The 10 Most Memorable E3 Press Conference Moments
5/27/2009 6:09 PM | 7 Comments | Page 1 of 3
Kyle Orland
Status: "You can't get quality video game editorial from a value menu!" "No, really, you can't."
A strong first impression: It's important for meeting new people and it's just as important for meeting new games. These days, those gaming first appearances increasingly come during flashy E3 press conferences, where game publishers and hardware makers give presentations that can make or break important product launches.
These conferences have had their fair share of embarrassing, exciting or just plain inexplicable moments since E3 made its start back in 1995. We've chronicled what we think are the 10 most memorable of these moments below, but there were many more that didn't make the cut. Check out the
honorable mentions for more E3 press conference goodness.
10. Introducing: The Regginator
Company: Nintendo
Year: 2004
"My name is Reggie. I'm about kicking ass, I'm about taking names, and we're about making games." With those immortal words, a new Internet sensation was born. The Regginator, as Nintendo's new Executive VP of Sales and Marketing Reginald Fils-Aime came to be known, became the subject of dozens of
Photoshopped images,
YouTube mashups and snarky commentary all over the Internet. More importantly for Nintendo, though, Reggie's appearance prefaced a more proactive PR approach for the usually staid company, which had languished during the GameCube years. Reggie would eventually ride his E3 debut and minor gaming celebrity status to a position as the head of Nintendo's North American operations during the launch of the Wii, leading the company back to the top of the console market.
9. N-Gage Bares Its Price
Company: Nokia
Year: 2003
Finnish phone maker Nokia had its work cut out for it at E3 2003, jumping into the handheld gaming market against Nintendo's Game Boy Advance monolith and Sony's PlayStation Portable (which had been announced literally minutes before). Even without the stiff competition, though, its mess of a press conference would have likely killed Nokia's N-Gage gaming phone on its own. A cavalcade of awkward breakdancing, missed cues, technical problems, buzzword-filled speeches and underwhelming game demos led up to the "big reveal": a bikini-clad model who threw off her covering to reveal the system's $299 price painted on her belly. The silence was deafening as a few journalists reportedly walked off after seeing the sky-high price for the portable (the Game Boy Advance retailed for less than $100 at that point). It was an embarrassing coming-out party for a system that would end up with appropriately embarrassing sales numbers.
8. Rock Revolution Fails to Rock
Company: Konami
Year: 2008
The company that helped popularize the rhythm game genre was falling behind by 2008, letting the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises eat into the market once dominated by Konami's Dance Dance Revolution. So the world premiere of
Rock Revolution at Konami's E3 2008 press conference was a big deal for the company.
Rock Revolution product manager Lauren Faccidomo did her best to make things dramatic, playing a real guitar through
an awkward cover version of "Blitzkrieg Bop" before taking the performance "from the stage to the living room" by strapping on a plastic
Rock Revolution guitar. Things fell apart quickly, though, as Faccidomo utterly failed to find the beat set by the competent drummer, missing a majority of her notes before failing out of the song after only a minute and a half. Not the best way to end a press conference, or to introduce a game that would go on to be bomb both critically and commercially.
