Mr Caffeine at E3 wearing a blue shirt looking silly.

Think This Year’s E3 Is Bad? It’s Been (Much) Worse

This year’s E3 has disappointed many gamers but it has been far worse. Previous E3’s have had some truly disappointing and cringy moments.

Social media has been alive with players who had hoped for the announcement of more games and less paid mods.  Personally, I’m pretty pumped for a lot of the games that have been announced.  Need For Speed: Payback looks like the Fast and Furious game I always wanted.  A Way Out looks like the Prison Break game I always wanted.  Assassins Creed: Origins looks like the Assassins Creed game I always wanted.  K, I’ll stop.

Fans of individual platforms may be disappointed with the number of announced titles unique to their systems but as a gamer with no real affiliation, I am genuinely excited about a lot of the games being teased at this year’s event.

For those who are underwhelmed and have been quick to label this as the “worst E3 ever”, please let me direct you to 5 of the worst E3 moments, to remind you that things have been worse.  Much worse.

Remember Sony at E3 2006?

The whole thing was a train wreck from start to finish.  Awkwardly presented and filled with statements that were later shown to be false.

“The stages of the game will also be based on famous battles which actually took place in ancient Japan…” *a few moments later* “…so, here’s this giant enemy crab.”  Brilliant.

“Riiiiiidge Racer!” *1 person cheers*

Despite the awkwardness of the presentation (and the video creators blatant bias), the conference must have been a success on some level, as the PlayStation 3 went on to become one of the 10 best selling systems in video game history.

Remember Jaime Kennedy at Activision’s E3 Press Conference 2007?

Seriously, it looked like Jamie Kennedy had signed up to the gig only 2 minutes prior, necked a bottle of something potent then staggered onto stage to wing it.  It went exactly as well as you’d think.

“Where are my jokes?”  We didn’t ever find out.

Remember Nintendo at E3 2008?

You know it’s going to be rough when you’ve got a middle-aged woman riding a static snowboard with a professional Snowboarder trying to make her sound extreme.

They big up Wii Motion Plus then demonstrate it by…oh, throwing frisbees.  Mind blowing.

And, don’t get me started on DJ Ravidrums playing the imaginary drums.  His face continues to haunt me.  Cringe.

Remember Konami at E3 2010?

Back when people liked Konami, there was quite some interest in their E3 presentation.  What unfolded is a disaster that must have cost more than a few people their jobs.

Videos refusing to play.  A rap video game apparently created to make a gamer a famous rap superstar.  And, Tak Fujii walking on the stage to complete silence with a solitary “hi” to break the ice.  The fact that Tak Fujii’s showmanship was the highlight shows how wrong this all went.  This E3 conference is undoubtedly one of the worst.

Remember Mr. Caffeine at Ubisoft’s E3 Conference in 2011?

Just…just…I have no words.

I mean, at least Mr. Caffeine actually prepared some material for the conference, unlike Jamie Kennedy, but every joke was so weak that I couldn’t even muster a smile.  I remember seeing this 6 years ago and thinking, “why, Ubisoft, why?”

Here’s the thing…while 2017’s E3 may not have had back to back game reveals, it has been a pretty decent E3 overall.  There haven’t been any absolute disasters and we’ve been introduced to a reasonable number of new games.  That’s a win in my book.