Diaries of an E3 Virgin is a short series of articles about the E3 experience from a first timer on the floor.
With my plane touching down at noon on Monday, I had only an hour to be at my first press conference with EA. I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t ever been to E3 before, and I certainly hadn’t ever attended a large, invite only press conference. Dan was set to accompany me, but due to some baggage delays and the Hell that is LAX (thanks for trying PMC), we were late getting to the auditorium.
Arriving about 35 minutes into the show, we got in just in time to see the EA Sports titles being shown. Watching a press conference in person is a very different experience to seeing it streamed online – I felt like I was a part of the announcements and that the developers were speaking directly to me. The press conference wrapped up with the Mirror’s Edge 2 announcement, leaving me reeling. My E3 had really begun.
The drive back to the hotel was mostly catching up on what I had missed while flying out that morning. It turns out that, while at E3, you probably miss more announcements than following along at home, due to not getting a consolidation of news and constantly trying to get to another press appointment. Leaving our bags at the hotel (where we are rooming with eight total people), we got our media badges and then hopped on the shuttle to the Sony press conference.
Now, keep in mind that I was headed to an invite-only event to which I had not gotten an invite – only Dan, Anthony and PMC were invited. But I was determined not to miss the PlayStation 4’s first E3 press conference and to be a part of all the announcements, and my determination paid off. After waiting outside of the security line for close to an hour, they announced that they were open for overflow seating and I pushed through a crowd all vying for a seat to the show. Not only did I get in, but I managed to snag a floor seat about six rows from the front of the auditorium.
Again, the press conferences in person are completely different to watching the live streams. The stadium was huge and the grandeur cannot be properly conveyed in a video format. The first half of the conference was as expected, but I was still in awe watching as my gaming heroes like Jack Tretton, Shuhei Yoshida, and Andrew House took the stage in front of me and talked about a console and company I love. Then they did something that I was beyond glad that I did not miss.
Sony showed their full support for the gamers. The last half of Sony’s conference not only blew me away, but amazed everyone watching. I was honored to be a part of history as Sony trolled Microsoft and announced their support for used games, offline play and, finally, the kicker: the price. After I got outside where I got cell service, I started getting messages and emails saying that I had been featured in a close up during the hottest part of Sony’s conference.
In short, it was an absolutely incredible experience that I was glad to have in my life, five years to the day after being in a near-fatal motorcycle accident.
And that was that. E3: Day Zero. The press conferences were done and I was ready to hit the show floor the next day on the real ‘Day One’ of E3. Stay tuned to PlayStation LifeStyle for more ‘Diaries of an E3 Virgin’ to get a glimpse inside E3 from the eyes of a first timer.
