Relive Sony’s hilariously awkward 2006 E3 press conference in HD

Sony’s big press conference at E3 2006 quickly became famous. Weird, baffling, hilarious and irreverent all at the same time, the press – promoting the PSP and revealing the PlayStation 3’s price – were easily some of the company’s most memorable, if unintentional, and brought early, viral youtube video Memes are the most absurd moments, as well as other widespread mockery. And now, thanks to the preservation work of documentary filmmaker Danny O’Dwyer, you can watch the broadcast in stunning 4K.

Read more: 43 games are already over and 2023 is not over yet [Updates]

Through his crowdfunded documentary channel Noclip, O’Dwyer has slowly unearthed and published decades of video game history. By Gameplay from previously unreleased titles to 10-year-old Hideo Kojima interviews to never-before-seen trailers, he has it all. And on July 21, he uploaded Sony’s two-hour E3 2006 presentation in the highest possible quality: 2160p at 60 fps. Y’all, this is a time capsule worth watching for the first time if you’ve never seen it before, or watching it again in HD if you have. Trust me, you are having a great time. So brace yourself, and let’s recap this silly convention in a nutshell.

there were some good games in the presentation

Some of the best games were shown during the presentation. Siphon Filter: Dark MirrorThe fifth installment of the now-defunct third-person stealth-shooter series was revealed with the PS3 launch title. Genji: Days of the Knife, Best God of war clone, heavenly Sword, was revealed along with some cinematic gameplay. And we found out for the first time what to be Unknown: Drake’s Fate, a game that will feature one of Naughty Dog’s most iconic IPs. On the games front, Sony’s E3 2006 press conference was a hit period.

funny moments were unforgettable

But in between these gameplay demos and teaser trailers were some really standout moments. Then-president and CEO Kaz Hirai tried to wake up the crowd by shouting, “It’s the ReiZ Racer!” Genji: Days of the Knife The presenter praises the game’s historical roots before fighting a giant enemy crab with a weak point that can cause you massive damage. Some random guy on the street is talking about how hurt it would be if he beat you at a PS3 game because “I don’t know.” It was an amazing performance that was as hilarious as it was famous.

PlayStation 3 price was ‘yikes’

While the presentation began with Hirai talking high about the resounding success of the PS2, best selling console of all time, The ending was a serious crap. After bragging about the previous generation and showing off dope games for the next generation, Hirai revealed the price of the PS3: $500 for the 20GB console and $600 for the 60GB console. The announcement was like a bombshell, perhaps partly because the Xbox 360, which had been on the market for months, was significantly cheaper. It was a shocking price that silenced me, but PS3 still sold slightly more units than Xbox 360 throughout his lifetime.

Saving Images That Could Have Been Lost Forever

in an email to kotaku, O’Dwyer describes the work he did in uploading this memorable press conference. With two HDCAM tapes saved by a video game website and headed to a landfill before O’Dwyer rescued them, he said he “didn’t really do anything” with the footage, just ripped it off the tape and converted it to HD.

“The process is quite simple, we use a professional HDCAM tape deck to capture the signal [Series Digital Interface (SDI)]O’Dwyer said. “I used a converter to convert it to HDMI and used a high quality capture device to record it. Once I get it on the PC I’ll export the 4k version for YouTube (to access the higher bitrates available) and the 1080p version for the archive as this is the native resolution and we can upload to the archive without re-playing the file.

When asked why he thinks Sony’s E3 2006 presentation became so infamous, O’Dwyer theorized that because memes were so rare at the time, it was easier for simple phrases like “rise racer” and “giant enemy crab” to remain rent-free in our brains. Whatever the forces behind it, conventions like this are one of the best parts of video game history since they began preserving “a few thousand tapes” that were almost lost forever.

Speaking about other favourites, O’Dwyer said, “The nintendo spaceworld demo It’s another because it’s such a beloved piece of footage that nobody had a clear copy,” O’Dwyer said. Might be my personal favorite Knights of the Old Republic E3 Demo which had never been seen before. Especially considering where that franchise is. [A remake announced in September 2021 has been indefinitely delayed.] “I know the fans loved analyzing that video. A few days ago I also found a cache of E3 2004 press kits full of screenshots and videos. So every day we get to see exciting new things.”

Read more: A decade-long battle to fund Oakland’s Scrappy Video Game Museum

What O’Dwyer does is incredibly important work. considering that 87 percent of classic games have been lost to time, especially since older hardware is hard to find and hard to maintain, it’s a comforting thing to know there are people out there working to preserve video game history. Because if we don’t remember where we’ve been, we’ll never know where we’re going.