Posted on 04/26/2013 at 01:52 PM
| Filed Under Blogs
Like I said, E3 is largely a convention for another day and age. Originally, video games were shown at CES until E3 was launched in 1995. And back when all we had was gaming magazines and online interaction was limited to CompuServe and FIDONet, E3 and CES were exciting, because there was pretty much of a media blackout at all other times of the year imposed by the technology of the times. But even back in E3's early days, it largely took a backseat to the Tokyo Game Show even among American gamers, given how heavily Japan dominated the gaming landscape on PS1. Nintendo never participated in TGS, preferring to highlight their stuff at Shoshinkai/Spaceworld. It did become important on the PS2/Gamecube/Xbox because of the steady shift of the game industry from Japan to the US at the time, but even when the 360 and PS3 made their debuts at E3 2005 and E3 2006, E3's attendance was dropping year-on-year. Eventually, the publishers decided that the old overblown E3 format of the past was too expensive and not worth it.
E3 '95 was entertaining. Sega announced that instead of its original projected launch date in September, the Saturn had already been shipped to retailers. Then Sony countered that by announcing the PlayStation would be $100 cheaper than the Saturn. :)