“TOMORROW”/”$299” 1995
THE FIRST ever E3 was
basically a pre-launch battleground for the Sega
Saturn and Sony PlayStation. In terms of drama, it may still never have been bettered. Before the show Sega had announced a launch date of September 2nd. During his keynote, however,
the firm’s US boss Tom Kalinske, basically said, ‘Nah, not really, it’s on sale tomorrow!’ The room, the industry and the gaming world was duly stunned. And Saturn had a minimum three
It also launched at a quite challenging $399.
The next day, at the Sony
“Management had been up until 1 am discussing the implications of that price.”
Phil Harrison
month start on its rival. Advantage Sega, right? Not necessarily.
The gung-ho decision meant Saturn launched with little software support.
“GO BIG OR GO HOME” 1996
A YEARlater and it was another dramatic gesture from Sony that stole the show. Jim Whims,
executive VP at SCEA, was on a panel with Sega’s Tom Kalinske and Nintendo’s Howard Lincoln. He told the moderator to ask him only one question – and make it about competition.
36 June 3rd 2011
keynote, global boss Olaf Olafsson gave what the firm’s Phil Harrison recalls was “a deliberately tedious speech – because he knew everyone was waiting for one detail”. He then invited Sony’s US boss Steve Race up to say a few words. Race didn’t quite manage that, though. Instead, all he said was “$299”. Then he sat down again. Harrison recalls: “That was a great moment and seemed very confident. But the management had been up until one in the morning
discussing the implications of that price, what it would mean to Japan, etc. Some people have even said that Steve didn’t have permission to announce it, but I actually don’t think that’s true.”
His reply, when it came, was that Sony loves competition, but it also believes that the only way to compete is to go big or go home – and that was the philosophy behind an immediate price drop from $299 to $199.
When the Sony team got back to their office a week later, there was a box of T-shirts waiting for them all, each one emblazoned with the legend: GO BIG OR GO HOME.
PETER MOORE’S TATTOO
2004
THE WORLDwas waiting for Halo 2. E3
couldn’t deliver that. But the world would settle for a Halo 2 release date. And Microsoft’s Peter Moore delivered that, in his own inimitable style. At the firm’s pre-show press conference, it showed some spectacular game footage before swinging the spotlight onto Moore. He explained that he’d been out drinking with his
sales team and told them the Halo 2 release date.
They, the story goes, had told him they’d only believe that when he had it tattooed onto his arm… at which point, of course, Moore lifted his short sleeve to reveal first the Halo 2logo and then ‘November 9’.
He did it again a couple of years later to announce some exclusive GTAcontent, but this was the original LA ink.
www.mcvuk.com
2002 LIVE AT LAST
THERE WAS, perhaps, no defining moment at E3 2002, but it’s worth remembering that it was at this event, just nine years ago, that Microsoft first introduced Xbox Live and the idea of mainstream online gaming via consoles.
At the time, MCVthought that the $50 easy-to-use new technology “should fly in the US, but will find it harder going elsewhere”.
Xbox general manager J Allard was rather more upbeat: “It will be the world’s biggest playground with the coolest rides.”
LA TIMES
Despite ‘the tumbleweed years’, despite the Atlanta experiment, E3 remains the games industry’s biggest global showcase. Dave Roberts recalls seven magnificent moments from the past 16 years
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