Hiiiigh definition Riiiidge Racer
The video game documentarians at NoClip have been steadily preserving and archiving a wealth of old industry footage, ranging from tech demos and presentations to classic commercials. Importantly, the team is also getting higher definition captures of certain events than we’ve ever seen before, like a 1080p HD recording of the infamous Sony E3 2006 presentation.
For those who weren’t around or closely watching the industry at the time, 2006 was an important year for Sony. Notably, the console maker was soaring on the success of the PlayStation 2. Kaz Hirai, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America at the time, took the stage to lay out the future ahead for both the PlayStation Portable and the impending launch of the PlayStation 3.
Sony’s ensuing showcase would result in many long-running memes stemming out from the showcase, including historically based crab battles and Riiiiiidge Racer. And of course, the price tag. The reveal of the $600 ($599, to be exact) price point for the 60 GB PS3 was the stunning conclusion to the show.
Massive damage
This was streamed at the time, but due to restrictions of the time, was only ever available in lower resolution. With NoClip’s restoration work, we can see the whole show at glorious 1080p.
Besides marking the start of a very rough generation for Sony, there’s a lot of historical value in this recording. There are trailers for some eventual big PS3 games, like Metal Gear Solid 4. But there’s also the canceled Eight Days, the AR game Eye of Judgment getting a live demo, and early looks at games like Final Fantasy XIII, in a now obvious mock-up of its eventual battle system.
This was an era where conferences had big showcase presentations while maintaining the slide presentation and industry side forward facing. Nowadays, E3—or whatever we’re calling the summer of games news now—is a very consumer-focused show. You don’t really see CEOs standing in front of fiscal projections these days. Not on a big stage, at least.
So enjoy this trip down memory lane with the Sony E3 2006 press conference, and a huge thanks to the folks at NoClip doing all this preservation work. Because of this, the giant enemy crabs can reach their true resolution potential.
