We’re not kidding: Sony’s E3 presentation for the PlayStation 3 was a disaster, and the company missed the mark on several points, handing the first half of the console generation to Microsoft (who had already released the Xbox 360 by then).

You could call Sony’s show cringeworthy. Here’s where Sony announced how much they were asking for the PlayStation 3. Price is paramount for a new console, and Sony put it considerably higher than Microsoft. However, the Cell microprocessor meant that the two platforms were on a slightly different technological level (indeed, the PlayStation 3 had a Blu-ray drive, while Microsoft’s console had a DVD, and later the Xbox 360 went for the HD-DVD format). Sony later hit back with the PlayStation 4; admittedly, the mandatory Kinect that made the Xbox One more expensive and the once-a-day mandatory internet-connect DRM planned initially also ruined Microsoft’s chances…

The E3 presentation led to many early internet memes. Kazuo Hirai, who had high positions within Sony Interactive Entertainment’s predecessor, Sony Computer Entertainment, presented that the PlayStation Portable (PSP) could run PS1 games. Nothing was wrong with that, but the passion with which he said the name of Namco’s game (Ridge Racer) made it rather funny, and the silence before and after was awkward. You can also add the giant enemy crab scene, which can also lead to burying your face in your palm.

However, the quality is excellent at 1080p resolution, which at the time was rare. With NoClip, you can find a lot of unseen or forgotten games, including behind-closed-doors presentations (Neverwinter Nights 2000 and 2001 E3 presentations; we wrote about them here previously), and with hundreds of videotapes being digitized for preservation, there might be some further juicy material to come from them…

Source: VGC