Top 10 E3 Moments That Changed Our Lives

4. Virtual Reality becomes reality

Many gimmicks have appeared and disappeared during gaming’s 40-plus year history; dance mats, light-guns, Tony Hawk: Ride‘s disastrous peripheral skateboard and even the Dreamcast’s esoteric fishing controller have all tried to add an extra dimension to our gaming experience, with varying degrees of success. Given this, the recent rise in Virtual Reality was perhaps a little predictable but this time, things feel a little different. Instead of one company launching a peculiar piece of tech’ alone, there are several devices launching within a year of each other, all from major players in the industry and with backing from the sort of developers who could make the difference between success story and financial flop.

Far from being mere gimmicks, I think VR could well be here to stay and I’m expecting a big show of it from the major players at this years event, making a possible VR display at this years event a potential E3 Moment That Changed Our Lives.

3. The introduction of Xbox and PS2

When the new millennium began in, somewhat surprisingly, the year 2000, E3 was fairly well established and manufacturers had gotten the hang of it, so bigger and better things were starting to come from it. This year was no exception as it showcased not one, but two brand new consoles from two different manufacturers. This was the first time console developers had gone “head-to-head” in such a big way. I’m talking of course, about Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Microsoft’s Xbox.

What resulted was a record-shattering 100 Million sales for the PS2, which continued to outsell even the Xbox 360 in its native Japan, right up until 2012 when it finally ceased production after 12 years. The Xbox’s inclusion is due to it introducing Microsoft to the gaming world. For years PC gamers had enjoyed their PCs for gaming, but now Microsoft had dipped their toes in the gaming pool; what could they produce with this vastly increased market at their feet? It turned out to be games like Forza, Halo and Gears of War while the PS2 offered us equally amazing franchises like God of War, Jak & Daxter and SSX.