History of E3
Encyclopedia : H : HI : HIS : History of E3
The history of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E³) began with its creation in 1995 and has continued through the most recent expo in 2006.
1995
The first E³ was put on by the Interactive Digital Software Association (now the Entertainment Software Association). It coincided with the start of a new generation of consoles, with the release of the Sega Saturn, and the announcements of upcoming releases of the Sony Playstation, Nintendo Virtual Boy and SNK's Neo*Geo CD. Specifications for the Nintendo Ultra 64 (later renamed the N64) were released, but there was no hardware shown.The event ran from May 11th through May 13th in Los Angeles, California. Keynote speakers included Sega of America, Inc. president and CEO Thomas Kalinske; Sony Electronic Publishing Company president Olaf Olafsson; and Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln.
1996
Nintendo's press conference unveils the N64 in the U.S.
The event ran from May 16th through May 18th in Los Angeles, California.
1997
The event ran from --- through --- in Atlanta, Georgia.
1998
The event ran from --- through --- in Atlanta, Georgia.
1999
The Dreamcast, the first Sixth Generation Era console, is featured.
The event ran from --- through --- and from here on ran in Los Angeles, California.
2000
The Xbox and Playstation 2 are featured, as is the first Halo. The latter had a poor showing, however it became one of the world's best selling video-games later. The Playstation 2 would go on to become the worlds highest selling console.
2001
The Nintendo GameCube and the Xbox were two new systems featured. They would both be released later in the year.
2002
The Wavebird Wireless Controller is featured, as well as Doom III.
2003
Half Life 2 is unveiled. A Halo 2 demo using an experimental lighting engine (which was not used in the final game) was shown.
2004
A Halo 2 12 person capture the flag multiplayer demo is shown taking place on Zanzibar. The PSP and Nintendo DS are featured. The first trailer for the seventh generation Zelda game, later named was shown.
2005
Sony debuted the Playstation 3, showing it in an unplayable form. Many of the games shown, notably Killzone, were suspected to be prerendered video.
Some felt Microsoft's Xbox 360 was overexposed in earlier events such as the MTV unveiling.
Spore was shown first at this E3.
The Revolution, later named Wii is unveiled.
The Gameboy Micro is unveiled.
2006
The 2006 E³ show focused on the upcoming releases of Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii, along with the next wave of games for the Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PSP, and mobile phones. Several websites such as the Washington Post noted in retrospect that Nintendo clearly dominated and stole the show. They cite as an example the artificially created queues; which were approximately half an hour long to play the PlayStation 3 and up to six hours long to play the Wii.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
Microsoft
Just minutes walk from the Nintendo event, Microsoft - its conference at the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard - announced its plans for its current system, the Xbox 360. Although there was first confusion, Microsoft later confirmed that at the time of the show there was no deal to have ‘episodic content’ exclusive to the Xbox 360. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, spoke of plans to integrate several Microsoft services into one entity with Live Anywhere. This service will allow multiplayer games and communication possible between Xbox 360 and the upcoming Windows Vista operating system for the PC. Microsoft also announced a significant expansion of its Xbox Live arcade service, promising many more arcade favorites in the near future.Upcoming games for the Xbox 360 announced include Halo 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, , The Sopranos, Fable 2, Gears of War, and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Nintendo
On Tuesday, Nintendo held their pre-E³ press conference at the Hollywood and Highland Centre. The firm announced the US launch date for the Nintendo DS Lite. Nintendo decided not to announce the price for the Wii during E³, stating they preferred to announce it closer to the aimed date in Q4 2006.
Upcoming games displayed for the Wii announced include Sonic the Hedgehog: Wild Fire, ', Super Smash Bros. Brawl, ', Super Mario Galaxy, ', ', Fire Emblem (working title), Red Steel, , Project H.A.M.M.E.R., and Excite Truck.
Upcoming games for the Nintendo DS announced include Final Fantasy III, New Super Mario Bros., ', Children of Mana, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team, ', Yoshi's Island 2, Star Fox DS, ', ',and .
Upcoming games for the Game Boy Advance announced include Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VI, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team, and .
Upcoming games for the Nintendo GameCube announced include Super Paper Mario, DK Bongo Blast, , and Baten Kaitos 2.
Sony
Upcoming games displayed for the PlayStation 3 announced include Eyedentify, Final Fantasy VII, MotorStorm, and Vision Gran Turismo.
Upcoming games for the PSP announced include ', ', ', ', ', LocoRoco, Monster Hunter Freedom, Gangs of London, ', Sonic Rivals, (working title) and Lemmings.
External links
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