The best E3 moments over the years now that it’s been cancelled

Before E3, everyone is excited for the big new announcements. But after E3, all everyone remembers – and cherishes – is the kind of bugs, misfires, and embarrassing heroism you can only get when corporate executives and video game developers take to the stage and have to act like salespeople in front of millions.

This post originally appeared on 6/11/15.

This is a site about the best things, then here are what we think are the best E3 moments of all time. And by “best” I mean in the context of how we, as video game superfans, consume and remember the show. The moments when the show itself became the spectacle and not the games we were sold.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like we’ll ever get another chance to expand this list since E3 2023 has just been cancelled after a few years of virtual productions in the face of the covid-19 pandemic. That makes this collection of moments even more poignant than ever, as we may not get any more. So pull up a chair and bask in all this E3 glory.

SONY 2006: The sky is falling

If I had broken down each of the highlights of this conference into their own moments, we would be here all day. So here are all your favorites, from $599 to MASSIVE DAMAGE, in one video.

NINTENDO 2004: Miyamoto’s finest hour

Compared to the time, the system, and the series, no other E3 trailer in history left people as stunned as the reveal of Twilight Princess back in 2004. Throw in the fact that series creator Shigeru Miyamoto came up with a quality Master Sword and Hylian took the stage for Shield and you may have Nintendo’s strongest E3 performance ever.

MICROSOFT 2009: Kinect goes bam

Microsoft’s Kinect needed to impress in its first major live performance. It has not.

KONAMI 2010: One Million Troops

Tak Fuji enters E3 folklore with this presentation.

BETHESDA 2019: Ikumi Nakamura, this is the tweet

E3 has always been so much about manufactured excitement that in 2019 Ikumi Nakamura took the stage to talk about it Ghostwire: log, she stole the show with real, real enthusiasm for most of the week. This is, of course, both an indictment of the rest of E3 and a compliment to Nakamura’s own infectious presentation.

NINTENDO 2008: Wii Music

You know how I said above that 2004 was Nintendo’s strongest E3 performance? This was the opposite.

SONY 2009: The Translator

Gran Turismo boss Kazunouri Yamauchi takes the stage and tells the world all about the PSP version of his classic racing series in Japanese. Meanwhile, his translator doesn’t care (and to this day it doesn’t).

NINTENDO 2004: Hi Reggie

As if Miyamoto’s antics weren’t enough, E3 2004 also marked Reggie Fils-Aime’s public debut. It’s now part of the corporate video game furniture, but in 2004 this was a breath of fresh air for a company in trouble!

UBISOFT 2011: Mr. Caffeine

Someone knew about this man. Someone suggested booking this man. Someone approved this proposal. So many people are to blame for this.

UBISOFT 2017: Davide San

Imagine becoming a big Nintendo fan. Imagine you work for a company that isn’t Nintendo but gets a unique opportunity to develop a Nintendo game. Then imagine Shigeru Miyamoto praising you personally during E3 and with the eyes of the world on you. you would cry too Simply beautiful and a rare moment of genuine warmth from a show otherwise obsessed with the most soulless aspects of the human experience.

SONY 1995: $299

Long before the $599 disaster or the $499 triumph, Sony made the most memorable price announcement of all time. In 1995, Sony’s Steve Race takes the podium, says a single word (announcing the launch price of the PlayStation), and walks into a room of applause. This is how it’s done.

NINTENDO 2001: Please stop

A Writer for Nintendojo—what else is there!– thought it would be a good idea to ask Shigeru Miyamoto a question in Japanese. Blessed be he for having the courage to try, but he was not. Excruciating to watch, even after all these years.

NINTENDO 2007: His body was ready

If yes ever seen the picture and wondered where it came from The is where it came from. It’s weird to say that from someone else. From Reggie it’s just a statement of fact.

MICROSOFT 2007: Rock band for beginners

Hey Peter Moore. I know you’ve probably been very busy leading up to E3 2007, but it couldn’t have hurt to practice a little more (BONUS: Here is the story behind this demo).

ACTIVISION 2007: Why

Why.

It’s funny looking back at these and how many of them are from a very specific point in time, say mid-2000s, just before and after the show’s major upheaval (younger readers may not know/remember that E3 was almost shrinking back then went away completely around 2007-08).

Over the past decade, E3 has mostly muddled together, or at least learned to smooth out the rough edges (or avoid them altogether). It’s good for business but in a way it’s a shame for the rest of us as the show has become more and more professional and we’ve been deprived of such memorable/terrifying moments.

And now that the future of E3 is unknown, we’ll have to turn to shows like PAX and Summer Games Fest to see what ridiculousness we can find.