E3, up until about 2006 or so, was the huge, major, central expo for the industry. A huge percentage of the big announcements and unveiling’s occurred at E3 – they still do, as evidenced by our massive E3 coverage and the fact that everyone is buzzing with excitement about next week. It’s just that now, we have a steady stream of news all year long, and several other expos, like PAX, E-for-all, and GDC that offer up plenty of buzz-worthy announcements.

But back in the day (the day being 2000-2006, in this installment), E3 was king. If you’ve read part 1, you know that the show was started in the mid 1990′s, and it grew steadily into the biggest single event of the year for the press, gamers, developers, harried PR people, and the “booth babes” as they were called. The early 2000′s continued the trend, with ever-increasing attendance rates and marketing budgets.

E3 is right around the corner, so it seems appropriate to rustle up a little history lesson in anticipation of all the crazy announcements. E3 (the electronic entertainment expo) started off in the heady days of 1995, just as the “next wave” of 32-bit consoles were making their first appearances on the scene. E3 1995 more »