Skip to main content
Tech Radar TechRadar the technology experts
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
RSS
Asia
flag of Singapore
Singapore
Europe
flag of Danmark
Danmark
flag of Suomi
Suomi
flag of Norge
Norge
flag of Sverige
Sverige
flag of UK
UK
flag of Italia
Italia
flag of Nederland
Nederland
flag of België (Nederlands)
België (Nederlands)
flag of France
France
flag of Deutschland
Deutschland
flag of España
España
North America
flag of US (English)
US (English)
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of México
México
Australasia
flag of Australia
Australia
flag of New Zealand
New Zealand
  • Phones
  • Computing
  • TVs
  • AI
  • Streaming
  • Health
  • Audio
  • VPN
  • More
    • Cameras
    • Home
    • News
    • Reviews
    • Opinion
    • How to
    • Versus
    • Deals
    • Coupons
    • Best
Tech Radar Pro
Tech Radar Gaming
Trending
  • Amazon Prime Day
  • Smart Home Week
  • Nintendo Switch 2
  • Best VPN
  • ChatGPT
  • Best web hosting
  • NYT Wordle today
  • Best laptop

Recommended reading

Summer Game Fest 2025 live.
Gaming Resident Evil 9 has been revealed, plus everything else announced at Summer Game Fest 2025 and my live reactions as it happened
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
Xbox Xbox Games Showcase 2025: everything revealed from Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Persona 4 remake to a new handheld
PlayStation Wrap Up 2020
Gaming PlayStation State of Play June 2025: everything announced from Silent Hill f finally getting a release date to Final Fantasy Tactics remake reveal as it happened
The Xbox Rog Ally, WWDC logo and Garmin watch
Tech ICYMI: the week's 7 biggest tech stories from Apple's beautiful Liquid Glass to the Xbox's surprise handheld launch
Xbox Games Showcase and The Outer Worlds 2 Direct
Gaming Industry Microsoft announces an Xbox Games Showcase and The Outer Worlds 2 Direct double feature for June
A close up of Alan Wake's face
Consoles & PC Best horror games 2025
Future Games Show Summer Showcase logo
Gaming The Future Games Show Summer Showcase is back this year, just a couple of days after Nintendo Switch 2's launch
  1. Gaming
  2. Consoles & PC

The 5 embarrassing E3 moments that made us want the ground to swallow us up

News
By Jon Porter published 12 June 2016

When E3 goes wrong...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Introduction

Introduction

For many, myself included, E3 is the highlight of the year. New games get revealed, old favorites get sequels, and every half a decade new consoles emerge to make the contents of our collective TV cabinets look tired and outdated once more.

More often than not, E3 leaves us feeling excited, but sometimes the conference goes very, very wrong. Announcements that seem like surefire hits bomb horrifically on stage, tech goes haywire, and motion controls make fools of otherwise professional company executives.

For the most part E3 is a slick business conference, designed to build excitement around another year of products, but we live for those moment when the mask slips, and the entire industry is revealed to be the giggling class of children that it so clearly is.

Page 1 of 6
Page 1 of 6
Ubisoft James Cameron

Ubisoft James Cameron

Remember Avatar? No not the anime series that was subsequently butchered by a film adaptation that went oh-so-Shyamalwrong, but the movie starring the blue cat things fighting against an army of space colonists?

It's weird to think that there was a period when people were excited for Avatar rather than using it as a short-hand for the whole '3D gimmick' thing, but Ubisoft's E3 press conference was lucky enough to sit squarely within that period in 2009.

So it's not surprising that someone from Ubisoft thought it would be a good idea to give the stage to James Cameron, Avatar's director, for a full 15 minutes of its conference as a promo for the tie-in game.

But when Cameron actually arrived on stage he didn't have any footage to show off, or any details to deliver. What we got was just one man, talking endlessly about the nerdy sci-fi universe he was creating.

He talked, and he talked, and he talked, and eventually when the last person in the audience fell asleep James Cameron, the man who directed both Aliens and Terminator 2 was still on stage droning on and on about the f*cking Na'vi.

Page 2 of 6
Page 2 of 6
Ridge Racer!

Ridge Racer!

Some games need no introduction, and some games do. Ridge Racer, as Sony found out to their embarrassment at E3 2006, belongs firmly in the latter camp.

Compared to some other items on this list, the initiative Sony was announcing wasn't entirely terrible. Its PSP console, which at that point had been on the market for just under a year in the west, would soon be able to download and emulate PS1 games.

But the way Sony chose to announce this initiative fell flatter than a dick joke at a eunuch's dinner party. "It's Riiiiiiiidge Racer!" Kaz Hirai yelled to an unresponsive audience as he held his PSP aloft.

One person in the audience wooped. One. In an audience of thousands.

In that moment Kaz had two options, both as embarrassing as each other. He could quickly move on, ignore the fact that he'd just yelled the words 'Ridge Racer' to a silent conference hall, and focus on showing off the PSP's admittedly cool new feature.

Or he could double down on the yelling in the hope that the room hadn't appreciated the implications of this megaton announcement.

In his awkwardness, Kaz Hirai managed to somehow do both at the same time, and yelled the two words once more before immediately moving on and pretending it hadn't happened.

"Ridge Racer!" indeed.

Page 3 of 6
Page 3 of 6
Wii Music

Wii Music

In 2008 Nintendo was on top of the world. It's new Wii console had enjoyed a level of success that even Nintendo themselves had failed to anticipate, which had lead to worldwide hardware shortages that lasted for months after release.

The world had gone Wii-crazy, and it was Nintendo's own pack-in game that was leading the charge. Wii Sports was a game that perfectly encapsulated the possibilities of the Wii console with its light-hearted and approachable motion-controlled gameplay.

Wii Sports was the game that launched a thousand ships, except instead of ships it had launched games consoles, and the millions it had sold made Helen of Troy's paltry thousand look a little embarrassing in comparison.

A follow up was due, and our expectations were impossibly high. Would we get a new franchise to stand alongside Mario and Zelda as a tent-pole of the Nintendo brand?

As it turns out, no we wouldn't. What we'd get instead was Wii Music.

Now if Rock Band and Guitar Hero taught us anything, it's that miming along to music while holding a piece of plastic electronics doesn't have to be that awkward. In fact, it can even be fun in the way karaoke is fun for those of us who are utterly tone deaf.

But Nintendo's demonstration of Wii Music proudly displayed every negative stereotype about playing music games. It was embarrassing, awkward, and most hilarious of all, sounded completely awful.

Wii Music would eventually go on to be widely panned upon its release later that year and remains as one of the rare examples of a miss from Miyamoto.

Page 4 of 6
Page 4 of 6
Ubisoft Battle Tag

Ubisoft Battle Tag

Another one from a Ubisoft conference, but this one comes curtosy of E3 2010 when the entire hall turned to chaos as dozens of gymnasts invaded to play a round of laser tag.

Battle Tag, as the game was officially known, had no place being shown off at the conference. It wasn't played on a console of any form, and nor did it introduce anything particularly new to a genre that has existed for literally decades before Ubisoft decided to turn up late to the party.

The thing that really sells Batte Tag as one of the most embarrassing moments in E3 history is the reaction of the host Joe McHale, who for whatever reason was told to remain onstage whilst what can only be described as utter insanity erupted all around him.

At first he just stands there, sarcastically commenting on the madness, but eventually it all gets a bit too much for our poor host, who proceeds to hide behind a bit of scenery from the stage.

If I ever get a chance to speak to the planner behind Ubisoft's E3 conference that year I promise you now that the first (and indeed only) question that I, Jon Porter, will ask that person will be this:

"What the hell were you thinking?"

Page 5 of 6
Page 5 of 6
Konami conference

Konami conference

But there's one thing that makes Battle Tag look as professional as the opening ceremony for the Olympics. One thing that makes Wii Music look like a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, and James Cameron like Steven Hawking giving a TED talk.

And that thing is Konami's E3 conference from 2010.

Konami is a weird publisher. Outside of Pro Evolution Soccer and the Metal Gear Solid franchises its games have never really taken off in the West.

The result is that filling a full hour long conference at a Western trade show with Konami games was always going to be an interesting proposition.

But no one could have anticipated what Konami's conference eventually became.

We had a developer repeatedly nod to generate some applause after having promised that his game would contain "one million troops" (What does this mean? WE JUST DON'T KNOW) and we had another developer stare intently at the back of his colleagues neck whilst he stood just half a foot away.

Most bizzare of all was the arrival of three luchadoors onstage, who then proceeded to slap each other while the host implored them to "save it for the ring guys".

It's hard to get across just how much the whole conference felt like a horrible fever dream, and that's just from watching the compilation videos that have since appeared online. The whole 1 hour 40 minute conference is available to watch on YouTube...if you dare.

E3 2016 starts next week, and we'll be there to bring you all the hottest news from throughout the conferences and the show itself. We're hoping that this year won't bring us too many cringy moments like those mentioned above, but we'd be lying if it wouldn't be great to add another couple of entries to our list.

Page 6 of 6
Page 6 of 6
TOPICS
Sony Microsoft
Jon Porter
Jon Porter
Social Links Navigation

Jon Porter is the ex-Home Technology Writer for TechRadar. He has also previously written for Practical Photoshop, Trusted Reviews, Inside Higher Ed, Al Bawaba, Gizmodo UK, Genetic Literacy Project, Via Satellite, Real Homes and Plant Services Magazine, and you can now find him writing for The Verge.

Read more
Summer Game Fest 2025 live.
Resident Evil 9 has been revealed, plus everything else announced at Summer Game Fest 2025 and my live reactions as it happened
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
Xbox Games Showcase 2025: everything revealed from Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Persona 4 remake to a new handheld
PlayStation Wrap Up 2020
PlayStation State of Play June 2025: everything announced from Silent Hill f finally getting a release date to Final Fantasy Tactics remake reveal as it happened
The Xbox Rog Ally, WWDC logo and Garmin watch
ICYMI: the week's 7 biggest tech stories from Apple's beautiful Liquid Glass to the Xbox's surprise handheld launch
Xbox Games Showcase and The Outer Worlds 2 Direct
Microsoft announces an Xbox Games Showcase and The Outer Worlds 2 Direct double feature for June
A close up of Alan Wake's face
Best horror games 2025
Latest in Consoles & PC
Sidestepper taking first place in Mario Kart World
I’ve clocked up more than 60 hours in Mario Kart World – here are my 3 top tips for getting first place
Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller
Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller review: a remarkable improvement
PS5
The Nintendo Switch 2 has arrived, but we still consider the PS5 the best gaming console to buy in 2025 – here are the three reasons why it's number one
Leon S Kennedy, Evelyn Parker, and Isaac Clarke
Steam Summer Sale is even better than I thought – here are the most worthwhile deals
Nintendo Switch 2
Accessory maker Dbrand responds to botched Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con grips, admits its initial reaction to unhappy fans was 'a spectacularly terrible response to the issue at hand'
The PDP Victrix Pro BFG Field Op edition.
Forget the DualSense Edge – this modular pro controller is still my go-to PS5 gamepad
Latest in News
Apple iPhone 16 Review
This ‘meh’ iPhone 17 Air camera tip might give us more insight than meets the eye
A Tesla car, James Bonds and Samsung's foldable promo image
ICYMI: the week's 7 biggest tech stories from Tesla finally launching robotaxis (kinda) to Samsung's foldables teaser
Verizon logo on a building with blue sky above
Hackers claim to be selling 61 million Verizon records online, but it might not be what it seems
Xiaomi YU7
More bad news for Tesla – Xiaomi's new Model Y rival beats it on price and just smashed pre-order records
AI model distillation
Cybercriminals are abusing LLMs to help them with hacking activities
Malware attack virus alert , malicious software infection , cyber security awareness training to protect business
ClickFix fake error message malware spikes over 500%, takes second place as the most abused attack vector
LATEST ARTICLES
  1. 1
    What exactly is a smart home? 3 things you need to know to get started
  2. 2
    Hurry! Get up to 65% off at FlexiSpot this Independence Day
  3. 3
    Apple users rejoice, this browser promises privacy nirvana by giving each tab a unique IP address
  4. 4
    ICYMI: the week's 7 biggest tech stories from Tesla finally launching robotaxis (kinda) to Samsung's foldables teaser
  5. 5
    I tested out the new Geekom A5 2025 Edition - and while it won't win any awards for performance, this mini PC is cheap and powerful enough for the office

TechRadar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Contact Us
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Web notifications
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...