History of the Electronic Entertainment Expo

This is a history of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

Electronic Entertainment Expo (1995–2006)

1995

The first E3 featured the start of Sony's entrance into the video game industry with its PlayStation. Sega's Saturn was ready to try and take advantage of the year head start it would have over Nintendo, who at the time had announced its Ultra 64 system (later renamed Nintendo 64) would be released in the summer of the following year. Nintendo used the event to unveil its Virtual Boy system, which turned out to be a commercial failure. Some of the games that were shown and garnered attention were Battle Arena Toshinden, Ridge Racer, Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Fighter, and D. Several game videos were shown for both the PlayStation and Saturn.

SNK also showed and announced the release of the Neo Geo CD. Though it was only the first year for E3, the show proved to be the premier event for gaming in the US. The expo received 50,000 attendees.

1996

2005

2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (dominical letter B) of the Gregorian calendar, the 2005th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 5th year of the 3rd millennium, the 5th year of the 21st century, and the 6th year of the 2000s decade.

2005 was designated as:

The year 2005 was the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People (1995–2005).

Events

January

PlayStation 3

The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the successor to PlayStation 2, as part of the PlayStation series. It competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, with international markets following shortly thereafter.

The console was first officially announced at E3 2005, and was released at the end of 2006. It was the first console to use Blu-ray Disc as its primary storage medium. Major features of the console include its unified online gaming service, PlayStation Network, and its connectivity with PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita, In September 2009 the updated PlayStation 3 Slim, was released. This Slim is lighter and thinner than the original version, which notably featured a re-designed logo and marketing design. A further refined Super Slim design was released in late 2012. As of November 2, 2013, PlayStation 3 has sold 80 million units worldwide. Its successor, the PlayStation 4, was released in November 2013.

Wii

The Wii (/ˈwiː/ WEE) is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others.As of the first quarter of 2012, the Wii leads its generation over PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in worldwide sales, with more than 101 million units sold; in December 2009, the console broke the sales record for a single month in the United States.

The Wii introduced the Wii Remote controller, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and which detects movement in three dimensions. Another notable feature of the console is the now defunct WiiConnect24, which enabled it to receive messages and updates over the Internet while in standby mode. Like other seventh-generation consoles, it features a game download service, called "Virtual Console", which features emulated games from past systems.

It succeeded the GameCube, and early models are fully backward-compatible with all GameCube games and most accessories. Nintendo first spoke of the console at the E3 2004 press conference and later unveiled it at E3 2005. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata revealed a prototype of the controller at the September 2005 Tokyo Game Show. At E3 2006, the console won the first of several awards. By December 8, 2006, it had completed its launch in the four key markets.

Press Conference (TV series)

Press Conference was a public-affairs television series aired in the United States in the mid-1950s.

Press Conference was similar in format and content to the long-running Meet the Press and was moderated by one of that program's creators, pioneering female journalist Martha Rountree. On the program, a current newsmaker, generally but not always a politician, was questioned by a panel of newspersons in a typical press conference format. As usually done in a traditional press conference, the subject was allowed to make an opening statement (although not all chose to do so) prior to fielding questions.

Press Conference was launched on NBC in July 1956, but that fall moved to ABC. Initially shown in prime time, the program drew only a minimal, public-affairs oriented audience running against two high-profile Sunday night variety series, The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS and The Steve Allen Show on NBC; however, its appearance helped ABC to meet the public-interest requirements imposed on U.S broadcasters by the Federal Communications Commission. Press Conference was moved to Sunday afternoon for three months in early 1957, prior to returning to prime time in April of that year under a new title, Martha Rountree's Press Conference. The program ended in July 1957.