1995-1998
The first ever E3 show was in 1995 by the Interactive Digital Software Association (now the Entertainment Software Association). It so happened to coincide with the start of a new generation of consoles like the release of the Sega Saturn, and such announcements of newer console like 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 for the N64. The event ran from 11th May through 13th May 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.
The event continued to grow and become a common place for the unveiling of new products. In 1996, KCEJ released a trailer for a game called Metal Gear Solid as this was scheduled to be released on Nintendo's N64 console. The event ran from May 16th through May 18th in Los Angeles, California.
mgs4fear2.jpgIn 1997 E3 was moved and held in Atlanta, Georgia instead of the LA Convention Centre, what would become the most popular stealth action game was unveiled, this was Metal Gear Solid but this time it was announced for Sony's PlayStation console and apparently dumped from Nintendo's N64 console. In addition, the blood gore game Blood for the PC was unveiled.
In 1998, Grand Theft Auto made an ultimate appearance at E3, in its final stage. Two Expansion Packs for Blood were also shown, these games were called Blood: Cryptic Passage and Blood: Plasma Pak. The event was again held in Atlanta, Georgia.
Electronic Entertainment Magazine co-launched the first E3 with IDSA.
1999-2001
1999 saw the dawn of a new generation of consoles. The Dreamcast, the first Sixth Generation Era console, is featured, as well as Take Two unveiling two more Grand Theft Auto games. The first was called Grand Theft Auto: London for Sony's PlayStation console, the second game was called Grand Theft Auto 2 which was announced for a series of consoles including Sony's PlayStation, Sega's Dreamcast, Nintendo's GameBoy Colour and the PC. GT Interactive and Infogrames also showed off an open world car simulator called Driver for Sony's PlayStation.
This was basically Infogrames way of capitalizing on the success of Take Two's Grand Theft Auto as Driver was just a copy cat idea of the GTA Series. But Driver was the first of both franchises to go into 3D and Driver set the benchmark for future Grand Theft Auto games. In addition, the action game Syphon Filter was unveiled for Sony's PlayStation console by 989 Studios (now Sony Bend). The event from here on ran in Los Angeles, California.
2000 showcased some of the greatest game icons of the generation. The PlayStation 2 and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty were featured, along with Syphon Filter 2 and Driver 2 for the PlayStation, with Syphon Filter 2 becoming one of the most anticipated video-games of 2000. The PlayStation 2 would go on to become the world's highest selling console.
The next year, in 2001, the Nintendo GameCube and the Xbox were two new systems featured. They would both be released later in the year. Microsoft held its press conference unveiling their first season of games for the Xbox. Nintendo also made its first American unveiling of the Nintendo Gamecube in this event. Also shown at E3 was the second trailer for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty along with the first trailer for Syphon Filter 3 on the PlayStation. In addition, Take Two announced Grand Theft Auto III, a controversial free-roaming game for the PS2, this would take the 3D camera that was so popular in the Driver series and add it to the power of Sony's PlayStation 2.
Later that year Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was released in North America and Japan, in October 2001 which was a month before the US release SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) announced that the European/Australian release was to be postponed until March 2002. Then Grand Theft Auto III was released worldwide in October 2001 on the PlayStation 2 with Syphon Filter 3 being released just after Metal Gear Solid 2 on 30th November 2001 on Sony's PlayStation console.
2002-2005
Despite the loss of Sega as a platform holder, the 2002 E3 continued the trend of bigger and bigger shows. Along with unveiling Xbox Live, the Xbox also made a showing at E3 2002, Konami and KCEJ showed off a trailer for the next game in the Metal Gear series, this one was called Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance but this time Konami had betrayed Sony as it was announced for Sony's PlayStation 2, Microsoft's Xbox and PC.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance was basically the previous Sons of Liberty game as it would give Xbox and PC users to play Snake's latest adventure, the disc came packed with Sons of Liberty plus additional extras like VR Missions, Alternate Missions and Snake Tales, the last mode called Snake Skateboarding became an exclusive to the PlayStation 2 version of the game.
Then after the success of Grand Theft Auto III in late 2001, Rockstar Games and Take Two announced the next game in the series called Grand Theft Auto: Vice City which would be set in 1986, yet again this would be exclusive to Sony's PlayStation 2 console and then released later that year in October 2002.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance was released a month after Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in November 2002, but this was only for North America and Japan as the European version was again delayed until March 2003, which further annoyed European fans of the series.
In 2003, The PlayStation Portable is first mentioned. During this E3, exhibitors emphasized the rise of the MMORPG genre. At this years show some big games were announced like Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain and Driver 3.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater would be set in 1964 and would be all about survival in the jungle and KCEJ announced that yet again they were dumping Microsoft and going back to being Sony exclusive as MGS3 was coming to Sony's PlayStation 2. Konami also showed off another Metal Gear game called Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, this was basically a remake of Metal Gear Solid from the PlayStation with the graphics and features of the PlayStation 2, but it was developed with the co-operation of Silicon Knights who are a key company with Nintendo. So Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes became an exclusive title to Nintendo's GameCube console.
mgs4fear2.jpgShortly before E3 2003 Atari bought out Infogrames including the Driver series so at E3 2003 Atari announced Driver 3 for the PlayStation 2, Micrsoft Xbox, PC and Nintendo GameCube, but later that year the GameCube version of Driver 3 was canceled due to problems with development.
Then at the Microsoft Conference, it was announced that Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City would be heading to Microsoft's Xbox console and PC later that year, but the Xbox versions would come bundled in a new double pack, which indeed did happen later that year.
The last year to focus primarily on the sixth generation of consoles was 2004. Metal Gear Solid 3 returned along with Metal Gear AC!D for the PSP, Driver 3, then Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was announced for Sony's PlayStation 2, two new handhelds were also shown, they were the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS.
But before Rockstar Games could release Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Atari released Driver 3 in June 2004 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. So after the huge success of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in late 2002 and the release of GTA III and Vice City on the Xbox and PC, Rockstar Games and Take Two announced the next game in the series called Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which would be set in 1992, but now it seemed that Micrsoft were being left out to hang as yet again it would be exclusive to Sony's PlayStation 2 console and then released later that year on 26th October 2004.
Sony showed off a 30 second trailer for Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow on the PSP with another 15 second trailer being shown at GC 2004. Then suddenly the game just ceased to be. As no more news was ever released and everyone thought that Sony had scrapped the Syphon Filter series for good, then two months later Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain was released in worldwide in July 2004 for Sony's PlayStation 2.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was released a month after Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in November 2004, but this was only for North America and Japan as yet again the European version was delayed until March 2005, now the delays were really annoying European fans of the series.
In 2005, the shift in focus continued with Sony debuting the PlayStation 3, albeit in an unplayable form. Many of the games shown for the system were pre-rendered video including Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The Revolution, (later named Wii) was unveiled along with the Gameboy Micro. But then Konami and Kojima Productions (formerly KCEJ) showed off trailers for Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistance and Metal Gear AC!D 2 for the PSP.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence for the PlayStation 2 was basically the previous Snake Eater game, the packed came with three DVD's, including with Snake Eater plus additional extras like Boss Survival Mode, Snake vs Monkey Mode, the original MSX classics of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, a whole new Metal Gear Online and the last feature came on the third disc called Existence, which was basically a three and a half hour movie of all the Snake Eater cut scenes fixed together. It was released in Japan in December 2005, followed by a North American release in March 2006 and a European launch in October 2006.
2006
This was the first time the E3 convention was aired on television and all future conventions are now slated to air on G4 network.
mgs4fear2.jpgThe 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 lines; which were approximately half an hour long to play the PlayStation 3 and up to four and a half hours long to play the Wii.
On Monday evening, Sony Computer Entertainment held their pre-E3 press conference at the Sony Pictures Studio in Culver City. The company announced the prices of two versions its upcoming PlayStation 3 console, the release dates were previously confirmed. The Playstation 3 would retail for $599. The company said they will release the console in 20GB and 60GB versions. Sony also revealed the Sixaxis controller, which now featured motion sensing.
Upcoming games displayed for the PlayStation 3 announced included Metal Gear Solid 4, Resistance: Fall of Man and Grand Theft Auto IV which was announced to be heading for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 on the 16th October 2007 for North America followed by the European release on the 19th October 2007. Upcoming games for the PSP announced include Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, and Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror.
2007
On 31st July 2006, it was announced that the expo would be downsized and reconstructed. On October 13, 2006, the new format was detailed. Essentially, the E3 "Trade Show" was replaced with a much lower-key and hard to access series of events known as the E3 Media and Business Summit. It focused on press events and small meetings rather than the large, hectic environment of previous years.The summit was in Santa Monica, from the 11th-13th July.
mgs4fear2.jpgCertain games announced were Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360. It was also announced that the Xbox 360 Elite would be coming to Europe on August 24.
It was finally announced that the Xbox Live Video Marketplace would be released in Canada and select European countries in late 2007. Then Sony announced that the 60 GB Playstation 3 would be getting a $100 price cut and a new 80 GB Playstation would be coming packaged with Motorstorm for $600 before E3 had started. An announcement made during E3 said that the price cut will be made so Sony can clear all existing stock with the 60 GB PS3 and discontinue it (in America) when the 80 GB PS3 is released.
A slimmer, more compact version of the Playstation Portable was announced and demoed. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow for the PSP, and Syphon Filter: Dark MIrror for the PS2 were also announced for releases in the same year.
