The Bad

Sony’s Wonderbook Does More Harm than Good (E3 2012)

E3 is supposed to be about the gamers, so why Sony thought it’d be a good idea to show a PlayStation Move interactive story book is beyond me.

The Wonderbook demonstration was long and painfully awkward for myself, hundreds of others in the room, and the thousands of PlayStation gamers watching via stream. The live demo would take around 15 minutes and had a few technical difficulties that would undermine what Sony was out to achieve: substantiating the PlayStation Move. The constant mention of J.K. Rowling’s presence was as annoying as the product’s presence at an otherwise great show.

Nintendo Makes Wii Motion Plus Look Stupid (E3 2008)

Really, Nintendo’s entire 2008 E3 Press Conference was a travesty, but most of that can be pinned on Motion Plus’ prominence during the showing. Watching a middle aged woman play around with the thing as if she had never used it while trying to make it seem like an attractive product was as painful to watch as it sounds.

Wii Motion Plus would turn out to be a great addition to the Wii controller, but it probably lost a few customers due to its E3 demonstration.

Peter Moore’s Gets a Grand Theft Auto IV Tattoo (E3 2006)

Gamers were itching for a new Grand Theft Auto in 2006. Peter Moore really didn’t need to put on a temporary tattoo to make the Grand Theft Auto IV announcement better.

As ridiculous as it was, he also put on a Halo 2 tattoo for its reveal. Apparently he thinks you can’t just show the logo of the game on a screen.

I have a feeling he still gets crap for this. And really, he deserves it.

Revamp Takes the Fun Out of E3 (E3 2007 and 2008)

E3 is known for being the biggest stage for video games. Packing everything up and throwing it into a small airplane hangar in addition to making it 100% press only wasn’t exactly a great idea.

The ESA said at the time that the changes were made due to “overwhelming demand”, but that seems unlikely. As bad as E3 2007 was, E3 2008 was even worse with a 50% decline in attendance. At the time it seemed like E3 would be going the way of the dinosaur. Thankfully, it was reinvigorated in 2009 with a move to the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Nintendo Shows How to Not Put on a Musical Performance with Wii Music (E3 2008)

Yes. Nintendo’s 2008 E3 Press Conference gets two slots. It was that bad.

Wii Music is all about hanging out with your friends and making music. Well, hopefully your friends have more rhythm than these folks who decided being paid to publicly embarrass themselves on stage was worth it.

Just look at that drummer. He must be on drugs.

<< On the next page we talk about The Ugly of E3’s history >>