We’ve still got PAX —
The people, scenery, and oddities that made E3 part trade show, part theme park.
Enlarge / This photo is exactly what it was like to be on the E3 show floor. Exactly.
Aurich Lawson | Getty Images
Today’s news that the Electronic Entertainment Expo is officially, totally, and completely dead was a bit bittersweet for your humble Ars Technica Senior Gaming Editor. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll miss the chance to meet industry luminaries, connect with far-flung associates, and play games months ahead of time in a setting that’s as much a theme park as a trade show. But after spending many a late night covering 15 E3 shows in 16 years, I can say that the crowds, the smells, and the sensory overload associated with the LA Convention Center aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be.
Still, those who have been there will tell you that, for a gaming fan, there was nothing quite like the bombast and spectacle of the E3 show floor in its heyday.
For those who haven’t been there, we’ve sorted through literally hundreds of E3 photos taken by Ars journalists over the years to assemble a few dozen of the best into this visual travelogue-meets-history-lesson. We hope that skimming through the galleries below will give you some idea of the madcap event that E3 was and why it has generated so many lasting memories for those who attended.
The people
From corporate cosplayers to celebrity guests, E3 was a great place for people-watching. Here are some of the favorite people we spotted over the years.
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2013: Shigeru Miyamoto himself makes a stateside appearance to promote Pikmin 3.
Andrew Cunningham
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2013: Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains introduces Rocksmith at the Ubisoft press conference.
Andrew Cunningham
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2013: The Shins play Microsoft’s preview event/press conference.
Andrew Cunningham
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2013: I’m pretty sure Kratos can take this guy.
Andrew Cunningham
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2013: I’m ready for my close-up, and my BRAAAAAAAAINS!
Andrew Cunningham
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2015: People scoffed when Capcom added a balding journalist to the Street Fighter lineup, but he has become one of the series’ most enduring characters.
Mark Walton
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2016: To promote Mafia III, 2K Games had a jazz band play a fake, New Orleans-style funeral procession up and down the E3 halls and sidewalks.
Kyle Orland
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2016: Meanwhile, Sea of Thieves brought the sea shanties to the show floor.
Sam Machkovech
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2016: The escort missions in “Warrior Princess meets Captain Carrot” are pretty hilarious, I have to say.
Kyle Orland
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2016: Heihachi still knows how to impress the ladies.
Kyle Orland
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2016: This “walker” from Horizon: New Dawn wandered the show floor as a giant puppet operated by a single person.
Sam Machkovech
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2018: Good dog…
Kyle Orland
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2018: A group of B-boys add to the atmosphere of a fake New York street Sony set up to promote Spider-Man.
Kyle Orland
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2018: Sony’s Astro Bot isn’t quite as popular as Mario, but it’s not for lack of trying (or maybe it is…)
Kyle Orland
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2018: This woman was literally screaming and running away from these costumed zombies just before this picture. I still don’t know if she was part of the act.
Kyle Orland
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2018: Before playing the remake of Resident Evil 2, you had to walk through a “blood”-stained hallway featuring this fellow.
Kyle Orland
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2019: The EA Play event at the Hollywood Palladium included this impressive cast of paid Apex Legends cosplayers. Yes, the person cosplaying as Octane is a bilateral amputee.
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2019: Nothing says “E3” like a guy in a Yoshi/Mario costume livestreaming himself as he balks loudly at the show floor’s $6 pretzels.
Kyle Orland
The scenery
Publishers easily spent tens of thousands of dollars for decorations that they hoped would make their booth stand out on the crowded E3 show floor each year. Here are some of our favorite larger-than-life statues and installations.
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2014: A life-sized Mario Kart adorns Nintendo’s booth to promote Mario Kart 8.
Andrew Cunningham
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2014: You might say that riding this hover-bike is my… destiny.
Andrew Cunningham
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2014: Tanks hanging from the ceiling are what E3 is all about.
Andrew Cunningham
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2015: Lego Hulk smash!
Mark Walton
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2015: Doom enemies are WAY more intense in person…
Mark Walton
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2015: Life-size Pip-Boy approves of E3!
Mark Walton
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2015: I, for one, welcome our alien overlords…
Mark Walton
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2015: You died… at E3!
Mark Walton
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2016: Sea of Thieves apparently has an ESRB rating of “Arrrrrrrr.”
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2017: Why settle for balloon animals when you can have balloon demons?
Sam Machkovech
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2017: It’s not a floating tank, but it’ll do.
Kyle Orland
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2017: A rare viewpoint on a cross-eyed Mario tank.
Kyle Orland
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2017: One of these things is not like the others…
Kyle Orland
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2017: Donkey Kong has been taking a lot of performance-enhancing drugs, and it shows.
Kyle Orland
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2018: This loop treadmill was closed after the first day of the show after someone fell over and cut their lip when trying to do a cartwheel on it.
Kyle Orland
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2019: Link delves into a dungeon in a cute Nintendo booth diorama.
Sam Machkovech
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2019: I’ll get you for this, Lego Jabba the Hutt!
Sam Machkovech
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2019: This re-creation of an iconic FFVII backdrop was there to promote the remake.
Sam Machkovech
The history
Multiple E3 shows featured a small corner devoted to showing off rarities and collections from various video game history museums. Here are some of our favorite artifacts on the E3 show floor.
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2013: An attendee plays Wario Land on a retail display unit for Nintendo’s Game Boy.
Andrew Cunningham
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2013: We’re all used to game achievements now, but Activision was a real pioneer here. Each of these patches could be won by achieving certain goals in Activision games, photographing your TV screen, and mailing the photo in. Atari Age has an excellent roundup of the patches and the actions needed to get them.
Andrew Cunningham
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2013: Only 116 of these cartridges were produced and given to competitors in a 1990 game championship held by Nintendo. In the rare events when these cartridges have been sold, they commonly fetch more than $10,000.
Andrew Cunningham
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2013: An in-store demo kiosk for the Atari 800, a computer and game system that originally shipped with 8KB of RAM.
Andrew Cunningham
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2014: Atari feels the existence of the “Game Boy” implies the necessity for a “Game Girl.”
Andrew Cunningham
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2014: Before the Apple Watch, this was some of the best interactive content you could get on your wrist.
Andrew Cunningham
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2015: A rare relic from the NES’s limited New York launch in 1985.
Sam Machkovech
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2015: You might remember Columbia House for its “11 albums for a penny” catalog offers, but did you know it had a video game offering, too?
Sam Machkiovech
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2015: If you mess with a retro console maker, you mess with me, pard’ner…
Sam Machkovech
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2015: You’re asking a lot of questions about my “Just another high-strung prima donna from Atari” shirt that are already answered by the shirt.
Sam Machkovech
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2015: In an alternate universe, we all fondly remember this multicolored monstrosity rather than Atari’s wood-grained Video Computer System.
Sam Machkovech
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2018: Sega eventually abandoned this modem-equipped version of the Saturn for the Dreamcast.
Sam Machkovech
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2019: The innards of an extremely rare prototype of a full-color Vectrex console.
Sam Machkovech
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2019: Members of the original Xbox team got a limited edition system signed by Bill Gates himself.
Sam Machkovech
The crowds
Fighting through a wall-to-wall sea of people as you rush from South to West Hall for an appointment is not an experience we’re eager to repeat. Hopefully, these photos will give you some idea of the massive throngs of humanity that filled the LA Convention Center for E3 each year.
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2013: The line to get into Microsoft’s Xbox press conference snaked around the block.
Andrew Cunningham
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2013: Food trucks with huge lines feed hungry journalists between the Microsoft and EA press conferences
Andrew Cunningham
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2013: A mad rush of attendees swamps the escalators as the show floor opens.
Andrew Cunningham
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2013: A sea of humanity in the third-party-publisher-filled South Hall.
Andrew Cunningham
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2014: Very little elbow room at Sony’s booth.
Andrew Cunningham
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2015: Microsoft’s press conference lit the assembled throngs in Xbox’s signature neon green, which made everyone in attendance look like the Incredible Hulk.
Mark Walton
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2015: Sony’s press conference crowds are lit in a much more flattering blue light.
Mark Walton
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2015: These innocent bystanders should really get out of the way just in case the console war becomes a shooting war.
Mark Walton
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2016: One of the longest lines at this year’s E3 was for Naughty America VR, the first porn company to have an E3 booth in as long as we can remember.
Sam Machkovech
The oddities
Since the days of the departed Kentia Hall, E3 has hosted some truly odd, loosely game-related products and displays. Here are a few of the oddest sights we stumbled across.
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2015: Want to run in place on a slippery floor while in VR? The Virtuix Omni has you covered.
Mark Walton
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2016: This giant NES controller was a big attraction for the 8bitdo booth for many years.
Kyle Orland
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2019: Sega promotes the Genesis Mini with a not-so-mini controller.
Sam Machkovech
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2019: While E3 has featured plenty of giant controllers, it has only featured one with a screen embedded inside, as far as I can tell.
Kyle Orland
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2016: The Fulldome Pro was supposed to be some sort of immersive 3D display, but it looks a little hard to imagine in a living room, to be honest. One of the smaller projection domes on the show floor was by Fulldome Pro.
Kyle Orland
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2016: I like to look at this picture and imagine the man in the cardigan is about 2 inches tall.
Kyle Orland
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2016: A PC case shaped like Winston helps promote Overwatch.
Sam Machkovech
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2016: Attendees get a hold of some, uh, unorthodox controllers at the Devolver Digital parking lot just outside of E3.
Sam Machkovech
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2018: Hard to argue with this slogan for an accessory that provides wireless virtual reality.
Kyle Orland
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2019: Pixl Cube was one of the more inventive games at the Indiecade booth, a tilt-sensitive box with LED dots that moved through a maze as if pulled by gravity.
Kyle Orland
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2013: Parappa and I bid you a fond farewell from the storied halls of E3.
Andrew Cunningham
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2013: Peace out
Andrew Cunningham