E3.  Doesn’t sound like much does it? Even its logo isn’t much to look at but, for a gamer, it is without question the greatest event of the year – I don’t sleep before E3!  Something that’s always annoyed me about E3 however is trying to find somewhere that says everything that’s happening and when.  Well, the good news is that this year, there is a place – it’s here on GamingLives.

Who’s On and When*

*I’ve translated the times to BST for your pleasure…

Sunday 13th
Microsoft Natal Presentation: 3am Monday 14th (7pm PST) Just found out that this one’s closed to cameras, Boo!

Monday June 14th
Microsoft: 6:00 pm  (10:00 am PST) – Stream can be found here on Xbox.com and the Xbox Facebook Page
EA Games: 10 pm  (2:00 pm PST) EA’s E3 Page
Ubisoft: 1 am Tuesday 15th  (5:00 pm Monday PST) Ubisoft Stream on their homepage

Tuesday June 15th
Nintendo: 5 pm  (9:00 am PST) Stream from Nintendo
Sony: 8 pm  (12:00 pm PST)

Wednesday 16th
Konami: 9:00pm (1:00 pm PST)

I’ve included links for feeds when I could find them but how reliable or stable they will be is another thing.  Everything will be available from most of the big video based sites; I know Gametrailers.com are using the same system that was used to stream the ‘Help for Haiti’ concert that had around 8 million viewers, so it’s pretty robust and should be the most stable during the whole of E3 – Gametrailers E3 hub.  IGN also have a E3 hub here – it wasn’t the best last year so we’ll have to see what they do with it this year.

What To Expect From E3 2010

Ben went into this a little yesterday but I want a go,  so here are my predictions for E3:

Microsoft:

• Halo Reach single player stage demo.
• New Gears of War 3 Trailer
• “Look how much Halo we sold”
• Fallout: New Vegas gameplay
• Shed loads of Natal Stuff
• 3D 360?
• Mass Effect DLCs and maybe Mass Effect 3.
• Fable 3 + Natal Demo
• Natal + 360 bundle with redesigned Xbox 360
• Something new from Rare Studios
• Somebody playing Rock Band onstage (every year???)
• Xbox Live on your phone
• New Xbox live features – LoveFilm for Europe? BBC iPlayer? YouTube on the dash?

Sony:

• Sony has announced everything any fanboy could wish for pre E3 so they either have big news or no news.
• Uncharted 3 reveal
• Little Big Planet 2
• Lots of “look how much stuff we sold”
• PlayStation Move Demos
• Bungie on stage under the Activision banner? (Fanboy fight!)
• Call of Duty gameplay
• Some form of MMO
• Another new PSP
• Redesigned online service
• 3D stuff

Nintendo:

• Vitality sensor things
• Another new thing to plug into your Wii
• New Zelda game
• Metroid Other M on stage
• “look how much Mario we sold”
• Nintendo 3DS
• Games with the word “Party” in
• Games ‘for Mums’
• Wii HD (yeah right)
• Starfox returns
• Goldeneye Wii

These are just out of my head and based on no actual fact but I’ll be keeping score.  Some good suggestions came in on Reply&ReTweet from twitter this week so go have a read and thank you to everybody who took part.

A Brief History of E3

The Electronic Entertainment Expo was first held back in 1995 with 1.2 million feet of show space and 800,000 visitors.  Sony had the PlayStation on show, the Sega Saturn was ready to try, and Nintendo announced the Ultra 64 (which eventually became the N64) along with the Virtual boy which never caught on.  Here are some of the landmarks since then (some of these may make you feel old).

1996
The N64 was renamed and ready to be played with along with Mario 64.  Resident Evil, Tekken 2, Crash Bandicoot and Final Fantasy VII were all shown for the first time on the PlayStation.  For the PC, Epic Mega Games (now Epic Games) show off the Unreal Engine for the first time and Starcraft got its debut.

1997
The expo was in Atlanta this year and featured Half-Life, Quake II, Metal Gear Solid and Panzer Dragoon Saga.

1998
Duke Nukem Forever was shown for the first time but is still to hit the shelves, a trailer for Prey was also shown  – a game which never had a release until 2006 on the Xbox360…two console generations later.

1999
This year saw the birth of the, then, next generation of consoles or ‘sixth generation’ with the Sega Dreamcast.  The Expo was held in Los Angeles where it has stayed since.

2000
Sony had the PlayStation 2 with Metal Gear Solid 2 and Microsoft entered the gaming arena with the Xbox and Halo in 3rd person form.  Nintendo didn’t have any new hardware and were still backing the N64.

2001
Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft’s Xbox stole the show with both the consoles and an impressive list of games on show, including:  Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee, Jet Set Radio Future, Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding, Project Gotham Racing, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Dead or Alive 3, GunValkyrie and Halo: Combat Evolved (now in 1st person shooter form), Pikmin, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Monkey Ball and Star Fox Adventures.  It was also the last time the Sega Dreamcast would be on show.

2002
Despite the loss of the big name that was Sega as a hardware manufacturer the expo was now becoming much larger.  2002 brought us news of Xbox live; Splinter Cell, Mario Sunshine, Timesplitters 2, Red Dead Revolver and Sonys ambitious The Getaway (which featured a like-for-like London).  The first good wireless controller was shown off in the form of the Nintendo Wavebird for the GameCube.

2003
Not much of note this year: Half life 2, Halo 2, the first mention of Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP), and a first look at Sims 2.

2004
Halo 2 was back on show, the Nintendo DS and PSP were out of the box, we got to see a trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and F.E.A.R. and Sony announced that next year E3 would see the PlayStation 3.

2005
True to their word Sony had a PlayStaion 3 which might as well have been an empty box as it was in unplayable form, had the world’s daftest controllers, and nothing but pre-rendered video in the way of trailers.  Nintendo announced the Revolution which later became the Wii and Microsoft brought us the Xbox360 and a first look at Alan Wake.

2006
PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii stole the show while Microsoft announced its plans for the expansion of Xbox Live, Fable II, Gears of War, Halo 3, and GTA:IV.  Nintendo had a Wii version of Zelda: Twilight Princess, a whole host of Wii sports and tech demos and Sony had PlayStation 3 versions of Gran Tursimo and Final Fantasy XIII to show off.

2007
E3 was downsized, subtitled with “Media and Business Summit” and became a closed event that was for ‘invitation only’ with just 10,000 attendees.  In the Microsoft booth we had more Halo 3 and the new Halo Wars, Assassin’s Creed, Fallout 3 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare; Xbox Live Video Marketplace came to the UK and Europe with limited content.  Nintendo brought us more waggling of Wii-motes and, in a bold move to try and get mums the world over gaming, Wii-Fit.  Sony had the 4th instalment of the Metal Gear Solid series, price cuts on consoles, Gran Tursimo (again), Resident Evil 5 and Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, to name just a few.

2008
This year, attendance was at an all time low of just 5000; things were not looking good for E3 as a whole but the “big 3″ kept the games coming.  Some of the highlights included Gears of War 2, Saints Row 2, the re-design of the Xbox dashboard called the NXE and, in a surprise move, Final Fantasy XIII was announced for the Xbox 360 in Europe and America.  More new gubbins from Nintendo in the form of Wii MotionPlus, Wii Sports Resort and Wii Music while Sony gave us a small glimpse of Resistance 2 and God of War 3.  This was not E3′s finest year.

2009
Back to the good old days for E3 – the changes made in 2007 were gone.  The show was opened back up and attendance was up to 41,000.  Still not much on show though that was new – mostly old news from the “big 3″ with the exception of PlayStation’s Move and  Xbox’s Project Natal.  Not one to shy away from ‘all things different’ the Wii Vitality Sensor was announced and, to this day, I’m still not entirely sure what it does.

2010
Who knows?

And that, as they say, is the history of E3 (sorry it wasn’t that brief was it?).  What will this year bring? Who knows, but you can rest assured that GamingLives will be here to give its unique take on the event, so keep checking back here, keep an eye on our Twitter and Facebook pages for “as it happens” news, oh and feel free to wade in over on our forum.

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