LOCATION LA CONVENTION CENTER ORGANISER ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE ASSOCIATION
To understand the significance of E3’s arrival, you need to know how games were treated before E3, at other technology trade shows like CES. “In 1991, they put us in a tent,” said Sega America’s then CEO Tom Kalinske, “You had to walk past all the porn vendors to find us. That particular year it was pouring rain, and the rain leaked right over our new Genesis system. I was just furious with the way CES treated the videogame industry, and I felt we were a more important industry than they were giving us credit for.”
The first E3 was born as a response to this kind of treatment, a trade show designed to promote gaming’s growing commercial and cultural significance, rather than obscure it. Held from May 11-13 at the Los Angeles Convention Centre, the first E3 saw exhibitions by the likes of Sega, Nintendo, Sony, Activision, EA, Capcom, Microsoft, and LucasArts. Showcased PC games included Descent, Discworld, Wing Commander 3, and Syndicate Wars.