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

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

[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 ;)

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?