The biggest and best E3 surprises
Every year there are a few mind-blowing revelations, be it the first showing of a new game or the announcement of an entirely new console. Some surprises, however, are larger than others, and we've pulled together the biggest of the big to get you excited for this year's show.
7. Gabe Newell's appearance at Sony's press conference
Newell took to the show to admit how much Sony had turned things around over the years, and to reveal that Portal 2 would not only be coming to the system, but that it would be the better of the two console versions. It'd be getting full Steam support, and offer cross-platform play with PC versions. This ended up coming back to bite him when the PSN hacking and outages came to light right as Portal 2 released, raining all over their parade, but it was still an important - and surprising - moment.
6. Team Ninja revealed as Metroid: Other M developer
It was the perfect trailer for the reveal, too. It started by showing off the Team Ninja logo, which immediately piqued everyone's interests, and then rolled into clips of Samus - without her suit - talking about her past. It wasn't for some time before we realized that it was, indeed, a Metroid game, at which point the gaming community lost its collective mind. Sure, the game ended up being a disappointment, but at the time it sounded like an awesome idea.
5. The PSX gets a $299 price
At Sony's presser, the soon-to-be game giant revealed a $299 price for the PlayStation. Revealing a $100 price gap between the two systems was a huge blow to Sega, and, in a way, set the standard for gaming consoles moving forward. Too bad Sony completely forgot about that when it launched the PlayStation 3 at $599. Oops.
4. EA brings up sports legends to reveal Xbox Live integration
EA would be bringing its games to Xbox Live, meaning you'd be able to play games like Madden, Need for Speed, and FIFA online on Xbox. Online play had, for a short while, been thought to be another element of exclusivity that could be passed back and forth between consoles, but the biggest publisher announcing it would be spreading its web was a symbolic end to this idea. And bringing the sports stars on stage was actually a fairly classy move - game companies love to trot around celebrities for no real reason (like when Activision tapped Jamie Kennedy to host their press conference), but this one actually made sense, and was handled well.
3. Killzone 2 shows the power of the next generation
It took a little while for Sony to admit that it was projected footage of what it expected the game to look like, so we all just assumed that it was nonsense. That was, until 2007, when Sony, again, showed off footage from the game, and while it wasn't quite up to snuff with the 2005 test footage, it was significantly closer than anyone expected. By the time the game came out it had just about matched the initial test footage, forcing everyone to eat their words in a big, fancy, all-you-can-eat buffet.
2. Final Fantasy XIII revealed for the Xbox 360
Seriously no one saw this coming. Microsoft had sniped Grand Theft Auto's (timed) exclusivity a few E3s prior, but this was Final Fantasy - it was holy ground, and Microsoft treading on it meant that the age of exclusives was, for all intents and purposes, dead.
1. Sega releases the Saturn during E3
"Many Americans have gone to the extent of paying $800 and more for Sega Saturn units from Japan," Kalinske said during the show. "We've decided to bring the product to market earlier than scheduled to meet the high consumer demand, to refine our marketing strategy over the summer, prior to the important fall season, and to get a headstart on the competition."
Never mind the fact that many of the launch games weren't... ready, or that retailers weren't exactly prepared. It was awesome at the time!
What about this year?
Be sure to let us know what E3 shockers you're hoping to hear this year in the comments below, too!
And if you want to read about more E3 goodness to get pumped for the show, check out our E3 rumor roundup and check out our top 100 games of all time to get yourself ready for new game announcements.
