The first Electronic Entertainment Expo, E3 for short – that happened on May 11th. Every day, PC Games Hardware takes a look back at the young but eventful history of the computer.
…1995: A separate big fair just for computer and video games? That hasn’t existed until now, games have always only been marginal events at computer and electronics trade fairs such as Cebit in Hanover or Computex in Taiwan. Up until this day: On May 11, 1995, E3 opened its doors for three days, the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. With important new products such as Sega’s Saturn console, the E3 attracts international attention, and the trade fair quickly develops into the world’s most important event for the games industry: developers work for months on presentations of their games, publishers invest millions in ever larger exhibition stands. Many top titles celebrate their premiere at E3, including Starcraft (1996), Unreal and Half-Life (German) (1997) or Duke Nukem Forever (1998). It stayed that way for a decade.
But then the hype is suddenly over: In 2007, the E3 is just a shadow of its former self. The organizers requested that the fair, which had become too expensive, became a series of smaller events called “E3 Media and Business Summit”. Interest is low, other trade fairs in Germany and Asia are gaining in importance and the E3 is in danger of sinking into insignificance. The organizers understand, the E3 gets a new chance: From June 2009, the fair will be (almost) back in its old splendor and grandeur.
The year 2020 will not only be remembered for the E3. Due to the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus, E3 2020 has to be cancelled. And the E3 is not alone in this, because important trade fairs such as MWC, GDC, Tokyo Game Show or Gamescom are not held as face-to-face events.
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