The last ten years of E3

E3 still pulls in a big crowd these days, despite the corporate blip in its history that was the Media and Business summit years of 2007 and 2008. For 2010, a total of 45,000 visitors are expected over the three days, with nine football fields of carpet covering the show floor and an incredible 21 miles of optical fibre cable connecting the event to world. We’d guess that the excitement generated from what may be the best E3 event we’ve seen in years could power a small town for a year, and the saliva collected from gamers could pre-digest a day’s output from Hovis bakeries.

To celebrate the big event in the video gaming calendar, we’re taking a brief look at the highlights from the last decade of E3.

2000

X360magazine.com writer “thedeal” summed up the gaming highlight of E3 2000 in his recent blog, with the announcement of Metal Gear Solid 2 and a trailer that caused a world of Snake fans to simultaneously wet themselves.

2001

The Dreamcast bowed out graciously while Nintendo announced the N64′s successor. But it was Microsoft’s XBox that stole the show and specifically, a launch title that would run rings around the competition…

2002

Despite missing Sega hardware for the first time since its launch in 1995, console manufactures clamoured for attention, Nintendo taking a hefty portion of the lime light with Windwaker, Metroid Prime and TimeSplitters 2 and that nifty Gameboy Advance/GameCube link technology that we all loved and used twice before putting it to bed forever.

2003

Halo 2, Sims 2… what about them? 2003 was the year of Half-Life 2 when even console gamers were grazing their lower jaws on the floor after seeing the Havok physics engine in full flow.

2004

Due to code theft, Half-Life 2 didn’t materialise in 2003, so it was a chance for Valve to give its new Steam platform and spearhead title a final push before release. Fans went also bonkers for Halo 2 multiplayer, helping to pull in 65,000 attendees.

2005

Sony revealed the Playstation 3 with disappointingly unplayable video, Nintendo unveiled the Revolution (which become known as the Wii) but not the motion-sensing technology that made it so popular and Microsoft told us about the 360 and launch title Alan Wake… which wasn’t released until five years later. Not the best year for games, but pretty good for attendance at 70,000 visitors.

2006

PC MMOs grabbed an unprecedented amount of coverage with World Of Warcraft’s first expansion, The Burning Crusade, Warhammer Online and Age Of Conan. Meanwhile, a game of announcement one-upmanship ensued with Nintendo, Sony  and Microsoft featuring their next-generation of consoles.

2007

It’s a shame that the Assassin’s Creed and Bioshock demos appeared in the first year of restructuring of E3, which saw a dimished attendance and nowehere near the celebration of  past events. Plus, no boothe babes! What a travesty.

2008

Audiences fell to 5,000, just half that of 2007 and a fraction of the previous year. Still, enough heavyweight annoucements were made to keep bloggers happy: God Of War 3, Resident Evil 5, Left 4 Dead and Soul Calibur Iv among them.

2009

The year that the organisers realised that they’d gone too far in playing with the E3 formula and decided on what turned out to be a happy medium between keeping it accessible for journalists and industry folk, while retaining the “expo” feel of the event. Playstation Move and Natal (now Kinect) were also revealed, causing Nintendo fans to blog “We told you so” posts the world over.