Chapter Summaries

Hudson presented a lineup of games at E3 before Square took the stage to reveal Final Fantasy VII for Jupiter. The gameplay footage impressed the audience with detailed pre-rendered environments, fluid sprite animation, and elaborate battle effects.

• Hudson's North American branch head presented games including Bomberman Blocks, Far East of Eden: True Legend, and three Jupiter titles.
• Sakaguchi Hironobu opened Square's presentation and introduced five works, beginning with Final Fantasy VII.
• Square showed a detailed CG sequence of an industrial city and a golden-haired swordsman, then revealed the Jupiter platform logo.
• The Final Fantasy VII gameplay footage combined hand-drawn character animations with pre-rendered 3D backgrounds and impressed the audience with its visuals and battle effects.
• Audience members questioned whether the graphics were really running on Jupiter and compared them with Namco's games.

Square presented Final Fantasy VII at E3, impressing the audience with its visuals and music while leaving its platform exclusivity unclear. After Sakaguchi Hironobu left the stage, trailers for four more Mega Drive games played.

• Sakaguchi Hironobu presented a four-minute Final Fantasy VII trailer and said the game was scheduled for release the following year.
• Reporters debated what Square's Jupiter presentation meant for its relationship with Sega and Sony, noting that Sakaguchi Hironobu had not called the game exclusive.
• Nakayama Takuya watched quietly and considered Square's announcement a careful balance that gave Sega reassurance without ruling out other platforms.
• The presentation showed trailers for Front Mission, Trials of Mana, Eternal Mystery, and Romancing SaGa 3.

Square presented Final Fantasy VII and four Mega Drive sequels, while Koei showed three strategy titles aimed at its established audiences. The chapter ended with Koei’s representatives leaving the stage as reporters noted that its small booth still drew distributors.

• Square presented Final Fantasy VII alongside four Mega Drive titles, using the new game to attract attention and the sequels to demonstrate its steady output.
• Photographers and reporters discussed which images from Final Fantasy VII would make the best magazine covers.
• Koei presented Romance of the Three Kingdoms V for DOS, Windows, PlayStation, and Jupiter.
• Koei showed Sangokushi Eiketsuden, a tactics RPG, and Taiko Risshiden II, a Warring States-themed game.
• Koei’s representatives left after a brief presentation, and Famitsu editors discussed the company’s dependable niche and noted that distributors had lined up at its small booth.

At E3, Sega presented Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid 2, impressing reporters with its real-time visuals, distinctive art direction, and stealth gameplay. After Kojima invited attendees to try the demo at Sega’s booth, Rieko Kodama took the stage as the next presenter.

• Sega began its presentation at 3:15 in the afternoon, drawing reporters’ attention.
• Hideo Kojima introduced himself and presented real-time footage of Metal Gear Solid 2 on Jupiter hardware.
• The demo showed Snake infiltrating a marine facility and silently taking down a patrolling soldier.
• Kojima invited attendees to try the playable demo at Sega’s booth.
• Rieko Kodama took the stage next, and a Famitsu editor noted that she was the first woman to present that day.

Rieko Kodama presented Phantasy Star IV, showing its expanded world, faster battles, and manga-panel cutscenes. Afterward, Yuji Naka introduced Pixar’s Toy Story film and game, whose trailer ended with a real-time gameplay demonstration.

• Rieko Kodama presented Phantasy Star IV, whose trailer showed a desert town, turn-based battles, new characters, and comic-panel story scenes.
• Rieko Kodama explained that the game’s story stood alone while including callbacks for longtime fans, then left the stage to warm applause.
• Yuji Naka announced that the Toy Story game would release alongside Pixar’s first fully computer-animated feature film.
• The Toy Story trailer shifted from Pixar film footage to gameplay, where Woody explored a bedroom transformed into a miniature canyon.
• A NetGeneration reporter recognized that the gameplay footage was being rendered in real time.

Yuji Naka presented Sega’s Toy Story game, drawing strong praise for its toy-like visuals, gameplay, and partnership with Disney and Pixar. After Naka left the stage, Toshihiro Nagoshi appeared and announced “Yakuza.”

• Yuji Naka’s Toy Story trailer showed Woody and Buzz navigating miniature environments with everyday objects as obstacles and tools.
• Game journalists praised the game’s physics, 3D platforming, and appeal to North American families, while noting Sega’s lineup targeted several audiences.
• The trailer ended to enthusiastic applause, and Pixar representatives stood to acknowledge the crowd.
• Naka reflected backstage that Sega’s Jupiter development tools and the game’s plastic-toy art direction had helped make the demo possible.
• Toshihiro Nagoshi walked onstage in a flashy white suit, said “Yakuza,” and turned the presentation over to the screen.

Toshihiro Nagoshi unveiled Sega's live-action-to-real-time trailer for Yakuza, prompting debate over its appeal and controversial subject matter. After Nagoshi and Nakayama Takuya discussed the reception backstage, Koji Oba began presenting Shinobi: ShadowStrike, whose gameplay showed Joe Musashi leaping over a spike trap.

• Toshihiro Nagoshi revealed Yakuza through a live-action trailer that shifted into a real-time 3D street brawl, then showed the game's title and Jupiter platform.
• American reporters discussed the trailer's reflections, adult-market appeal, and the risk that the ESRB could restrict Yakuza's retail availability.
• Japanese journalists debated whether Yakuza's subject matter was too risky, while a veteran writer argued that public sentiment after the Kobe earthquake could help the game succeed.
• Toshihiro Nagoshi admitted backstage that he had worried about the audience's response, and Nakayama Takuya said the atmosphere-focused trailer had made a successful first impression.
• Koji Oba introduced Shinobi: ShadowStrike, whose footage moved from 2D animation into gameplay with a fixed forty-five-degree view as Joe Musashi jumped over ground spikes.

Koji Oba demonstrated Shinobi as a polished, familiar action game, while Ono Hiroshi revealed Sega’s soccer game Pro Soccer World PSW through a high-quality CG sequence. The presentation ended with Paolo Maldini appearing in person, impressing the international press with Sega’s star power.

• Koji Oba showed Joe Musashi fighting through Shinobi’s stages with precise combat and elaborate effects, earning the audience’s measured approval.
• GamePro reporters and retail buyers judged Shinobi an accessible, low-risk game with dependable sales potential.
• Ono Hiroshi announced Pro Soccer World PSW and showed a pre-rendered sequence featuring a detailed 3D model of Paolo Maldini.
• Paolo Maldini walked onto the stage, prompting cheers and camera flashes from European and South American reporters.
• A Japanese veteran reporter reminded his colleagues that he had predicted Sega would bring Maldini, while a younger reporter praised his information network.

Sega unveiled several games at E3, culminating in a film-quality trailer for Ghost in the Shell. The final footage left reporters impressed and suggested the cyberpunk game could appeal to American players.

• Maldini endorsed Pro Soccer World PSW alongside Ono Hiroshi, and Sega’s presentation impressed reporters with its star power and realistic trailer.
• Sega showed The King of Fighters 3 gameplay, featuring Iori Yagami and Kyo Kusanagi, while reporters noted its improved visuals and arcade appeal.
• Sega presented Super Robot Wars Alpha through an anime-style montage, earning Japanese reporters’ applause while North American reporters questioned its appeal there.
• After reporters assumed the conference was ending, a striking musical opening introduced a Ghost in the Shell trailer built from unreleased theatrical-film footage secured by Nakayama Takuya.
• The trailer showed Motoko’s cybernetic body being assembled, and a NetGeneration editor praised its animation and said its cyberpunk premise might sell in the United States.

Sega ended its press conference with a trailer for Ghost in the Shell, drawing applause for its animation and music. Ubisoft then introduced Rayman, a hand-drawn platformer coming to Atari Jaguar, PlayStation, and Jupiter in autumn 1995.

• Sega screened a Ghost in the Shell trailer featuring Motoko and announced the film for winter 1995 and the Jupiter game for summer 1996.
• Media representatives praised Sega’s cross-border marketing, while Walmart’s channel representatives discussed the property’s adult content and sales prospects.
• After a ten-minute intermission, Ubisoft founder Yves Guillemot introduced Rayman with a gameplay demo showcasing its colorful art, fluid animation, and orchestral-electronic score.
• Ubisoft announced that Rayman would release in autumn 1995 for Atari Jaguar, PlayStation, and Jupiter.
• Yves Guillemot ended Ubisoft’s press conference after the audience discussed the company’s European distribution strength and multiplatform strategy.

After E3’s first media day ended, exhausted reporters gathered press materials and rushed back to their hotels to prepare coverage for the next morning. Nakayama Takuya watched them leave and said their articles would reveal the impact of the money spent on the presentations.

• The IDSA host ended the day’s conference sessions, leaving reporters worried about covering dozens of games before the next morning.
• Reporters collected press kits from company booths, and Sega and Sony distributed CD-ROMs with game images, trailers, and press materials.
• Nakayama Takuya told Hisao Oguchi that media coverage would show the results of their spending that day.
• At the Marriott Hotel, the GamePro editor and photographer divided up the huge workload, assigning the Namco exclusives and Capcom’s zombie game.

Game media scrambled to process the flood of E3 announcements, while mainstream newspapers presented the exhibition as evidence that video games had become a major business. By the morning of June 10, flash reports reached readers and left young gamers buzzing about the new games and platforms.

• The editor-in-chief of NetGeneration ordered staff to publish a fast briefing of the day's games, platforms, release dates, and standout images, saving detailed reviews for a later issue.
• The editor-in-chief of Famitsu told Tokyo staff to prepare company financial and hardware-sales data while waiting for a limited selection of materials from Los Angeles.
• Game media workers across Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo stayed up through E3's first night compiling reports and transmitting materials.
• Old Qiao displayed the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, whose business coverage described video games as a ten-billion-dollar industry holding its own major exhibition.
• GamePro and ElectronicGamingMonthly distributed flash-report flyers, while gamers shared snippets online and high schoolers read the latest announcements outside a retail store.

Players across North America moved from complaining about brief E3 coverage to anticipating the many games in development, while E3’s second media day focused on turning press attention into business deals. At Sony’s booth, Ken Kutaragi pitched the PlayStation’s technical capabilities and development tools to North American developers and studios.

• A shop owner showed complaining young men E3’s packed press-conference schedule and explained why reporters had given games only brief coverage.
• The young men reconsidered the flyer and anticipated a busy end-of-year game lineup as excitement spread through North American player communities.
• On June 10, channel dealers and retail buyers negotiated orders at E3 booths, while distributors gathered at Sega’s booth to discuss first shipments of Pro Soccer World PSW.
• Ken Kutaragi led a technical discussion at Sony’s booth, explaining the PlayStation’s GTE, memory and texture-management limits, CD-ROM streaming, and development tools.

On the second day of E3, Nintendo focused on game design while Sony emphasized hardware, and Bandai and other merchandise makers rationed limited goods ahead of the public day. Reporters shifted from watching presentations to investigating exhibits, where Final Fantasy VII drew praise for its 3D performance.

• Shigeru Miyamoto led a seminar on level design and player experience as Sony promoted hardware performance and Nintendo's games drew strong orders.
• Bandai shelved Gundam Battlefield Evolution and attracted distributors to its merchandise booth, releasing only forty percent of limited goods during media days.
• Sanrio, Hasbro, and Mattel also limited media-day merchandise sales under inventory agreements, saving most stock for the public day.
• The EGM senior editor redirected reporters to investigate specific exhibits and games rather than focus on the main stage.
• A reporter and colleague praised Final Fantasy VII's 3D performance and considered recommending it for a magazine cover.

On the second day of E3, the exhibition revealed the game industry's growing commercial scale as Nakayama Takuya met John Carmack to discuss game technology and open-source code. Their discussion ended with Nakayama pointing out how rapidly graphics technology was changing.

• GamePro's reviewer tried Resident Evil at Capcom's booth, while journalists covered technical seminars and major retail negotiations.
• Nakayama Takuya met with Jensen Huang and confirmed John Carmack's schedule through Mark Cerny before heading to id Software's booth with Mark Cerny, Yuji Naka, and Jensen Huang.
• Carmack questioned Yuji Naka about the Jupiter platform's polygon transformations and texture perspective correction, and Yuji explained Sega's rendering pipeline.
• Carmack said he planned to release Wolfenstein 3D's source code, and Nakayama proposed that Sega also publish code from retired engines and middleware.
• Nakayama told Carmack that releasing old code was not enough because computer graphics technology was evolving rapidly from pseudo-3D to polygon rendering.

Nakayama Takuya proposed an independent, nonprofit foundation to coordinate development of an open-source game engine, using Linux as a model. He outlined how the foundation and a merit-based technical committee would protect the project’s neutrality and guide its development.

• Carmack, Jensen Huang, and Nakayama Takuya discussed how closed engines and rising development costs hurt the game industry and hardware performance.
• Carmack admitted that id Software could not freely release its cutting-edge id Tech Engine, then asked Nakayama Takuya for a concrete solution.
• Nakayama Takuya proposed a nonprofit foundation modeled on Linux’s management system to support a community-developed engine with open interfaces.
• Nakayama Takuya described a foundation that would manage intellectual property, use a permissive license and lightweight contributor rules, oversee transparent funding, and arbitrate disputes.
• Nakayama Takuya proposed a community-selected technical committee that would set the roadmap, control core code merges, organize specialist groups, and make decisions on technical merit.

Nakayama Takuya proposed a collaboratively developed open-source game engine, and Carmack, Jensen Huang, Yuji Naka, and Mark Cerny discussed its structure and support. The meeting ended with Takuya and Mark arguing that a paid asset store would reward creators and encourage companies to share custom modules.

• Nakayama Takuya outlined an open-source engine backed by Sega, NVIDIA, and id Software, with Carmack leading its technical architecture.
• Carmack proposed using the MIT license and DCO, a modular design, and pluggable renderer, physics, and audio systems; Mark Cerny emphasized cross-platform support, and Jensen Huang offered NVIDIA engineers.
• Carmack objected to contributor earnings, arguing that revenue sharing would compromise open-source principles.
• Nakayama Takuya argued that a game engine served commercial production and that artists and other creators needed compensation for their work on shared assets.
• Mark Cerny supported Takuya's position, proposing an official asset store where companies could sell custom modules rather than keep them as trade secrets.

Nakayama Takuya persuaded Carmack and the other industry leaders to establish a community-supported, revenue-sharing open-source engine, giving Carmack a way to focus on technology while developers like Romero handled content. They named it Universal Engine, and reporters immediately questioned the group about their secret meeting as they left.

• Nakayama Takuya proposed a tiered royalty model that would keep the engine free until a game passed a generous revenue threshold, with payments supporting a foundation.
• Carmack realized the modular engine could let him focus on technical development while Romero worked on level design and content.
• Carmack accepted the technical committee chairmanship and began planning the engine's core framework, while Jensen Huang promised NVIDIA's hardware documentation and optimization support.
• Nakayama Takuya named the project UE, short for Universal Engine, and said it would belong to everyone.
• Nakayama Takuya, Carmack, Jensen Huang, Yuji Naka, and Mark Cerny left the meeting room, where reporters asked whether Sega planned to acquire id Software or make Quake exclusive to Sega Jupiter.

At E3, Nakayama Takuya announced that Sega, id Software, and NVIDIA were preparing a new affordable game engine for creators and small development teams. The project remained in its early stages, and game media began planning follow-up coverage and seeking outside opinions.

• Carmack directed reporters to Nakayama Takuya, who said the group had agreed to pursue a new engine project focused on powerful features and usability.
• Nakayama Takuya said the engine would aim to make next-generation development accessible to individual creators and small-to-medium teams without high licensing thresholds.
• Carmack said he would draft the underlying technical framework the following week and asked Jensen Huang to provide a low-level hardware engineer.
• Nakayama Takuya ended the questions, saying the group would announce details at a later press conference after arranging the legal framework.
• GamePro's editor and photographer replayed the recording and planned a story about the engine announcement.
• Writers and editors at EGM and Ne tGeneration discussed the project, with Ne tGeneration's editor-in-chief assigning a reporter to ask developers for their views.

On June 11, E3 opened to the public, drawing huge crowds eager to try new games and buy limited-edition merchandise. Players flooded the convention center, while scalpers and hired buyers rushed to collect scarce goods.

• A GamePro editor and photographer finished their media-day work and prepared for the exhausting public day ahead.
• Players without tickets crowded around newspapers and magazines to read E3 coverage, while ticket holders camped outside the convention center overnight.
• The convention center opened its doors, and ticketed players rushed toward the major game companies’ demo areas in South Hall.
• Hardcore fans and hired scalpers headed to Kentia Hall to buy limited-edition merchandise.
• Crowds swarmed the Bandai and Sanrio booths, buying Gundam goods and Sega’s E3-themed Pikachu plush toys as photographers recorded the frenzy.