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Speaker 1: Welcome to text Tuff, a production from I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio and

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Speaker 1: I love all things tech and I owe you guys

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Speaker 1: an explanation because I had intended to have a brand

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Speaker 1: new episode published today. It was going to be about

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Speaker 1: hard drives and solid state drives. But ironically, though not

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Speaker 1: really because it didn't involve my hard drive. I lost it.

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Speaker 1: There was a power issue as well as an internet issue,

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Speaker 1: and the combination of those meant that my audio file

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Speaker 1: was corrupted and I could not I tried to retrieve it.

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Speaker 1: Trust me, it was not finished when the issue happened,

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Speaker 1: and I wasn't able to retrieve it or recover it.

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Speaker 1: And the same is true for my notes. I was

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Speaker 1: saving directly to the cloud. I did not realize that

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Speaker 1: my Internet connection had dropped out, so I didn't have

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Speaker 1: a full version of my notes. I had an incomplete version,

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Speaker 1: which meant that I needed to you know, rewrite stuff,

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Speaker 1: so that put me behind schedule and I never want

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Speaker 1: to go without publishing an episode, so in order to

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Speaker 1: tide me over until Wednesday's episode, which will be the

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Speaker 1: hard Drive in Solid State Drive episode. I thought we

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Speaker 1: should listen to a classic episode, and when choosing, I

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Speaker 1: figured a good one would be how E three Works.

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Speaker 1: This episode originally aired on June twenty nine. Now. E three,

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Speaker 1: for those of you who do not know, is a

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Speaker 1: big trade conference that centers around video games, and of

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Speaker 1: course this year in twenty twenty, they canceled the physical

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Speaker 1: conference fairly early on, uh not not too long after

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Speaker 1: it became clear that COVID was going to be a

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Speaker 1: really big problem, and so there was no physical conference

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Speaker 1: this year. Instead, companies released information, some around a more

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Speaker 1: virtual E three type schedule, but others kind of did

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Speaker 1: it just on their own, you know, their own timing,

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Speaker 1: And a lot of people have come up with some

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Speaker 1: ideas about whether or not this means E three itself

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Speaker 1: is a thing of the past, if it's ever going

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Speaker 1: to return. I'll talk more about that after the episode airs,

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Speaker 1: but first let's listen to this classic episode, How E

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Speaker 1: three works. E three and its history and its place

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Speaker 1: in video games. Um, it's something that if you've never

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Speaker 1: been and you only have followed the news that breaks

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Speaker 1: regarding E three, you may not be fully aware of

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Speaker 1: exactly what it's supposed to be. It is a trade show.

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Speaker 1: It typically takes place in Los Angeles, California, although it

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Speaker 1: has taken place in other locations throughout its history, and

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Speaker 1: it's uh like many trade shows, it's really meant for

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Speaker 1: companies to have lots of meetings and conferences, but also

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Speaker 1: to show off their products. In fact, it's largely become

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Speaker 1: a press oriented event where companies are unveiling big new

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Speaker 1: ideas to try and get a lot of buzz behind them.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes they do it a little too early and you

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Speaker 1: might end up losing momentum by the time something finally

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Speaker 1: comes out. Sometimes the things they announced never come out

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Speaker 1: at all, and I also can become a problem. But

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Speaker 1: I wanted to go through some of the history um

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Speaker 1: and it's gone through a lot of changes. It first

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Speaker 1: debuted back in nineteen So I'm gonna give a history

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Speaker 1: and evolution of the show, including some of the big

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Speaker 1: things that have happened during particular years. Don't worry, I'm

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Speaker 1: not gonna go through full details of every single year.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to give overviews of a lot of them,

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Speaker 1: but the early years I want to pay special attention

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Speaker 1: to because that was back when E three was kind

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Speaker 1: of finding its identity. Now, before E three, hardware manufacturers

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Speaker 1: and software companies would show off their stuff at other

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Speaker 1: types of trade shows, one of the big ones being

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Speaker 1: c e S formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Showcase.

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Speaker 1: In fact, the Nintendo Entertainment System debuted at CES back

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Speaker 1: in ve and uh a Natari computer debuted back in

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Speaker 1: the late seventies. Xbox, the original Xbox, debut in two

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Speaker 1: thousand one. That was even after E three was formed.

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Speaker 1: But the problem with c e S is that it's

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Speaker 1: really big and it covers the entire spectrum of consumer electronics.

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Speaker 1: Video games are just a tiny little spice of that,

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Speaker 1: so they would often be overlooked, and sometimes they'd be

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Speaker 1: put in really inconvenient spots on the show floor. And

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Speaker 1: for a while C e S and the Adult Entertainment

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Speaker 1: Expo we're running at the same time. There were times

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Speaker 1: where in order to get to the video game section

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Speaker 1: at c e S you'd have to walk through the

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Speaker 1: adult entertainment conference to get there, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: the companies that were working on video game systems and

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Speaker 1: software they didn't take too kindly to that. They didn't

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Speaker 1: like that they were being shoveled off to the side

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Speaker 1: or put in inconvenient locations. So there started to be

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Speaker 1: some discussion among various companies about what they might do

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Speaker 1: about that. So in some top video game publishers and

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Speaker 1: hardware manufacturers formed a new organization called the Interactive Digital

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Speaker 1: Software Association or i d s A. UH. This would

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Speaker 1: later on evolve into the Entertainment Software Association or e

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Speaker 1: s A. So in heart that association access an advocacy

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Speaker 1: group for video game companies fighting for stuff that isn't

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Speaker 1: always a benefit to consumers. For example, the e s

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Speaker 1: A has supported SOPA and PIPPA, which are two pieces

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Speaker 1: of legislation that a lot of people opposed, but they

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Speaker 1: also advocate for stuff that consumers appreciate, and one of

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Speaker 1: those things was how can we create an event where

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Speaker 1: we can have our own trade show and we're not

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Speaker 1: overshadowed by other types of technology. So in this association

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Speaker 1: partnered with a company called International Data Group that are

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Speaker 1: known as I d G to create a new trade

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Speaker 1: show centered in Los Angeles. The event took place from

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Speaker 1: May leventh to mayt at the Los Angeles Convention Center,

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Speaker 1: and the day before the show floor opened, CEOs of

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Speaker 1: some of the biggest game companies held a press conference

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Speaker 1: to talk about the future of the gaming industry. If

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Speaker 1: you follow the three today, you know that essentially the

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Speaker 1: same thing happens now where companies will hold a huge

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Speaker 1: press event before the show floor opens in order to

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Speaker 1: get as much coverage as possible and excite people and

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Speaker 1: convince them to come to their booth at the show

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Speaker 1: floor and cover their products. And sometimes these events are amazing,

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Speaker 1: and sometimes they are cringeworthy. You will sit through there

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Speaker 1: and you'll hear some of the worst forced humor, particularly

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Speaker 1: when you have executives who aren't really used to giving

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Speaker 1: a lot of public speeches, and they'll do terrible setups

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Speaker 1: and punchlines. I mean worse than mine, at least with mine.

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Speaker 1: It's a natural delivery. The jokes are bad, but I

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Speaker 1: know how to deliver them. So sometimes you get a

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Speaker 1: great presentation that's really compelling. Sometimes you get a presentation

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Speaker 1: that's pretty painful to watch. Usually the trailers help, the

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Speaker 1: movie trailers, or rather the video game trailers help. They

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Speaker 1: can move things along, even if the stage production part

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Speaker 1: is a little hard to watch. So what was like?

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Speaker 1: What was that first E three actually like? Well, I

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Speaker 1: wasn't there, but I've read a lot about it. That

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Speaker 1: was a big year in video games. N That was

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Speaker 1: when um Sega was touting the Sega Saturn. That was

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Speaker 1: their attempt to try and rest the number one spot

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Speaker 1: away from the Nintendo uh, which ultimately actually would fall

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Speaker 1: on Sony's shoulders, not Nintendo are not Sega's shoulders. So

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Speaker 1: Sega had already launched the Saturn in Japan at the

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Speaker 1: tail end of nineteen, but it wasn't scheduled to hitch

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Speaker 1: store shelves until September two. However, during Sega's press conference,

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Speaker 1: the company surprised the audience by announcing it had shipped

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Speaker 1: the Saturn to a few retailers in the United States,

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Speaker 1: meaning it was available that day for the retail price

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Speaker 1: of three hundred nine dollars four hundred bucks in That

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Speaker 1: is not an insignificant amount of money, but it was

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Speaker 1: a pretty good mic drop moment to say, you know,

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Speaker 1: we thought about scheduling it so it would come out

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Speaker 1: in September. It's available now. The first Sony PlayStation had

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Speaker 1: also launched in the end of so it was still

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Speaker 1: new on the market in Japan, but it was not

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Speaker 1: yet out in the United States. So in Sony's press conference,

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Speaker 1: they talked about it debuting in the US, and Steve

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Speaker 1: Race of Sony said only one thing during the press conference.

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Speaker 1: Steve Race came out at the press conference, looked at

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Speaker 1: the audience and the only thing Race said was two dollars,

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Speaker 1: and that brought the house down. It was a hundred

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Speaker 1: dollars cheaper than the Sega alternative. Nintendo, for its part,

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Speaker 1: announced that it's next system, which would become known as

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Speaker 1: the Nintendo sixty four, would be delayed until nine, so

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Speaker 1: they didn't have any hardware to show off. They didn't

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Speaker 1: have an enormous press conference at E three, but they

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Speaker 1: did throw a big party before the show itself. Uh

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Speaker 1: and the company has done some similar things in following

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Speaker 1: E three throughout the years. In fact, there's some years

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Speaker 1: where Nintendo doesn't really have much of a presence at

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Speaker 1: E three, but will hold its own event just before

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Speaker 1: E three two, kind of piggyback onto everything. Nintendo also

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Speaker 1: had the largest booth on the exhibition floor space in

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Speaker 1: the main hall. The second largest booth belonged to a Claim. Now.

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Speaker 1: One of the things Nintendo showed off was the Virtual Boy. Yes,

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Speaker 1: the virtual Boy, the Migraine making machine that convinced us

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Speaker 1: that virtual reality was a long long way away. And

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Speaker 1: it also shows how unreliable my memory is. I always

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Speaker 1: associate the Virtual Boy as something that came out earlier before,

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Speaker 1: like in the late nineteen eighties. My associate with my childhood,

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Speaker 1: but actually I was I was older than that when

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Speaker 1: it came out. Maybe it was just a child at heart.

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Speaker 1: At any rate, the Virtual Boy was a big push

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Speaker 1: from Nintendo, and obviously that did not work out so

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Speaker 1: well for them. Meanwhile, you had a Claim that was

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Speaker 1: showing off licensed games like Judge Dread and Batman Forever.

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Speaker 1: But those games were not terribly great. They didn't look great.

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Speaker 1: It was it was clear that a claim was not

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Speaker 1: incredibly sure that this was alone going to pull people

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Speaker 1: into their booths. So they did something pretty innovative. You know,

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Speaker 1: keep in mind this is the first E three. So

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Speaker 1: what does a claim do for their booth. They get

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Speaker 1: hold of the motorcycle from Judge Dread and the batmobile

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Speaker 1: in Batman Forever and put both of those in their booth.

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Speaker 1: And they also hired a ton of models, uh young

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Speaker 1: ladies where ring revealing clothing to entice people into their booth.

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Speaker 1: So even at the very first E three there were

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Speaker 1: booth babes uh, which is not a great, you know label,

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Speaker 1: but that is what people tend to refer to, you know,

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Speaker 1: the ladies who have been hired to bring people into

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Speaker 1: the booth. Um. Also, at that time, the three d

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Speaker 1: O was still around. The three d O famously one

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Speaker 1: of the entertainment systems that never really got a good

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Speaker 1: foothold in the gaming industry, but it was still around

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Speaker 1: at that point, so get's the gecko was there. Three

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Speaker 1: d O also decided to get some ladies to try

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Speaker 1: and bring people into their booth. In that case, three

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Speaker 1: d O went with the San Diego Chargers cheerleading squad,

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Speaker 1: so subtle. Also Neo g O c D debut that

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Speaker 1: was from s N. K Uh. One of the people

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Speaker 1: in attendance a celebrity this is really classy, John Wayne Bobbitt.

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Speaker 1: He was famous for um well, there's no reason to

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Speaker 1: go into it on this show, but he was there,

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Speaker 1: and he was promoting a company that created interactive porn software,

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Speaker 1: so a very unsettling kind of thing for some of

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Speaker 1: the other companies. They weren't so sure that they wanted

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Speaker 1: to have this kind of entertainment included with video games.

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Speaker 1: So they actually designed the show floor so there was

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Speaker 1: a bordered off section away from general traffic, so that

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Speaker 1: it wasn't just incorporated directly into the exhibition hall with

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Speaker 1: everybody else. Seka had the biggest booth at the South Hall.

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Speaker 1: Sony also had a very large booth. Sony's was particularly

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Speaker 1: flashy and expensive. Sony threw a big party, and the

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Speaker 1: biggest news about Sony's party was about someone who attended

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Speaker 1: the party just to play games, my Chael Jackson. H

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Speaker 1: And at that time, Atari was starting to fade from

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Speaker 1: the home console market. The Jaguar had underperformed in the market,

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Speaker 1: and so the company only had a small booth at

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Speaker 1: E three. And if you're wondering what sort of big

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Speaker 1: games were shown off in that year, in they included

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Speaker 1: classics like Twisted Metal and Mortal Kombat three. Uh. The

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Speaker 1: next year in E three was a different story. First

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Speaker 1: of all, Sega Saturn had completely flopped in the market,

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Speaker 1: and Nintendo's Virtual Boy also was a failure, so both

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Speaker 1: of those companies were nursing their wounds. In nine, Sony

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Speaker 1: PlayStation was actually starting to gain some traction and become

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Speaker 1: competitive in in Nintendo's space. It hadn't overtaken Nintendo yet,

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Speaker 1: but it was on its way, and no one was

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Speaker 1: really sure at the video game industry was doing well

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Speaker 1: or not. There were a lot of fears that with

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Speaker 1: all the different video game systems of the market from

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Speaker 1: all the different companies, that the industry was heading toward

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Speaker 1: another console crash, like the video game Crash of Night three.

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Speaker 1: So Nintendo that year announced the in sixty four at

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Speaker 1: the show. Remember the previous year they had to delay it,

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Speaker 1: So they announced the in sixty four. They're saying it

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Speaker 1: would cost two fifty dollars. They also showed off Super

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Speaker 1: Mario sixty four and that got a great response. When

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Speaker 1: people saw that Mario could move and three dimensions, it

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Speaker 1: blew everyone's mind, which is kind of funny to think

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Speaker 1: about now, but at the time it was huge. Nintendo

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Speaker 1: also announced a game that's widely considered one of the

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Speaker 1: best of all time, Golden I, which is based off

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Speaker 1: the James Bond film. Now, they just sort of announced

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Speaker 1: it and showed a little bit of concept art and

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Speaker 1: stuff like that. They didn't really go into much detail.

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Speaker 1: That would come later the next year. They also showed

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Speaker 1: off a slim down game Boy called the game Boy Pocket,

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Speaker 1: and at the Nintendo party they had circud the sole

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Speaker 1: a performer is performing stunts and walking on stilts and stuff,

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Speaker 1: which was a little weird from what I understand. Again,

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Speaker 1: I wasn't there this one either. We'll be back with

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Speaker 1: more about E three and just a moment, but first

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Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. Sony announced that the PlayStation

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Speaker 1: would drop in price to a Now this was controversial

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Speaker 1: because the various presidents of the companies had kind of

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Speaker 1: come to an understanding that no one was going to

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Speaker 1: go to the press event and drop a bombshell that

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Speaker 1: would adversely affect the other companies. So why did Sony

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Speaker 1: come out and say the PlayStation was going to drop

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Speaker 1: to bucks. Well, this is because the person who was

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Speaker 1: in charge of Sony at that time was newly in

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Speaker 1: charge of Sony's video game market. So his excuse was, hey,

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Speaker 1: that was an agreement that my predecessor made. I never

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Speaker 1: made that agreement. So Sony says, hey, we're gonna drop

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Speaker 1: the price to that kind of put the pressure on

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Speaker 1: Nintendo and Sega, both of which would at the same

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Speaker 1: event announced that their new consoles would come down to

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Speaker 1: UM So that was that was a big deal. That

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Speaker 1: put a lot of pressure on those companies. That was

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Speaker 1: also the year Microsoft first showed up to E three

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Speaker 1: N but it wasn't too promote a console idea. It

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Speaker 1: was to pitch Windows as a gaming platform. Now, that

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Speaker 1: might blow your mind that in ninet Microsoft is saying, hey,

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Speaker 1: let's have more developers create video games for Windows. But

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Speaker 1: at that time there were a lot of games that

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Speaker 1: were still based on or using DOSS as the operating

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Speaker 1: system of choice. So, uh, this was an uphill battle,

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Speaker 1: or at least it seemed that way for Microsoft. It

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Speaker 1: turned out that before too long it would be impossible

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Speaker 1: for you to find a game that would run on DOSS.

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Speaker 1: You had to get a Windows installation on your PC

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Speaker 1: if you wanted to play games, because all the games

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Speaker 1: were made for Windows. I remember at the time I

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Speaker 1: was particularly perturbed by this because I was a Doss boy.

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Speaker 1: E three changed venues. It actually went to the Georgia

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Speaker 1: Dome in my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. Didn't get to

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Speaker 1: go to this one either. At the time, in ninety seven,

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Speaker 1: I was not working at How Stuff Works, so I

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Speaker 1: was not in the technology field. I would have loved

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Speaker 1: to have attended, but I wasn't qualified. Uh. E three

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Speaker 1: I should have mentioned earlier is an industry only event.

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Speaker 1: It's only been open to the public a couple of

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Speaker 1: times and um. Otherwise you have to be either in

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Speaker 1: the video game industry or in journalism specifically covering video games.

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Speaker 1: Otherwise you are not supposed to go. A lot of

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Speaker 1: people end up getting passes to go for various in

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Speaker 1: various ways, like maybe they work in marketing, maybe they

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Speaker 1: work for a video game retailer, like a retail store.

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Speaker 1: But in general, you're not supposed to just have anybody

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Speaker 1: show up to these things. They have to have some

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Speaker 1: the credentials required to get in so Georgia Dome. The

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Speaker 1: trade show held some conferences, some actual panel discussions, not

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Speaker 1: just press events and game demos. They actually held discussions

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Speaker 1: about emerging trends and video games, including a strange new

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Speaker 1: world of online gaming, something that was relatively young in Also,

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Speaker 1: there was a type of video game that was really

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Speaker 1: starting to get incredibly popular, first person shooters. They had

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Speaker 1: been around for a few years several years actually, um

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Speaker 1: since Wolfenstein three D came out in the early nineties,

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Speaker 1: but they were starting to get some real action, and

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Speaker 1: so there were conferences held about first person shooters, particularly

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Speaker 1: for the consoles. So why did the company show off?

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Speaker 1: Nintendo showed off Golden Eye Double O seven. This time

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Speaker 1: they showed a much more detailed demo, and that really

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Speaker 1: impressed the E three audience. The four players split screen

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Speaker 1: approach was a big innovation for console games. Nintendo also

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Speaker 1: showed off a cute game called Conquers Quest about a

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Speaker 1: fluffy squirrel, and it was meant for kids, and this

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Speaker 1: game would never come out, but it would mutate into

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Speaker 1: a totally different, crude and appropriate game called Conquers Bad

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Speaker 1: for a Day. More on that in a little bit.

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Speaker 1: That same year, Sony announced Metal Gear Solid, which was

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Speaker 1: technically a sequel to Metal Gear and Metal Gear two

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Speaker 1: Solid Snake. Metal Gear Solid would become the foundation for

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Speaker 1: an extremely popular franchise that um, as far as we know,

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Speaker 1: has concluded since the creator has left the company that

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Speaker 1: was publishing these But that's a that's a story for

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Speaker 1: a different day. That would be an entire podcast all

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Speaker 1: on its own, and in retrospect, many people felt that

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Speaker 1: the thirty three was kind of a letdown after the

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Speaker 1: first two and that the Georgia Dome was probably not

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Speaker 1: the best venue for the event. Uh that it just

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Speaker 1: made the event to spread out too difficult to navigate,

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Speaker 1: and it just wasn't ideal for showing off these games

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Speaker 1: and the companies. And another black mark for this E

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Speaker 1: three this was the E three where Duke Nukem Forever

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Speaker 1: was first announced. Now that game would become synonymous with

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Speaker 1: the term vapor ware, and eventually Duke Nukem Forever would

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Speaker 1: emerge out of development hell in two thousand eleven. So

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Speaker 1: announced in but it wouldn't be until two thousand eleven

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Speaker 1: that it comes out, more than a decade later, and

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Speaker 1: the response at the time was pretty negative. People were

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Speaker 1: not impressed, especially considering that the game was spending more

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Speaker 1: than ten years in development. So it would be really

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Speaker 1: crazy for me to go into this level of detail

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Speaker 1: for every single year, for every E three, so I'm

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Speaker 1: not going to do that. I'm now going to kind

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Speaker 1: of give you just some highlights of each year moving forward. Um,

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Speaker 1: and if you want to learn more about any given

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Speaker 1: E three, I can always do a full episode about

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Speaker 1: specific year if there's something that you think is particularly interesting.

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Speaker 1: But for now, let's look at some of the highlights.

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Speaker 1: So in n E three was still in Atlanta, had

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Speaker 1: grown into a pretty major trade show with something like

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Speaker 1: seventy thousand attendees, and companies were going all out. They

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Speaker 1: were getting some some big name bands to play their

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Speaker 1: parties like in ninety eight and included the Food Fighters,

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Speaker 1: UH and the B fifty twos at industry parties, and

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Speaker 1: again I'm very sad that I wasn't able to go in.

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Speaker 1: Sega ended up showing off the Dreamcast, which was, in

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Speaker 1: my opinion, one of the rate consoles of that era. Sadly,

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Speaker 1: I don't think Sega ever had a good idea of

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Speaker 1: how to market it, how to leverage it, so despite

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Speaker 1: the fact that it was a legitimately good contender in

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Speaker 1: the console space, it never really got the the market

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Speaker 1: support and needed to be a real competitor against Nintendo

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Speaker 1: and Sony. Also shown in ninety eight was an early

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Speaker 1: version of a little game called Half Life, and it

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Speaker 1: is an ongoing joke in video game journalism about whether

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Speaker 1: or not Valve will announce Half Life three at the

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Speaker 1: next E three um. Half Life is one of those

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Speaker 1: games where people have been waiting for the conclusion of

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Speaker 1: the story for quite some time, and there has been

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Speaker 1: no word on if Half Life three is in development,

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Speaker 1: and even if it is, you know when would it

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Speaker 1: possibly come out, But there's no word on an even

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Speaker 1: existing period, so it remains one of the uh the

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Speaker 1: the snipes that were hunting in video game journalism circles.

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Speaker 1: Also at Nintendo showed off a game that was the

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Speaker 1: legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, one of the um

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Speaker 1: highly highly critically claimed Zelda games that came out in

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Speaker 1: that time that in uh the Mask one was in

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Speaker 1: Major's Mask. I think, so that's the next one. But

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Speaker 1: oh Green of Time, that was a game that I

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Speaker 1: also had um and a lot of people thought that

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Speaker 1: that was sort of the right direction for Nintendo to

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Speaker 1: move in. E three came back to Los Angeles, so

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Speaker 1: it leaves Atlantic goes back to l a uh Sega

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Speaker 1: announces that the Dreamcast launch date will be nine nine,

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Speaker 1: so September, and we'll retail for one dollars, so it's

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Speaker 1: pretty cute. Nintend Know held a press conference that unveiled

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Speaker 1: Project Dolphin. Project Dolphin would eventually become the GameCube. They

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Speaker 1: also showed off Donkey Kong sixty four, another game that

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Speaker 1: was on display was Quake three. Final Fantasy eight was

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Speaker 1: also shown off that year, So some big names in

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Speaker 1: computer and video games in two thousand there were. It

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Speaker 1: was pretty much a game heavy year. Um The PlayStation

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Speaker 1: two was announced by Sony. It had already launched in Japan,

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Speaker 1: so announced rather for the US shelves because the game

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00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:38,480
Speaker 1: system had already been out in Japan for quite some time.

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Speaker 1: But among the games that were announced were Metal Gear

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Speaker 1: Solid two Conquers Bad for a Day. So, now that

404
00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:50,959
Speaker 1: Conqueror game that was originally meant for kids was definitely

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Speaker 1: not meant for kids. It had lots of crude humor,

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Speaker 1: a lot of cursing, uh, scatological humor, sexual humor, a

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00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:04,520
Speaker 1: lot of violence. I mean, the violence in that game

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00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:07,680
Speaker 1: is pretty incredible, even though the characters are very cartoony.

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Speaker 1: Um So, Conqueror's Bad for a Day was kind of

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Speaker 1: shocking because it was so out of character for Nintendo.

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Speaker 1: Um and, and it marks something people were wondering if

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Speaker 1: Nintendo was actually going to make a bigger move into

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Speaker 1: that realm of video games. Actually it did not. For

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Speaker 1: the most part. Some third party Nintendo games get pretty violent,

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Speaker 1: but most of the first party stuff doesn't. Also, that year,

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Speaker 1: the game C Man was shown off, and C Man

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Speaker 1: is one of the weirdest games I've ever seen, And

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Speaker 1: again I could do a full show about that, but

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Speaker 1: if you ever are curious, you can search for its

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Speaker 1: C Man s E A M. A N fish with

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Speaker 1: a human face. Nothing nothing wrong about that anyway. This

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Speaker 1: was a more subdued E three, and partly because it

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Speaker 1: was held the same year as the Columbine shooting in

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Speaker 1: the United States, the high school shooting, so there was

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Speaker 1: a very different kind of atmosphere at this E three.

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Speaker 1: The video game industry in general was under a lot

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00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:19,359
Speaker 1: of scrutiny at Washington, d C. So it was a

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00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:25,440
Speaker 1: difficult year for many reasons. In two thousand one, Microsoft

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Speaker 1: joins the game for real, this time talking about the Xbox,

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Speaker 1: but they didn't debut the Xbox at E three. They

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Speaker 1: had already shown it off at C E S. Still,

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Speaker 1: they brought it to E three to kind of enter

433
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:46,200
Speaker 1: the fray along with Sony and Nintendo and kind of Sega.

434
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:50,840
Speaker 1: People were still talking about Metal Gear Solid two, which

435
00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:53,040
Speaker 1: had been shown off the previous year but still hadn't

436
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:56,680
Speaker 1: come out. A little game called Grand Theft Auto three

437
00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:59,480
Speaker 1: was shown off in two thousand one. But here's the

438
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 1: weird thing. No one really paid attention to it at

439
00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:04,440
Speaker 1: the time. No one thought it was going to be

440
00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:08,840
Speaker 1: a big deal. It was mostly overlooked. Nintendo was pushing

441
00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:11,919
Speaker 1: the GameCube pretty hard, but it was still delayed. It

442
00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:15,640
Speaker 1: had not yet launched, and Sega pretty much got out

443
00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:19,600
Speaker 1: of the hardware game that year. Two thousand two, the

444
00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:23,080
Speaker 1: biggest game on the show floor was Doom three, and

445
00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:25,320
Speaker 1: that was only in an early demo build, but the

446
00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:30,359
Speaker 1: game caused shockwaves throughout the show floor, and the reason

447
00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:34,800
Speaker 1: was because the game engine and the graphics engine were

448
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:40,000
Speaker 1: so advanced compared to other games that they really caught

449
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:42,280
Speaker 1: people's attention. There were a lot of effects that you

450
00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:47,120
Speaker 1: didn't typically see in games at that time, like reflections

451
00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:52,600
Speaker 1: um so reflective surfaces were showing effective reflections, also destructible environments.

452
00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:57,080
Speaker 1: This was stuff that had not really been shown in games,

453
00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:00,160
Speaker 1: at least not many games up to this point, and

454
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:03,600
Speaker 1: it really got a lot of people's attention. Meanwhile, you

455
00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:08,160
Speaker 1: had some interesting drama going on at the exhibition show floor.

456
00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:11,440
Speaker 1: EA and Vivendi were fighting each other, Lord of the

457
00:29:11,520 --> 00:29:13,640
Speaker 1: Rings and Hobbit Style, and I really do mean that,

458
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:17,120
Speaker 1: so e A was showing The Two Towers preview over

459
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:20,720
Speaker 1: and over again. Uh, because this was the year The

460
00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:22,920
Speaker 1: Two Towers was going to come out. And then Vivendi

461
00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:26,080
Speaker 1: was showing off footage from its Lord of the Rings

462
00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:31,480
Speaker 1: and Hobbit inspired games inside a domed theater and projecting

463
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:33,400
Speaker 1: it on the top of the dome. So you have

464
00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:35,760
Speaker 1: these two companies kind of Lord of the Rings fighting

465
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:39,840
Speaker 1: each other in a snarky way. Uh. The Army, the U. S. Army,

466
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 1: was actually at E three that year, showing off a

467
00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:46,520
Speaker 1: recruitment tool they had developed called America's Army. And if

468
00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:49,120
Speaker 1: that sounds familiar to you, you are probably a fan

469
00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:51,880
Speaker 1: of a certain zombie game. There have been a few

470
00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:58,560
Speaker 1: mods of America's Army, and uh some of them have

471
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:03,000
Speaker 1: been pretty famous, and including some that are more famous

472
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:05,080
Speaker 1: than America's Army. But this was the year America's Army

473
00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:09,880
Speaker 1: showed up. Was two thousand two. Also, Battlefield was a

474
00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:13,240
Speaker 1: big hit that year. In two thousand three, Half Life

475
00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:16,720
Speaker 1: two became the big news, so Doom three the previous year.

476
00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:19,440
Speaker 1: Half Life two steals the show in two thousand three

477
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:22,360
Speaker 1: and sets the stage for people to ask where is

478
00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:26,800
Speaker 1: Half Life three for the next decade, more than a decade. Uh.

479
00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 1: Microsoft also got really good buzz because they showed off

480
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:34,920
Speaker 1: a preview for Halo two. I remember distinctly watching videos

481
00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:38,000
Speaker 1: of the Halo two reveal and hearing the audience go

482
00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:43,000
Speaker 1: totally bonkers, just like you could tell people are getting chills,

483
00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:46,320
Speaker 1: and it makes you if you're if you haven't been

484
00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:49,800
Speaker 1: to any three and seeing one of these demos, it

485
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:52,600
Speaker 1: might be hard to imagine how such a thing could

486
00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:55,720
Speaker 1: get a reaction, but it really is contagious. When people

487
00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:59,800
Speaker 1: are getting excited, it's easy to also feel excited as

488
00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 1: a special kind of experience. But yeah, Halo two made

489
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:06,520
Speaker 1: a big, make a big splash. Doom three had not

490
00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:09,560
Speaker 1: yet come out, so it was being pretty quiet about

491
00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:11,840
Speaker 1: Doom three for the most part. In two thousand three,

492
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:17,000
Speaker 1: since it had not yet debuted. Sony, however, announced new hardware,

493
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:22,280
Speaker 1: a PlayStation portable also known as the PSP, and that

494
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:25,360
Speaker 1: kind of gave Nintendo a bit of a scare because

495
00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:28,440
Speaker 1: Nintendo had their game Boy platform and now there was

496
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:32,440
Speaker 1: a new platform coming into play. Nokia also was there.

497
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:36,640
Speaker 1: The phone manufacturer was showing off a handheld device called

498
00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:40,840
Speaker 1: the Engage, which failed to excite the crowd and ultimately

499
00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:44,720
Speaker 1: became kind of a joke in video game circles. Sadly,

500
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:48,320
Speaker 1: in two thousand four, the PSP was not yet playable.

501
00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:51,320
Speaker 1: They showed it off at the show floor, but every

502
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:55,440
Speaker 1: PSP unit was tethered there's the PlayStation portable. In other words,

503
00:31:56,000 --> 00:32:01,000
Speaker 1: it was tethered to a pedestal, and it wasn't showing

504
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:04,280
Speaker 1: a playable game, but rather just a looping video, so

505
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:06,520
Speaker 1: that got a lot of people disappointed. They did show

506
00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:10,640
Speaker 1: off the PSP working in hands off demos where a

507
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:14,360
Speaker 1: Sony representative was showing it off, but they didn't let

508
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:18,760
Speaker 1: attendees try it out. Nintendo that year unveiled the DS

509
00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:23,760
Speaker 1: Portable System that's their dual screen system. Uh and some

510
00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:26,160
Speaker 1: of the games that people got excited about that were

511
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:29,240
Speaker 1: shown that year included God of War at the start

512
00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:32,720
Speaker 1: of another franchise, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. This time,

513
00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 1: the Grand Theft Auto game got a lot more attention

514
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:40,480
Speaker 1: and the SIMS to In two thousand and five, it

515
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:43,960
Speaker 1: was a huge E three. That's when we started seeing

516
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 1: the next generation of consoles debut. Microsoft unveiled the Xbox

517
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:53,640
Speaker 1: three sixty, Sony unveiled the PlayStation three, and Nintendo showed

518
00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:59,160
Speaker 1: off The Revolution, which would later become the Wii, and

519
00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:02,000
Speaker 1: people began to complain about why, like why would you

520
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:06,840
Speaker 1: change Revolution to we Come On? But they did. Big

521
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:10,760
Speaker 1: games that year included The Witcher, Alan Wake, the Elder,

522
00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:16,480
Speaker 1: Scroll Scrolls for Oblivion, Quake for Civilization, for Battlefield, to

523
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:21,760
Speaker 1: Fear Spore. So not all of those games necessarily lived

524
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:25,160
Speaker 1: up to the hype of E three. Again, not something

525
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:28,080
Speaker 1: that you should find particularly surprising. This happens every year,

526
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:31,640
Speaker 1: but it gives you an idea like, these were the

527
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:34,400
Speaker 1: games that got people buzzing at E three that year,

528
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:38,760
Speaker 1: and not all of them paid off. Two thousand six

529
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:43,400
Speaker 1: was not a huge year. Sadly, two thousand six didn't

530
00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:46,640
Speaker 1: have as big an impact as two thousand five, partly

531
00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:49,400
Speaker 1: because two thousand five that's when they had all the

532
00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:53,480
Speaker 1: big hardware announcements, so this was more about games and

533
00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:56,600
Speaker 1: less about hardware. But some of those games included some

534
00:33:56,680 --> 00:34:01,480
Speaker 1: real classics like BioShock and Assassin's creed Man Effect. Those

535
00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:04,760
Speaker 1: are big names in video games and computer games. Also,

536
00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:08,160
Speaker 1: Metroid Prime three and We Sports were shown off that year,

537
00:34:08,239 --> 00:34:11,719
Speaker 1: so it was a good year for games, but not

538
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:16,800
Speaker 1: one that unveiled a lot of hardware. Typically, I find

539
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:20,120
Speaker 1: that any three where there's not a new hardware announcement

540
00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:24,040
Speaker 1: feels like a little bit of a letdown among the crowd.

541
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:26,440
Speaker 1: At least that's been my experience when I have ATTENDITY

542
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:28,839
Speaker 1: three any E three have been to where they didn't

543
00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:32,319
Speaker 1: talk new hardware. People seem like I was really hoping

544
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:36,600
Speaker 1: to be surprised by something. Yeah, sometimes it just doesn't happen.

545
00:34:36,920 --> 00:34:39,680
Speaker 1: We've got a bit more to say about E three,

546
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:42,720
Speaker 1: but before we get to that, let's take another quick break.

547
00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:53,000
Speaker 1: In two thousand seventy three shifted big time. So you

548
00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:56,080
Speaker 1: may have heard about how E three went through this

549
00:34:56,160 --> 00:35:00,239
Speaker 1: transformation like it was a big party getting more and

550
00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:03,880
Speaker 1: more out of control year over year. You had stories

551
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:08,920
Speaker 1: about booth babes and ridiculous parties with huge amounts of

552
00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:14,840
Speaker 1: money being spent on bands and dancers and um open bars,

553
00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:17,160
Speaker 1: and just that it was becoming a party atmosphere to

554
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:19,880
Speaker 1: the point where it was starting some people were feeling

555
00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:22,600
Speaker 1: that I I was starting to harm the reputation of the

556
00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:27,239
Speaker 1: video game industry overall. In two thousand seven, E three

557
00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:30,279
Speaker 1: underwent an enormous change. It also had to do with

558
00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:35,400
Speaker 1: decline and video game sales in some areas, so it

559
00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:39,480
Speaker 1: downsized dramatically. First of all, the three moved to Santa Monica,

560
00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:42,600
Speaker 1: not Los Angeles, and it was no longer held at

561
00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:45,680
Speaker 1: a central location. Instead, companies held their own press events

562
00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:50,000
Speaker 1: and various locations around Santa Monica, and attendance dropped. It

563
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:52,759
Speaker 1: was at about sixty thousand and two thousand six it

564
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:55,520
Speaker 1: moved down to ten thousand, and that was partly in

565
00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:59,000
Speaker 1: response to criticism of how E three was really becoming

566
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:01,640
Speaker 1: this out of control party instead of a serious trade show.

567
00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:05,880
Speaker 1: So there was some worry that this shift to a

568
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:10,800
Speaker 1: more serious E three would eventually kill E three itself,

569
00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:12,319
Speaker 1: and there was a you know, there were a lot

570
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:14,160
Speaker 1: of other rules in place, like you weren't supposed to

571
00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:16,640
Speaker 1: have booth babes. You weren't supposed to have these super

572
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:21,440
Speaker 1: out of uh control booths with lots of set design.

573
00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:26,000
Speaker 1: It was supposed to be much more utilitarian. Moving over

574
00:36:26,040 --> 00:36:30,319
Speaker 1: to two thousand eight, the E three conference goes back

575
00:36:30,360 --> 00:36:33,359
Speaker 1: to the l A Convention Center. That year, Microsoft makes

576
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:35,920
Speaker 1: the move to turn its console into a fully fledged

577
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 1: home entertainment system. So now the three sixty has a

578
00:36:40,239 --> 00:36:45,919
Speaker 1: new Live component that's been completely retooled. UM Xbox Live

579
00:36:46,120 --> 00:36:52,960
Speaker 1: became a real powerful part of Microsoft strategy, and Microsoft

580
00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:55,759
Speaker 1: even added support for stuff like Netflix starting in two

581
00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:59,680
Speaker 1: thousand eight. This was back when Netflix was using its

582
00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:02,880
Speaker 1: strate g of getting on every platform it possibly could

583
00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 1: in an attempt to make it a universally accessible app.

584
00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:09,920
Speaker 1: But it also helped Microsoft at the time to kind

585
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:13,040
Speaker 1: of shift from being just a video game console too

586
00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:16,960
Speaker 1: more of an entertainment system. Uh. That ended up being

587
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:20,759
Speaker 1: a difficult story for Microsoft to tell because at E three,

588
00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:26,600
Speaker 1: generally speaking, your audience just once the video games. They

589
00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:30,279
Speaker 1: don't necessarily want you know, Oh, I don't really care

590
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:34,160
Speaker 1: if my console also can show movies or access the Internet.

591
00:37:34,200 --> 00:37:38,000
Speaker 1: I want to know about the games. So it's been

592
00:37:38,040 --> 00:37:40,960
Speaker 1: a kind of a difficult thing because there they're certainly

593
00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:46,680
Speaker 1: portions of the console market out there that is incredibly

594
00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:53,399
Speaker 1: interested in the entertainment system parts of the various current consoles. Uh.

595
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:55,719
Speaker 1: And so maybe E three is one of those things

596
00:37:55,760 --> 00:37:58,160
Speaker 1: where you just concentrate on the games and then other

597
00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:03,880
Speaker 1: events you talk about the non gaming related capabilities of

598
00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:08,160
Speaker 1: the console. Lots of games were on display in two

599
00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:11,080
Speaker 1: thousand eight, including God of War, three, Kill Zone two,

600
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:15,520
Speaker 1: Prince of Persia, Dragon Age, and Fallout three, one of

601
00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:17,879
Speaker 1: the best games of all time in my opinion. There

602
00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:20,560
Speaker 1: were rumors that that would be the final E three.

603
00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:25,360
Speaker 1: People were wondering if, in fact the whole conference was

604
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:28,040
Speaker 1: just going to collapse in on itself. But then came

605
00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:30,959
Speaker 1: two thousand nine and it totally wasn't the last E three.

606
00:38:31,040 --> 00:38:33,239
Speaker 1: They had another one, and I got to go to

607
00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:36,000
Speaker 1: this one. I actually attended the three. In two thousand nine,

608
00:38:36,760 --> 00:38:41,040
Speaker 1: UM Microsoft showed off Project Natal, which would later become

609
00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:45,840
Speaker 1: the Connect sensor. Sony showed off its own motion control system,

610
00:38:45,840 --> 00:38:49,799
Speaker 1: which would eventually become the Move Controller system. People were

611
00:38:49,880 --> 00:38:52,680
Speaker 1: arguing that this was in response to Nintendo We, which

612
00:38:52,680 --> 00:38:56,360
Speaker 1: had already introduced motion controls and got a lot of attention.

613
00:38:56,400 --> 00:39:00,720
Speaker 1: The Wei was incredibly successful early on. I'm partly because

614
00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:05,560
Speaker 1: it appealed to people who weren't UM traditionally referred to

615
00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:09,360
Speaker 1: as like hardcore gamers. I personally hate the term hardcore

616
00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:13,400
Speaker 1: gamer and I hate the term casual gamer. But essentially,

617
00:39:13,640 --> 00:39:18,160
Speaker 1: the We appealed to a broader range of people than

618
00:39:18,239 --> 00:39:21,000
Speaker 1: the other consoles did, so in part, the Connect and

619
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:24,879
Speaker 1: the Move were strategies to try and create a more

620
00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:31,080
Speaker 1: um appealing approach to a broader audience, although you could

621
00:39:31,200 --> 00:39:35,960
Speaker 1: argue how effective or not effective they were. Some of

622
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:38,719
Speaker 1: the games announced include Left for Dead Too, which wasn't

623
00:39:38,719 --> 00:39:42,879
Speaker 1: really shown off but was talked about, Crackdown to Halo

624
00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:46,680
Speaker 1: O d s T fours A three, The Beatles Rock

625
00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 1: Band was shown off their Star Wars The Old Republic

626
00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:55,360
Speaker 1: was shown off there. I ran into Jack Pottilo and

627
00:39:55,440 --> 00:39:59,479
Speaker 1: Jeff Ramsey at the two thousand nine E three while

628
00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:02,359
Speaker 1: in line for a demonstration of the Beatles Rock Band.

629
00:40:02,400 --> 00:40:07,120
Speaker 1: I remember that Nice Guys by the Way and Connect

630
00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:11,520
Speaker 1: officially debuted, and so did PlayStation Move. There are tons

631
00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:13,920
Speaker 1: of games announced in two but I'm not going to

632
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:17,000
Speaker 1: go through them because they were almost all sequels. Uh.

633
00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:20,200
Speaker 1: You've heard a lot of sequels already in this and

634
00:40:20,239 --> 00:40:23,279
Speaker 1: that's another issue is that you have video game companies

635
00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:27,920
Speaker 1: that are on the one hand, introducing new intellectual property

636
00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:31,640
Speaker 1: is a good idea because people start getting fed up

637
00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:34,799
Speaker 1: with sequels and there's always the opportunity to create a

638
00:40:34,880 --> 00:40:39,040
Speaker 1: new franchise out of brand new intellectual property. On the

639
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:43,960
Speaker 1: other hand, the games that have already been established have

640
00:40:44,360 --> 00:40:50,280
Speaker 1: audiences already so it's easier to or at least in theory,

641
00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:52,920
Speaker 1: it's easier to please that audience by coming out with

642
00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:56,440
Speaker 1: a new iteration of that or a new sequel to

643
00:40:56,560 --> 00:41:01,320
Speaker 1: That's that franchise, but was pretty much franchise heavy, or

644
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:06,840
Speaker 1: rather sequel heavy, so I skipped it. That's when Nintendo

645
00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:09,880
Speaker 1: shows off the Wii U. This, of course, is the

646
00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:13,160
Speaker 1: game system that has the controller with a game pad

647
00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:15,840
Speaker 1: in the middle of one of the controllers, and it

648
00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:18,799
Speaker 1: allows for different types of gameplay, including using the game

649
00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:22,200
Speaker 1: pad is like a site for a gun in a game,

650
00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:25,799
Speaker 1: or a scanner, or sometimes you could do like a

651
00:41:25,880 --> 00:41:29,680
Speaker 1: one gamer versus four gamer kind of thing with one

652
00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:32,279
Speaker 1: person on the game pad controller and the other people

653
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:37,240
Speaker 1: using the regular we controllers. Uh, it didn't really capture

654
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:40,040
Speaker 1: the imagination of the crowd the way Nintendo had hoped.

655
00:41:41,080 --> 00:41:45,920
Speaker 1: Sony would unveil the PlayStation Vina in Microsoft didn't have

656
00:41:45,960 --> 00:41:48,839
Speaker 1: any a new hardware, but it did unveil Halo four,

657
00:41:48,960 --> 00:41:53,560
Speaker 1: which got people excited. Um Uncharted three and the tumb

658
00:41:53,600 --> 00:41:56,080
Speaker 1: Ray to reboot both got a good response and are

659
00:41:56,239 --> 00:41:59,320
Speaker 1: both very similar to one another. If you played Uncharted

660
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:01,399
Speaker 1: three and tumb Ray or it's I like to think

661
00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:04,120
Speaker 1: of them as I think I've unturned three as the

662
00:42:04,160 --> 00:42:07,920
Speaker 1: game called, and then I climbed, and then tumb rater,

663
00:42:08,040 --> 00:42:10,680
Speaker 1: I think it was the game, and then I fell down.

664
00:42:12,160 --> 00:42:15,840
Speaker 1: So but maybe that's just me being snarky. It probably is.

665
00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:20,920
Speaker 1: I'm an old man. BioShock Infinite was unveiled, which had

666
00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:25,200
Speaker 1: an amazing art style and uh concept behind it. You

667
00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:28,279
Speaker 1: can argue whether or not BioShock Infinite ultimately lived up

668
00:42:28,320 --> 00:42:32,800
Speaker 1: to its potential. I think it was pretty good. Um,

669
00:42:32,920 --> 00:42:35,799
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed the game. They also showed off sky

670
00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:40,120
Speaker 1: Rim again, another game that I loved. It took me

671
00:42:40,160 --> 00:42:43,080
Speaker 1: a long time to complete it because I enjoyed playing it,

672
00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:45,800
Speaker 1: but I wasn't too concerned about actually fulfilling the story.

673
00:42:46,680 --> 00:42:49,160
Speaker 1: Mass Effect three also showing off in two thousand eleven,

674
00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:53,399
Speaker 1: another game that both got people excited and ultimately got

675
00:42:53,440 --> 00:42:56,200
Speaker 1: a lot of people angry when they when they finished

676
00:42:56,239 --> 00:43:01,439
Speaker 1: Mass Effect three. Two thousand twelve not a hardware year,

677
00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:05,040
Speaker 1: but definitely a big game year. Watchdogs was shown off,

678
00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:08,000
Speaker 1: although it would be delayed. It would be shown off again,

679
00:43:09,920 --> 00:43:13,800
Speaker 1: but it wouldn't come out until far Cry three was

680
00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:17,440
Speaker 1: shown off at Assassin's Creed three Last of Us one

681
00:43:17,520 --> 00:43:21,600
Speaker 1: of the best games ever. I'm not a PlayStation fan

682
00:43:21,680 --> 00:43:26,480
Speaker 1: in general. I'm an Xbox player primarily. However, I do

683
00:43:26,680 --> 00:43:29,560
Speaker 1: have a PS three and The Last of Us is

684
00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:33,239
Speaker 1: one of the best games I played on any platform.

685
00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:36,000
Speaker 1: Resident Evil six was shown off. Dead Space three was

686
00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:40,719
Speaker 1: shown off, but again not a real hardware year in

687
00:43:40,760 --> 00:43:42,920
Speaker 1: two thousand thirteen. That was the year of the Xbox

688
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:46,319
Speaker 1: One in the PS four, so a huge hardware year,

689
00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:51,000
Speaker 1: and there were big press events all around these two

690
00:43:51,520 --> 00:43:54,759
Speaker 1: new consoles. Nintendo hung in there with the Wi You,

691
00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:57,520
Speaker 1: but again was not getting a lot of attention. Big

692
00:43:57,560 --> 00:44:00,560
Speaker 1: games that were announced store on display that year included

693
00:44:00,600 --> 00:44:04,520
Speaker 1: Assassin's Creed four Black Flag, another game that I really enjoyed,

694
00:44:04,520 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 1: although I think it's particularly it's a little repetitive, but

695
00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:11,359
Speaker 1: so are all the Assassin's Creed games. UH, Diablo three

696
00:44:11,719 --> 00:44:15,480
Speaker 1: Destiny was shown off Halo five, which was a big

697
00:44:15,480 --> 00:44:18,440
Speaker 1: deal that Destiny and Halo five were being shown off. Bungee,

698
00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:21,120
Speaker 1: of course, was the company that had designed or had

699
00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:25,320
Speaker 1: come had built the Halo games originally but had moved

700
00:44:25,360 --> 00:44:30,080
Speaker 1: on to work on Destiny UH and then um Microsoft

701
00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:33,600
Speaker 1: was essentially the steward of the Halo franchise at that point.

702
00:44:34,600 --> 00:44:38,160
Speaker 1: Elder Scrolls Online was shown off, which I got to

703
00:44:38,239 --> 00:44:41,840
Speaker 1: try and I thought was interesting, but ultimately never purchased,

704
00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:43,919
Speaker 1: And it seems like I was not the only one.

705
00:44:44,560 --> 00:44:48,120
Speaker 1: Kingdom Hearts three was unveiled, Mad Max was shown off.

706
00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:50,080
Speaker 1: It would take a couple of years for that game

707
00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 1: to go through a couple of redesigns before it would debut.

708
00:44:53,600 --> 00:44:57,200
Speaker 1: Sint Row Saints Row four rather shown off, Star Wars

709
00:44:57,200 --> 00:45:01,959
Speaker 1: battle Front was teased. Quant Break was teased as well,

710
00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:05,440
Speaker 1: Sunset over Drive was shown off, and two thousand fourteen

711
00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:09,480
Speaker 1: was another game heavy year, with Alien Isolation, Dead Island

712
00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:13,560
Speaker 1: to Dragon Age Inquisition, Dragon Age Inquisition rather Grim van

713
00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:16,799
Speaker 1: Dango Remastered, which I was really excited about because that

714
00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:18,680
Speaker 1: was one of those Lucas Art schemes that I thought

715
00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:21,359
Speaker 1: was really really great. It was. I was very happy

716
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:23,879
Speaker 1: to see that it was going to come back. Game

717
00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:28,360
Speaker 1: of Thrones game from tail Tale was announced. No Man's Sky,

718
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:31,759
Speaker 1: which we're still waiting on right now, was shown off

719
00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:35,440
Speaker 1: in two thousand fourteen. Also two thousand and fifteen, UM

720
00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:38,680
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat X showing off Shadow of More Door showing

721
00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:43,560
Speaker 1: off Ineen two thousand fifteen more games like Assassin Screed, Syndicate,

722
00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:49,040
Speaker 1: Dark Souls three d Oh Sex Mankind Divided, Fallout four,

723
00:45:49,600 --> 00:45:54,080
Speaker 1: which was announced at Bethesda's first ever press conference, along

724
00:45:54,080 --> 00:45:58,680
Speaker 1: with Fallout Shelter, the division dishonored to was shown off

725
00:45:58,680 --> 00:46:02,040
Speaker 1: a little bit or announced cup Head Gears of War four.

726
00:46:02,200 --> 00:46:04,719
Speaker 1: I Am Bred. I Am Bred, one of the most

727
00:46:04,760 --> 00:46:10,120
Speaker 1: important games made in the last decade. Mass Effect Andromeda

728
00:46:10,280 --> 00:46:14,240
Speaker 1: was teased. Overwatch was first shown off. I am currently

729
00:46:14,239 --> 00:46:17,399
Speaker 1: playing Overwatch badly, So if you see me on Xbox Live,

730
00:46:18,160 --> 00:46:21,560
Speaker 1: John B. Strickland is my gamer tag, and you will

731
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:26,839
Speaker 1: see me fail miserably repeatedly. And Overwatch. They also showed

732
00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:30,000
Speaker 1: off Uncharted four and Until Dawn, which I thought was

733
00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:33,640
Speaker 1: a pretty interesting idea for a game that brings us

734
00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:36,160
Speaker 1: up to this year. And I realized I've just been

735
00:46:36,239 --> 00:46:38,319
Speaker 1: rattling off video games, and if you're not interested in

736
00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:39,959
Speaker 1: video games, I know that this has been a trial

737
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:41,640
Speaker 1: to listen to, and I apologize for that. But it

738
00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:43,640
Speaker 1: was one of those things where it's kind of interesting

739
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:45,839
Speaker 1: to look back over E three and here are some

740
00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:49,560
Speaker 1: of these big names being mentioned years before they ever

741
00:46:49,680 --> 00:46:53,880
Speaker 1: came out due to delays, or maybe there were problems

742
00:46:53,880 --> 00:46:57,960
Speaker 1: in production that weren't anticipated. I guess that technically that

743
00:46:58,040 --> 00:47:01,000
Speaker 1: still falls under the term delay. I didn't list all

744
00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:02,680
Speaker 1: the games because there could have been quite a few

745
00:47:02,719 --> 00:47:05,440
Speaker 1: of games that just never came out or haven't come

746
00:47:05,480 --> 00:47:09,160
Speaker 1: out yet at any rate. But twenty sixteen, let's let's

747
00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:13,040
Speaker 1: clear it up. Let's take it on home. Microsoft had

748
00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:15,360
Speaker 1: a big press conference where they showed off the Xbox

749
00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:19,160
Speaker 1: one s also known as the Xbox One Slim, which

750
00:47:19,200 --> 00:47:24,600
Speaker 1: is supposedly smaller than the current Xbox Um Plus. They

751
00:47:24,640 --> 00:47:26,600
Speaker 1: showed off a new wireless controller, so we got some

752
00:47:26,640 --> 00:47:30,600
Speaker 1: new hardware this year. They also demonstrated a cross platform

753
00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:33,520
Speaker 1: program that would allow gamers to play the same games

754
00:47:33,520 --> 00:47:37,960
Speaker 1: on Windows ten or on an Xbox one. Sony meanwhile

755
00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:41,240
Speaker 1: announced that in October it would release the ps VR.

756
00:47:41,560 --> 00:47:44,319
Speaker 1: That's the Sony VR headset what used to be called

757
00:47:44,320 --> 00:47:49,440
Speaker 1: Project Morpheus. So it comes out later this year in October.

758
00:47:51,120 --> 00:47:56,080
Speaker 1: Probably one of the VR headsets that will have a

759
00:47:56,120 --> 00:48:00,399
Speaker 1: decent chance at some early success, because there are a

760
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:03,680
Speaker 1: lot of people who already own a PS four, so

761
00:48:03,760 --> 00:48:06,520
Speaker 1: purchasing a headset, which I think is going to be

762
00:48:07,480 --> 00:48:09,800
Speaker 1: three dollars if I'm not mistaken. I don't have the

763
00:48:10,200 --> 00:48:12,799
Speaker 1: number in front of me, but people who want to

764
00:48:12,840 --> 00:48:14,640
Speaker 1: buy it, they already have a p S four that

765
00:48:14,680 --> 00:48:18,000
Speaker 1: it will run on. Whereas some of the other VR

766
00:48:18,080 --> 00:48:21,120
Speaker 1: headsets which have been a big, big deal in this

767
00:48:21,280 --> 00:48:25,160
Speaker 1: past e three, like the HTC Vibe and the Oculus Rift,

768
00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:29,440
Speaker 1: if you don't have a pretty strong computer system, a

769
00:48:29,840 --> 00:48:34,680
Speaker 1: good gaming rig, then the purchase price of the HTC

770
00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:37,400
Speaker 1: Vibe and the Oculus Rift is just the beginning. You

771
00:48:37,480 --> 00:48:40,640
Speaker 1: have to go out and purchase a computer too. And

772
00:48:40,719 --> 00:48:43,160
Speaker 1: so the HTC Vibe is eight hundred bucks, the Oculus

773
00:48:43,239 --> 00:48:46,040
Speaker 1: Rift is six hundred. The computer you would need to

774
00:48:46,120 --> 00:48:50,600
Speaker 1: run either of those and a really decent performance setting

775
00:48:50,640 --> 00:48:53,920
Speaker 1: would be about dollars. So you're looking at more than

776
00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:57,080
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars in the case of HTC Vive to

777
00:48:57,120 --> 00:48:59,680
Speaker 1: have a system, and that's before you talk about any games.

778
00:48:59,680 --> 00:49:03,120
Speaker 1: That's just so that you have the hardware. So I

779
00:49:03,160 --> 00:49:06,239
Speaker 1: think Sony's ps VR is positioned in a way where

780
00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:09,400
Speaker 1: it could see more success than some of the alternatives,

781
00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:13,239
Speaker 1: even though you could also argue that being tied to

782
00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:16,560
Speaker 1: a console means that you have a ceiling for as

783
00:49:16,719 --> 00:49:19,960
Speaker 1: as good as it can get, because with PCs, you

784
00:49:19,960 --> 00:49:23,520
Speaker 1: can always upgrade, or you can buy a brand new

785
00:49:24,600 --> 00:49:29,960
Speaker 1: machine that is compatible with your your hardware and continue

786
00:49:30,040 --> 00:49:33,120
Speaker 1: to push the limits of what that hardware can do

787
00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:36,759
Speaker 1: with a PS four unless you purchase a brand new

788
00:49:36,800 --> 00:49:41,120
Speaker 1: PS four that has improved specs, and that may or

789
00:49:41,160 --> 00:49:44,120
Speaker 1: may not happen. You've got a ceiling for as good

790
00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:45,920
Speaker 1: as it's going to get, it will just be at

791
00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:48,239
Speaker 1: the top of the performance of the console, and then

792
00:49:48,280 --> 00:49:51,560
Speaker 1: that's as far as you will go. So there were

793
00:49:51,560 --> 00:49:55,439
Speaker 1: a lot of VR titles shown at this year's E three,

794
00:49:56,800 --> 00:50:00,800
Speaker 1: including Star Trek Bridge Crew, which I think is brilliant.

795
00:50:00,840 --> 00:50:04,000
Speaker 1: I would love to try that out. But there are

796
00:50:04,040 --> 00:50:06,400
Speaker 1: other some There are some other big titles, not just

797
00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:09,799
Speaker 1: VR titles, but titles in general. Uh. Nintendo showed off

798
00:50:09,800 --> 00:50:12,480
Speaker 1: the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild for a while,

799
00:50:12,520 --> 00:50:14,200
Speaker 1: we were told that that was gonna be the only

800
00:50:14,239 --> 00:50:18,799
Speaker 1: thing Nintendo showed. They also showed some Pokemon, but a

801
00:50:18,840 --> 00:50:23,680
Speaker 1: lot of people were impressed by the Legend of Zelda trailer.

802
00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:28,880
Speaker 1: Other games included Mafia three and Resident Evil seven, Titan

803
00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:34,200
Speaker 1: Fall two, Watchdogs Too, and lots lots more so. Going

804
00:50:34,200 --> 00:50:37,000
Speaker 1: to one of these events can be fun and exhilarating,

805
00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:41,320
Speaker 1: it's also exhausting. It's crowded. Uh. Typically, if you are

806
00:50:41,440 --> 00:50:46,040
Speaker 1: not someone who's exhibiting or have special access to the

807
00:50:46,080 --> 00:50:50,160
Speaker 1: show floor before it opens, your experience tends to be

808
00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:52,919
Speaker 1: waiting in line, first, waiting in line for the show

809
00:50:52,920 --> 00:50:54,839
Speaker 1: floor to open. Then the show floor opens and there's

810
00:50:54,880 --> 00:50:58,000
Speaker 1: an initial rush into the show floor as everyone tries

811
00:50:58,040 --> 00:51:01,279
Speaker 1: to get to specific places, and then waiting in line

812
00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:03,879
Speaker 1: some more so you can get your turn trying out

813
00:51:03,960 --> 00:51:09,840
Speaker 1: the latest video game system. And it's it could be

814
00:51:09,880 --> 00:51:14,000
Speaker 1: frustrating because you usually only get to play for a

815
00:51:14,040 --> 00:51:16,120
Speaker 1: couple of minutes, because the whole point of the demos

816
00:51:16,200 --> 00:51:19,400
Speaker 1: just to give you a feel for the way the

817
00:51:19,400 --> 00:51:24,320
Speaker 1: title works. So it's not um It's not the ideal

818
00:51:24,360 --> 00:51:29,000
Speaker 1: way I would say to experience a first impression of

819
00:51:29,040 --> 00:51:32,160
Speaker 1: a video game, unless you happen to be connected to

820
00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:35,799
Speaker 1: a large outlet where they're bringing the games to you,

821
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:37,600
Speaker 1: in which case, you know, you get to sit back

822
00:51:37,680 --> 00:51:44,120
Speaker 1: and have more time and less frustration to enjoy the experience. However,

823
00:51:44,440 --> 00:51:47,120
Speaker 1: you do get a chance to see these things first hand,

824
00:51:48,120 --> 00:51:52,040
Speaker 1: and and there's something special about that. There's no denying that.

825
00:51:52,560 --> 00:51:56,120
Speaker 1: I should also say I have never attended one of

826
00:51:56,160 --> 00:52:00,239
Speaker 1: the E three's where people got a free cons owl

827
00:52:00,719 --> 00:52:03,440
Speaker 1: or a free game. I've never been some of the

828
00:52:03,440 --> 00:52:07,320
Speaker 1: press conferences. Occasionally you'll hear, hey, everyone here gets a

829
00:52:07,400 --> 00:52:11,759
Speaker 1: voucher for a brand new Xbox. No, I've never been

830
00:52:11,800 --> 00:52:14,320
Speaker 1: to one of those. I have every year I have gone.

831
00:52:14,719 --> 00:52:17,880
Speaker 1: The announcements have been interesting, but I didn't walk away

832
00:52:18,040 --> 00:52:21,719
Speaker 1: with hundreds of dollars worth of swag. That's not so

833
00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:24,600
Speaker 1: much a complaint. It's just me kind of thinking about

834
00:52:24,600 --> 00:52:29,439
Speaker 1: my lousy timing. Ah, But that's not the reason that

835
00:52:29,719 --> 00:52:32,960
Speaker 1: people should go. People should go because they're trying to

836
00:52:33,000 --> 00:52:37,359
Speaker 1: cover the industry anyway. That's the E three story so far.

837
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:43,160
Speaker 1: The the conference is pretty much returned to the old

838
00:52:43,400 --> 00:52:46,720
Speaker 1: party crazy sort of approach. Maybe the parties aren't quite

839
00:52:46,760 --> 00:52:49,960
Speaker 1: as over the top as they used to be, but

840
00:52:50,440 --> 00:52:53,960
Speaker 1: the show floor does still have some pretty impressive booths,

841
00:52:54,040 --> 00:52:57,520
Speaker 1: usually with some amazing setting where you know you'll you'll

842
00:52:57,560 --> 00:53:00,160
Speaker 1: go in and they've redone the booth so that it

843
00:53:00,200 --> 00:53:03,480
Speaker 1: looks like you're walking into one of the games, or

844
00:53:03,560 --> 00:53:06,680
Speaker 1: you might see like a life sized mech statue that

845
00:53:06,719 --> 00:53:09,960
Speaker 1: you can get into and get a photo of yourself.

846
00:53:09,960 --> 00:53:13,200
Speaker 1: In it or that kind of stuff. Um, so it

847
00:53:13,480 --> 00:53:17,359
Speaker 1: definitely has returned to the more showy version that it

848
00:53:17,520 --> 00:53:20,560
Speaker 1: was when it first started. There's still some people who

849
00:53:20,640 --> 00:53:22,920
Speaker 1: are asking whether or not E three is valid, if

850
00:53:22,960 --> 00:53:26,160
Speaker 1: it's a if it's something that would that should continue,

851
00:53:26,680 --> 00:53:31,399
Speaker 1: or perhaps company should hold their own press events at

852
00:53:31,400 --> 00:53:34,319
Speaker 1: a time of year that is beneficial to them. In

853
00:53:34,360 --> 00:53:37,839
Speaker 1: other words, go the Apple approach instead of being part

854
00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:41,360
Speaker 1: of a big trade show like E three, Go do

855
00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:45,440
Speaker 1: your own thing, and that way you're not sharing the

856
00:53:45,520 --> 00:53:50,080
Speaker 1: stage with all the other companies. I haven't heard any

857
00:53:50,280 --> 00:53:53,200
Speaker 1: rumors about E three going away, and I don't expect

858
00:53:53,200 --> 00:53:57,840
Speaker 1: it will go away in the short term, but perhaps

859
00:53:57,880 --> 00:54:01,799
Speaker 1: we'll see a difference moving ahead. I think in the

860
00:54:01,840 --> 00:54:06,600
Speaker 1: realm of VR, assuming VR is successful, E three still

861
00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:09,880
Speaker 1: has a very valuable place because as somewhere that people

862
00:54:09,920 --> 00:54:14,800
Speaker 1: can go and get that VR experience and then report

863
00:54:14,840 --> 00:54:19,080
Speaker 1: on what that experience is like. Uh, It's it's harder

864
00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:22,920
Speaker 1: to do that at individual press events, but at a

865
00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:26,719
Speaker 1: big thing like e er, where you're going to find

866
00:54:26,719 --> 00:54:30,799
Speaker 1: a lot of different companies working with VR headsets like

867
00:54:31,000 --> 00:54:33,799
Speaker 1: HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift or one of the

868
00:54:35,239 --> 00:54:37,560
Speaker 1: dozen other ones that are out there on the market,

869
00:54:38,120 --> 00:54:40,600
Speaker 1: you're more likely to be able to encounter that, experience it,

870
00:54:40,640 --> 00:54:44,000
Speaker 1: and then communicated to other people. And that wraps up

871
00:54:44,320 --> 00:54:47,120
Speaker 1: the story about how E three works. Now, there's a

872
00:54:47,160 --> 00:54:50,000
Speaker 1: lot of stuff that I didn't really cover, some of

873
00:54:50,000 --> 00:54:54,800
Speaker 1: which wasn't public knowledge in when I first recorded this episode.

874
00:54:55,400 --> 00:55:00,520
Speaker 1: There have been numerous reports of disagreements at very levels

875
00:55:00,520 --> 00:55:04,480
Speaker 1: of management within E three, or rather the organization that

876
00:55:04,560 --> 00:55:08,640
Speaker 1: throws E three. Uh. There have been a lot of

877
00:55:09,400 --> 00:55:15,520
Speaker 1: allegations of, if not misbehavior, at least poor judgment. UH.

878
00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:18,200
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of debate about whether or not

879
00:55:18,280 --> 00:55:21,000
Speaker 1: opening E three up to the public has done more

880
00:55:21,080 --> 00:55:25,960
Speaker 1: harm than good, if it has impeded journalists and industry

881
00:55:26,000 --> 00:55:29,400
Speaker 1: professionals from actually doing their job since it is supposed

882
00:55:29,400 --> 00:55:33,040
Speaker 1: to be a trade show. There's been talk about how

883
00:55:33,520 --> 00:55:38,319
Speaker 1: the big companies have gradually sort of distanced themselves from

884
00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:42,879
Speaker 1: E three, Sony and Nintendo among them. UH. There's been

885
00:55:43,080 --> 00:55:47,520
Speaker 1: talk about how E three may not come back because

886
00:55:47,960 --> 00:55:52,360
Speaker 1: the this COVID issue was the nail in the coffin,

887
00:55:52,480 --> 00:55:55,920
Speaker 1: as it were, and that more and more companies are

888
00:55:56,040 --> 00:56:00,680
Speaker 1: finding it possible to reach out to gamers, to the

889
00:56:00,719 --> 00:56:05,120
Speaker 1: media directly, as opposed to getting together to do it

890
00:56:05,200 --> 00:56:07,840
Speaker 1: in a conference. The whole purpose of E three originally

891
00:56:08,480 --> 00:56:13,399
Speaker 1: was to elevate the platform of video games, to let

892
00:56:13,400 --> 00:56:15,600
Speaker 1: more people know what was going on, because otherwise it

893
00:56:15,640 --> 00:56:18,360
Speaker 1: was just getting swallowed up in tech. But the video

894
00:56:18,360 --> 00:56:22,480
Speaker 1: game industry is drastically different today than what it was

895
00:56:22,560 --> 00:56:26,600
Speaker 1: when E three was first started, so you could argue

896
00:56:26,600 --> 00:56:29,640
Speaker 1: that E three no longer really has at least the

897
00:56:29,760 --> 00:56:33,200
Speaker 1: same place as it did when it launched. Perhaps it

898
00:56:33,280 --> 00:56:36,279
Speaker 1: still has a place, but it has definitely evolved over

899
00:56:36,320 --> 00:56:40,320
Speaker 1: the years. I think if we were to lose E three,

900
00:56:40,840 --> 00:56:46,120
Speaker 1: the biggest con of that, the biggest downside is that

901
00:56:46,120 --> 00:56:52,200
Speaker 1: that would disproportionately affect independent studios that largely depend on

902
00:56:52,360 --> 00:56:56,279
Speaker 1: events like E three to gain visibility. These are studios

903
00:56:56,320 --> 00:57:00,279
Speaker 1: that are producing titles that don't have the develop mint

904
00:57:00,320 --> 00:57:03,960
Speaker 1: dollars or the marketing budget of the big Triple A titles.

905
00:57:04,360 --> 00:57:07,200
Speaker 1: You're not going to get the same treatment of one

906
00:57:07,280 --> 00:57:10,759
Speaker 1: of these quirky little titles that could be legit a

907
00:57:10,880 --> 00:57:14,680
Speaker 1: fantastic game, maybe even Game of the year material, but

908
00:57:14,719 --> 00:57:17,400
Speaker 1: you're never gonna get the same level of coverage that's

909
00:57:17,440 --> 00:57:20,040
Speaker 1: ay a sky Rim or a fallout, both of which

910
00:57:20,080 --> 00:57:23,720
Speaker 1: are from the same company, or a you know, a

911
00:57:23,760 --> 00:57:27,960
Speaker 1: grand theft auto or or a big ticket title that

912
00:57:28,080 --> 00:57:31,880
Speaker 1: ties into like a major movie or a movie franchise.

913
00:57:32,400 --> 00:57:35,040
Speaker 1: You're just not going to get that same level of

914
00:57:35,040 --> 00:57:39,120
Speaker 1: of attention unless you are part of a larger event,

915
00:57:39,280 --> 00:57:42,360
Speaker 1: especially if you can get kind of taken under the

916
00:57:42,440 --> 00:57:45,280
Speaker 1: wing of one of the really big companies like Microsoft

917
00:57:45,480 --> 00:57:50,400
Speaker 1: or Sony. But that's really the biggest downside I can see,

918
00:57:50,640 --> 00:57:57,040
Speaker 1: because otherwise the event has I think outlived its usefulness

919
00:57:57,120 --> 00:58:01,400
Speaker 1: for a lot of the various players pun intended who

920
00:58:01,440 --> 00:58:04,520
Speaker 1: are involved with the video game industry. Certainly as a

921
00:58:04,520 --> 00:58:07,000
Speaker 1: member of the media, I found it much more difficult

922
00:58:07,040 --> 00:58:09,440
Speaker 1: to cover the event in more recent years than I

923
00:58:09,480 --> 00:58:13,800
Speaker 1: did when I first went. UM. I'm sure that people

924
00:58:13,840 --> 00:58:17,680
Speaker 1: in the industry also find it challenging, especially once the

925
00:58:17,720 --> 00:58:21,240
Speaker 1: general public is allowed onto the show floor. It just

926
00:58:21,320 --> 00:58:26,800
Speaker 1: becomes a crazy, busy, chaotic environment, and it's very hard

927
00:58:26,840 --> 00:58:28,520
Speaker 1: to just get from point A to point B, let

928
00:58:28,520 --> 00:58:32,920
Speaker 1: alone cover video games. So I don't know if E

929
00:58:33,120 --> 00:58:36,200
Speaker 1: three is gone for good or if we'll see you know,

930
00:58:36,320 --> 00:58:39,920
Speaker 1: more virtual events moving forward. I think it would be

931
00:58:39,960 --> 00:58:43,320
Speaker 1: a shame for it to go completely. I do think

932
00:58:43,840 --> 00:58:47,920
Speaker 1: that if it is going to exist as a semi

933
00:58:47,960 --> 00:58:53,960
Speaker 1: public event, things need to change fairly dramatically in the

934
00:58:54,000 --> 00:58:56,960
Speaker 1: way that things work on the floor in order for

935
00:58:57,000 --> 00:58:59,640
Speaker 1: it to be a less frustrating experience. I know that

936
00:58:59,680 --> 00:59:02,120
Speaker 1: there were people who attended past e three's when the

937
00:59:02,120 --> 00:59:06,040
Speaker 1: public was allowed, who would wait, sometimes up towards of

938
00:59:06,280 --> 00:59:09,560
Speaker 1: maybe three or four hours to get just maybe ten

939
00:59:09,680 --> 00:59:13,400
Speaker 1: or fifteen minutes of playtime with a game title. And

940
00:59:13,440 --> 00:59:16,880
Speaker 1: I can't imagine that they walked away from that feeling

941
00:59:16,920 --> 00:59:20,080
Speaker 1: that it was money well spent. If you walk out

942
00:59:20,080 --> 00:59:22,120
Speaker 1: of the convention hall at the end of the afternoon

943
00:59:22,160 --> 00:59:26,320
Speaker 1: and you say, I played, you know, total forty five

944
00:59:26,400 --> 00:59:29,400
Speaker 1: minutes worth of games and I waited for the rest

945
00:59:29,400 --> 00:59:31,200
Speaker 1: of that time, I'm not sure you're gonna feel like

946
00:59:32,040 --> 00:59:34,240
Speaker 1: that was the best use of your time and money.

947
00:59:34,320 --> 00:59:36,840
Speaker 1: So I do think that if it is to continue,

948
00:59:37,000 --> 00:59:40,440
Speaker 1: they need to overhaul the entire experience in order to

949
00:59:40,480 --> 00:59:45,640
Speaker 1: make it one that is beneficial for all parties. It

950
00:59:45,720 --> 00:59:49,040
Speaker 1: doesn't do anyone any favors. If you walk out of

951
00:59:49,080 --> 00:59:53,280
Speaker 1: the convention and you are miserable or angry, or you

952
00:59:53,320 --> 00:59:56,880
Speaker 1: feel like you you wasted your money. That isn't doing

953
00:59:57,000 --> 01:00:01,120
Speaker 1: the developers any favors. It's not doing the gamers any favors.

954
01:00:01,200 --> 01:00:05,120
Speaker 1: So if it is to continue to exist, assuming we

955
01:00:05,160 --> 01:00:07,680
Speaker 1: get to a world where such a thing can happen,

956
01:00:08,160 --> 01:00:11,960
Speaker 1: I think it does need to have a major overaul. Anyway,

957
01:00:12,080 --> 01:00:15,920
Speaker 1: I hope you guys enjoyed that classic episode. I promised

958
01:00:15,920 --> 01:00:18,920
Speaker 1: the new episode will go live on Wednesday. It will

959
01:00:18,960 --> 01:00:22,960
Speaker 1: be how hard drives and solid state drives work, or

960
01:00:23,040 --> 01:00:27,240
Speaker 1: something similar along those lines, and hopefully by that point

961
01:00:27,320 --> 01:00:29,640
Speaker 1: I will have sussed out all of the issues with

962
01:00:29,800 --> 01:00:33,280
Speaker 1: my computer system and my internet because I do not

963
01:00:33,400 --> 01:00:36,360
Speaker 1: want that to happen again. You might have felt a

964
01:00:36,400 --> 01:00:39,760
Speaker 1: disturbance in the force when that happened, as if a

965
01:00:39,880 --> 01:00:43,320
Speaker 1: podcaster cried out in pain and anguish and then was

966
01:00:43,360 --> 01:00:47,080
Speaker 1: suddenly silenced because his internet cut out. Anyway, if you

967
01:00:47,080 --> 01:00:49,960
Speaker 1: guys have any suggestions for future episodes of Tech Stuff,

968
01:00:50,000 --> 01:00:51,960
Speaker 1: please get in touch with me. Let me know what

969
01:00:52,080 --> 01:00:55,720
Speaker 1: those are, whether it's a technology, a company, a personality

970
01:00:55,720 --> 01:00:58,880
Speaker 1: in tech, maybe just a trend in tech. Let me know.

971
01:00:59,240 --> 01:01:01,680
Speaker 1: You can each out on Twitter. The handle for the

972
01:01:01,680 --> 01:01:05,040
Speaker 1: show is tech Stuff h s W and I'll talk

973
01:01:05,080 --> 01:01:13,280
Speaker 1: to you again really soon. Y text Stuff is an

974
01:01:13,320 --> 01:01:17,000
Speaker 1: I heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,

975
01:01:17,320 --> 01:01:20,520
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

976
01:01:20,600 --> 01:01:22,120
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.