The Electronic Entertainment Expo began in 1995, created to fill a need for a specific
video game tradeshow for developers, publishers and manufacturers.
Prior to this, video games were often shown at other trade shows, but E3 would allow for
the gaming industry’s giants to show off their stuff in one place.
Since, it’s grown exponentially, becoming one of the highest anticipated media events.
But along with that excitement, E3 is also known for having some of THE most cringe moments
of any popular media expo.
Devs may be brilliant artists and innovators, but sometimes they aren’t the most articulate
orators.
Watching out for the cringe has actually become a highlight of the expo.
So today, we’re counting down the top 10 most awkward E3 moments.
10 Jesse Wellens Some of you may recognize this mans – Jesse
Wellens – a pretty popular YouTuber who created PrankvsPrank.
He was asked by EA to come present Need for Speed Payback, and hardcore choked.
It was painful.
According to Jesse in a follow up video he posted on his
channel, he didn’t read the script the night before, and his teleprompter wasn’t what
he expected it to be.
He also blames the producers of the show for switching the script upon him, and for giving
him the wrong cue, hence his back being turned to the camera when his portion of the show
started.
But apparently, the teleprompter did have a script on it, but he blanked because he
wasn’t expecting it.
This has prompted a whole lot of articles about why E3 shouldn’t be using ‘influencers’
who know nothing about the games or the industry, so here’s hoping we won’t be getting anymore
cringe-worthy YouTubers popping up in the 2018 E3 conferences.
9 Sega Saturn Launch – 1995 There is so much going on with this launch
video that it’s hard to even interpret what the hell you just watched when it’s over.
While it is quite derivative of the 90s, tonally, the ad reel is ALL over the place, intercutting
gameplay footage with live action cutaways that are absurd at best.
There’s a woman dressed up as Saturn, the planet – which, while it’s weird, at least
it’s relevant – then we get this mans who looks like the dollar store Kratos hyping
us up about the future, which then turns into this fella dancing around a tv with Sega Saturn
games on the screen.
It just gets weirder from there, and even more 90s and more repetitive.
It almost feels as if it’s a parody of bad
90’s ads.
8 Wii Music Nintendo announced the release of their music
video game aptly called Wii Music back at the 2008 E3.
Aside from being an overall awkward press conference from the video game titan – we’re
talking middle aged blazer types attempting to be relevant and comical – the company’s
demonstration of Wii Music has gone down in E3 history as one of the most cringe-worthy
moments.
That’s because Wii Music sounded awful.
C’MON, YOU HAD ONE JOB.
Take a listen to the clusterf***.
7 Giant Crab Typically Sony’s E3 conference is highly
anticipated, and over the years, they’ve given us some stellar reveals, and iconic
moments, including the likes of the 1995 Playstation price reveal where Steve Race came up to the
stage and only said the words “299” before departing.
It was a total one up to Sega, who prior to Sony’s conference, had revealed that the
price of their console was 399, and prematurely launched the system, which caused some pissed
off retailers to drop them altogether.
So all and all, Sony’s got a pretty great E3 history – a history also riddled with
a bit of cringe.
Most notably, there was a moment back during the 2006 E3 where Sony had revealed a game
called Genji: Days of the Blade, which was “set in a historically accurate Japan”,
based on “famous battles that actually took place in ancient Japan”, according to the
presenter, who then immediately afterwards revealed gameplay of warriors fighting a giant
crab.
So accurate.
6 Jamie Kennedy Remember Jamie Kennedy?
The actor-comedian who was in classic hits like Malibu’s Most Wanted and Mask sequel
Son of the Mask?
Yeah, probably best if you forgot about those.
Kennedy got a whole lot of criticism for something other than his acting though – in 2007,
he hosted Activision’s E3 Conference, and not only did he manage to piss off the gaming
community, but he made a bit of a fool of himself, with people speculating that he was
drunk during the show.
Right off the bat, he immediately makes a bad joke about how E3 makes the guys at Comic-Con
look like Oceans 13.
Of course, the joke bombed, and it only went downhill from there.
He called the audience all virgins, and also tried to make a mockery of many of the presenters,
some of which managed to call him out on his s***.
The audience even got in on it, calling him out for not being funny.
5 Battle Tag What’s one way to engage your audience and
get them invested in a brand new ‘innovative’ game?
By awkwardly involving your conference’s host in a game of lackluster laser tag, of
course!
This went down at Ubisoft’s 2010 Conference, Joel McHale was interrupted by a super awkward
demonstration of Battle Tag, with producer Gael Seydoux running through the auditorium
alongside a bunch of models and game devs playing what can only be described as a home
version of laser tag.
Seydoux then proceeded to describe the game in a really confusing manner, which had most
game critics scratching their head.
GameSpot even gave Battle Tag the “Biggest What The?”
special achievement award in response.
Perhaps what’s funnier is that when the game itself was released, it only appeared
in 15 Toys T Us in Texas, and all Zellers stores – now a dead chain – in Canada.
On the plus side, Joel McHale doesn’t disappoint though.
Not only does he take it in stride – and win his own match against Seydoux awkwardly
thrust upon him – he also calls out all of the cheesy aspects of the demonstration
as its happening, including congratulating the game’s producer on defeating their opponents
– a bunch of models they obviously hired to spice up the show.
Cringe.
4 Aisha Tyler for Ubisoft Ubisoft always serves up the cringe real good
at E3.
A few years after our last number, in 2015, the company had Aisha Tyler host their conference.
And while she seems pretty genuine and enthusiastic throughout in terms of trying to hype an already
flailing conference, it still ended up being a pretty cringe-worthy despite her best attempts
as sucking some comedy out of it.
One specific moment that rings a bell for most was when she sat down next to a dude
in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate cosplay and put him on the spot about memes.
Dude got super awkward, she tried to make the best out of it, and it was all around
painful to endure.
3 Konami 2010 Press Conference The 2010 Konami conference had it all – Mexican
wrestlers slapping each other, uncomfortable tension between co-workers, odd hosting, magic
tricks and a whole lot of painful, painful dancing.
It’s an amalgamation of so many different breeds of awkward that it’s almost too much
to handle.
That being said, coming from Konami, it’s not totally surprising.
And hey, at least it looks like they’re all having fun, unlike those poor souls in
the Wii Music demonstration who clearly had a metaphorical gun held against their heads.
2 Mr Caffeine Damn Ubisoft!
Not again.
How could we not include Mr Caffeine?
Aaron Priceman was the host of Ubisoft’s 2011 E3 conference, and he’s gone down in
history as being an incredibly energetic host with really bad jokes.
Throughout the presentation, he kept throwing out odd, awkward phrases the likes of “poop
on your toothpaste”, mispronouncing Tom Clancy, and “doodly doodly doop” – a
phrase he used to mimic the sound effect of time travel.
The latter he KEPT doing even though the joke clearly didn’t land, and at one point, he
even tries to get the audience to do it with him, but of course NO ONE DID.
Silver lining though, he’s become a meme, and the internet has remixed him a WHOLE lot.
1 Weird Gamer Guy For our last number, I present to you YOUTUBE
GOLD.
Here we have Onyx the Fortuitous, a character played by Andrew Bowser, a writer, director
and actor who now hosts a podcast on Nerdist.
But back when this video went viral on YouTuber Tessa Smash’s channel, everyone was like
WHO THE HELL IS THIS GUY.
While it’s widespread knowledge now that he’s a performer, at the time, people thought
this was the most awkward thing to crawl out of E3.
The video, shot at the 2012 E3, features Tessa interviewing patrons of the conference, and
Onyx’s interview is utterly cringe.
Take
a look.
There we have it friends!
Which conference do you think will be the most awkward of the bunch this year?
And of course, what are your predictions for E3 reveals this year?
Give us a shout with all of your thoughts in those comments below!
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