. It's lame in a boring way anyway, you can't exactly point out how crap it is, it's just, boring, and pointless.

Re:Had Enough Game Articles?

[tepples]

It's E3 season. There are a lot of gaming articles in the mainstream media, and it's the job of the Slashdot editors to aggregate them into a feed for sheep like you and me.

only the 3rd E????

[LewieP]

surely it must be E4 by now if its been around for ten years? or are they doing a reverse microsoft with the whole 360>3>2 thing

Revolution

[rollonet]

Im really exited to see the Nintendo Revolution in action. -The console's games will come on standard DVDs, which indicates that it will probably function as a DVD player as well. -The console will be "very, very sleek", sitting horizontally and being no more than around an inch thick. -Revolution will also play games in High Definition and it will go online regularly. -The controllers (which will likely be radically different from what we see today) will be wireless, providing more of a clutter-free console.

Re:Revolution

[Anonymous Coward]

and this is more inovative thatn xbox360?

Re:Revolution

[Anonymous Coward]

Few developers still support the game cube. Nintendo is going to have to come up with something other than sleekness to bring them back.

Re:Revolution

[Anonymous Coward]

False.

fun place

[cowscows]

I was lucky enough to attend the '96 E3, even though I was only 16 at the time. It was almost overwhelming, cause I'd never been to any sort of trade show, and E3 just felt huge.

My most vivid memory of it is the setup Nintendo had for the N64. They had some Mario and Wario puppets that you could talk to, and they'd argue back and forth, and sing Beatles' songs.

I also remember they had a big star wars set up to go along with one of the launch titles. I was checking out one of the full size Storm trooper mannequins, taking a close look at the details of his uniform. When he revealed himself as a real person by gently shoving me with his weapon and telling me to "move along citizen", it scared the hell out of me. But yeah, good times.

Re:fun place

[badasscat]

I went to a couple of E3's, I think 2000 and 2001. One of them was sort of exciting because it was the start of the current generation of consoles and everything felt new. Almost every single booth had something that made me go "wow!" And the Nintendo and Sony press conferences ahead of the show were fun. (I missed the MS conference.)

The second one was more of a grind. I was actually working for the press both years, so while the first one was exciting enough to overcome the drudgery, by the second everything already felt sort of old-hat. All I really remember was lugging a lapop bag around in the stifling L.A. heat for 12 hours a day and having to listen to what seemed like endlessly boring pitches from PR people. It also seemed noticeably louder than the year before, and by the end of the day I always felt like I'd just attended about nine consecutive rock concerts for a band that I didn't even really like.

I don't really have any desire to go again. Once is really enough - I think most people who go more than that agree, and have pretty much the same experience I did the second time. It also doesn't help that it's such an incestual place; the public's not invited so you just have industry types all over the place, and people are constantly trying to shmooze and "network" and it just gets really annoying. It's very political.

Now, the Tokyo Game Show, on the other hand, I could go every year to and never get tired of it. That show's bigger, for one thing (150,000 people vs. 60,000 at E3), and it's a lot more fun because everything's geared towards the public. Plus, there are way more booth chicks :)

Re:fun place

[superpulpsicle]

There seems to be an infinite number of articles about the E3. Where as the Tokyo Game Show, we hear so little about.

Re:fun place

[cowscows]

Well, the experience was pretty much all fun for me. I wasn't really working, I was just there to look around. So that was good times. The negative parts are the fact that I was only 16 (and looked maybe 13), so I didn't get much respect or attention from most of the people working there. In fact, there were rules against people my age being there, but some lying and portraying me as a programming child prodigy who was the only one able to explain some new technology got me in. But still, it was apparent that I wasn't making decisions for any companies, so people paid me little attention. Noone was shmoozing me, which was nice, but if they're not shmoozing, they've got no real reason to show you anything. I had also been through a bit of a family problem that caused me to become very anti-social, so I didn't make much of an effort to get anything out of the whole thing except for some visuals.

I'd love the chance to go again, as an adult this time. Not being the only little kid there would give me a bit more confidence, and I'd be much more vocal and talkative. Plus I'd probably remember a whole lot more of it. My memories of nine years ago are sparse and hazy. I was definitely overwhelmed.

Aside from that, I live in New Orleans, so I'd probably scoff at the LA heat ;)

Re:fun place

[badasscat]

There seems to be an infinite number of articles about the E3. Where as the Tokyo Game Show, we hear so little about.

Well, it is a Japanese show. I also covered it for the press here the couple times I went and it can be very difficult. Not every American journo can hack it. There is no real effort made to accomodate westerners, even though there are usually quite a few there - the booth chicks (who double as hostesses - they're the ones responsible for showing you the games) rarely speak English, for example. Most signs are not in English either. And the show is not actually in Tokyo - it's in a suburb that a lot of foreigners find inconvenient... and outside the "safety" of Tokyo (where they have their guide books, their English-speaking train attendants, etc.), they may feel a little lost.

You really need to have an adventurous spirit and you really need to not be afraid to just wander around and stick your nose in various places. Even something as simple as learning how to get in to the press only day can be a challenge. (I literally stumbled upon the table I needed to sign up at completely by accident - I just figured I should go look around, and I found the table in a totally isolated corner of the convention center with no signs or anything. Luckily, there was one English speaker at the table.)

A lot of the American press just doesn't bother covering it at all for these reasons, and if they do they sort of just take a few pictures and call it a day. It doesn't help that the show was in decline for a little while (it's now come back up a bit), so some of the press might not think it was a required stop on the game show world tour anymore.

But I think it is. It is almost three times larger than E3, in the country that still produces more than 50% of the world's video game output and two of the three major game consoles (Nintendo's famous for not generally bothering with TGS, but third-party developers still show games for Nintendo systems). And it is just so much more fun than E3, especially as a westerner, because everything just feels so completely different. E3 is really pretty dry once you get past the strippers they hire to stuff in nerdly Everquest outfits - it is an industry trade show, after all. TGS is all flash, pomp and circumstance, and pretty ladies (one per customer at most every booth!). Oh, and about a million square feet of playable games.

bleh, cons

[sakura the mc]

im surprised e3 is actually EXPANDING instead of shrinking. with all the shitty games that have come out in the last few years, i figured that e3 woulda went the way of COMDEX and the like. even the overhyped tokyo game show has seen decreasing numbers in the past several years. sure, just like everyone else, i want to see them actually show off the xbox2 (i refuse to call it a 360), but does everyone really need to gather in one spot to do this kind of thing anymore? i can understand conventions for other industries, but for gaming and electronics, we have the fucking internet. look at what happened to (most) gaming print mags when the internet came out. they went ghost. microsoft could easily pull off their own huge event without anyone else to turn heads the other direction. same could be said for sony and nintendo. the internet would just as easily provide an additional venue for people who arent able to attend, JUST LIKE THE INTERNET ALREADY DOES. is my time up yet?

Re:bleh, cons

[Anonymous Coward]

The purpose of E3 is to give retailers a hands-on demo of games to buy for the end of the year holiday season. It's not just for press & fan boys.

Re:bleh, cons

[Anonymous Coward]

That's sure as heck what it's turned into, though, what with every game review site having members going there and all the hype and such.

Re:bleh, cons

[Lynxara]

Which is why E3 has a media-only day that retailers can't attend?

E3 in Atlanta?

[vega80]

This guy is clueless. E3 was only held in Atlanta once, in 1997. It's been in Los Angeles every other time.

Re:E3 in Atlanta?

[vega80]

Actually, it was held twice.. in 1998 also..

Facts

[jetfuel]

Xenosaga was not introduced by Square in 1998.
Xenogears was introduced by Square in 1998.
Xenosaga was introduced by Monolith Soft and Namco in 2001.