Sony’s big Press Conference at E3 2006 quickly became a legend. The simultaneously awkward, puzzling, funny and contrived presser foot that launched the PSP and revealed the PlayStation 3’s price point was inadvertently one of the company’s most memorable. viral YouTube video reminiscent of his most absurd moments and other common taunts. And now, thanks to the conservation work of documentarian Danny O’Dwyer, you can watch the broadcast in stunning 4K.

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Through his crowdfunded documentary channel Noclip, O’Dwyer is slowly researching and publishing decades of video game history. From gameplay of unreleased games to a 10-year Hideo Kojima interview scrapped with never-before-seen trailers, it has everything. And on July 21, he uploaded Sony’s two-hour E3 2006 presentation in the highest quality possible: 2160p at 60fps. Guys, this is a time capsule worth watching for the first time if you’ve never seen it, or reliving it in HD if you’ve seen it. Trust me, you will have a great time. Fasten your seatbelts and let’s briefly recall this ridiculous conference.

There were some great games in the presentation

There were some pretty cool games shown during the presentation. Siphon Filter: Dark MirrorThe fifth installment in the now obsolete third-person stealth shooter series has been revealed with a PS3 launch title Genji: Blade Days. The best God of War clone, holy swordappeared with some cinematic gameplay. And we got our first glimpse of what to expect. Uncharted: Drake’s Luckis a game that will introduce one of Naughty Dog’s most iconic IPs. On the gaming front, Sony’s E3 2006 press conference was serving the point.

Strange moments were unforgettable

However, there were some really contrived moments between these game demos and trailers. Kaz Hirai, president and CEO at the time, said, “This is Riiiidge Racer!” This Genji: Blade Days The server suggests the game’s historical roots, with a weak spot where you can attack for massive damage before battling a huge enemy crab. A random guy on the street talks about how “I don’t know” will hurt when he beats you at PS3 games. It was a crazy presentation that was as legendary as it was funny.

PlayStation 3’s price was ‘no’

As the presentation opened with Hirai talking about the amazing success of the PS2, best selling console of all timeIt was a serious fiasco. With all that bragging about the previous generation and showing off great games for the next generation, Hirai revealed the price of the PS3: $500 for a 20GB console and $600 for a 60GB console. The announcement went like a ton of bricks, perhaps partly because the Xbox 360, which has been on the market for months already, is much cheaper. It was an astonishing price point that left me stunned, but The PS3 was still selling slightly more units than the Xbox 360. throughout his life.

Saving images that may be lost forever

in an email kotaku, O’Dwyer detailed the work that went into uploading this memorable press conference. When recorded on two HDCAM tapes by a video game website and taken to the landfill before O’Dwyer recovered them, he said he did “basically nothing” to the footage, just copying it from the tapes and converting it to HD.

“The process is pretty simple, we use a professional HDCAM tape set to capture the signal. [Series Digital Interface (SDI)]said O’Dwyer. “I used a converter to replace it with HDMI and a high quality capture device to record it. After getting it on a PC, I export the 4k version for YouTube (to access the higher bitrates available) and the 1080p version for the archive, as it’s its native resolution and we can upload the file to the archive without reprocessing.”

When asked why he thought Sony’s E3 2006 presentation was so infamous, O’Dwyer theorized that simple phrases like “Riiiidge Racer” and “giant enemy crab” were easy to live in our heads without paying rent, since memes were much rarer at the time. Regardless of the forces behind it, conferences like this are among the coolest pieces in video game history he’s come across since he began preserving “several thousand tapes” that were almost completely lost.

Speaking of other favorites, O’Dwyer said, ” Nintendo Spaceworld demo “Another thing is that it’s a much-loved piece of imagery that no one has a clean copy of,” O’Dwyer said. “May be my personal favourite. Knights of the Old Republic E3 demo this has never been seen before. Especially given where the franchise is.” [A remake announced in September 2021 has been indefinitely delayed.] “I know the fans love to tear that video apart. A few days ago, I found a cache of E3 2004 press kits full of screenshots and videos. So we come across exciting new things every day.”

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Incredibly important work that O’Dwyer has done. When you join the account 87 percent of classic games are lost over timeIt’s a bit of a relief to know that there are people out there working to preserve video game history, mostly because old hardware is hard to find and maintain. Because if we don’t remember where we were, we’ll never know where we’re going.