Welcome to the next generation of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) called Electronic Entertainment Expo better known as E3. Before the E3 was there the show of choice for game companies was the CES. The Atari made its public debuted at the "CES" so had every game console before the Playstation and Saturn. For those of you who do not know what the CES is. Think E3 with everything Electronic added to the event. CES seres the entire electronic industry and not just gaming like E3 does. Coming from an Time article on CES it was stated the 2009 event "The conference will include 2,700 exhibitors flaunting their wares across 1.7 million square feet of floor space at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Sands Expo and Convention Center in the Venetian Casino and Hotel.".
So when Sega, Sony, and Atari wanted to go to a new event called E3 Nintendo and Microsoft did not. Nintendo had signed up to do CES and not E3 from the start. Douglas Lowenstein president of Interactive Digital Software Association states in The Ultimate History of Video Games as Nintendo became isolated "Nintendo recognized that the industry had essentially voted with its feet, with an overwhelming number of companies signing up with the E3 event. Nintendo then eventually joined the rest of the industry in signing up". Little did the people behind CES know that E3 would forever change their event. The gaming market had always been pushed to the side at CES. So they never expected that E3 would eventually lead to the end of the summer CES event.
In the Spring of 1995 the world would see the most successful debut of a trade show ever called E3. Which was scheduled for the same week as the CES summer event. As company after company canceled their CES show, the show was doomed to close. E3 first year over 40,000 people attend. On May 11, 1995 at 8:30 in the morning the public would first hear from Tom Kalinsje president of Sega of the Sega Saturn which would hit the market with a $399.00 price tag. The biggest part of the news was though the system had already been shipped. After Sega was done next would be Sony.
At the time there was a number of rumors about the Playstation it was going to be higher priced than the Sega Saturn. This would end up not being true and would lead to Sony winning the first E3. Olaf Olagsson was giving a speech about how important story telling was in games when he stopped himself and called Steve Race to the stage. Steve Race walked up to the podium with a bunch of papers like he was about to give some long speech. He just said one thing "$299.00". With that being said it right after the Sega's presentation. It would be the first nail into the Saturn coffin. Nintendo had shown off big games for the Super NES Dokey Kong Country 2, Killer Instinct and a game which orinally Nintendo would not make called Yosh's Island.
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References:
G4 Icon The History of E3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btgT8ue3y5U
Kent, S. (2001). The Ultimate history of video games. Roseville, California: Three Rivers Press.
Pickert, K. (2008, January 08). The Consumer electronics show. Time,
