DF Retro Extra: PS3 Reveal at E3 2005: What Was Faked? What Was Real?

It is one of the most infamous console reveals of all-time and the arrival of the 'target render'. But how much of PS3's initial reveal was actually faked? And what was actually running in real-time and on what hardware? John, Rich and DF's new PC expert Alex Battaglia consider the evidence.
The book referenced in the video is:
The Race For A New Game Machine: Creating The Chips Inside The Xbox 360 And The Playstation 3 by David Shippy and‎ Mickie Phipps: geni.us/BoeOwH
Subscribe for more Digital Foundry: bit.ly/DFSubscribe

[@DGFTardin]

I'm here 4 years later, and Jon is definetly chasing the 1080p dream

[@Amplamente]

Next stop the "Ps4 Pro 4K Dream" lol

[@kennymccormick8295]

Can't even spell definitely.

[@youtubeshadowbannedmylasta2629]

@@kennymccormick8295 cut em some slack engrish is hard.

[@SiStockbridge]

6 years later and it's hilarious to hear them talking excitedly about Stadia 🤣

[@Wogle]

"I'm sure the full story of what this demonstration was, will come to light." Actually, No Clip had this question of Killzone 2 answered in their documentary of Horizon: Zero Dawn. Basically, Guerilla provided this Target render to Sony to show their vision,and they decided to include it in the E3 presentation. It was a PR person being interviewed who said it was real-time and everything kind of just snowballed from there.

[@EastyyBlogspot]

I heard they threw away the ps3 prototype controller but it came back

[@WhooFlungPoo]

Eastyy heard tha joke in 2005, and all these years later, it came back.

[@SketchTurnerZero]

But it was great controller. Better that classic ps3 shit.

[@goldensperm7182]

WellDoneTurner ur right it was a great controller especially for darksouls games, you can throw ur controller and it will eventually come back to you

[@joevegaxv]

I remember seeing the boomerang controller on a newspaper once, it looked like the most futuristic shit to me at that time. My dad never got me a ps3 after the ps2 though. 😭

[@goldensperm7182]

DustyKat awww poor thing.. Btw what console do u have now?

[@msab4883]

It’s baffling how Sony was able to dodge the fake presentation back in 2006, nowadays it’ll be shredded to the ground

[@labounti]

Gamers weren't sensitive entitled babies back then.

[@atm94404]

My company at the time had a ps3 dev kit, and it couldn't even do graphics at the time this presentation took place because Nvidia hadn't even finished the GPU yet (and Sony originally planned to make developers just use the Cell for graphics!). Worse, after theses obvious fake videos, some editor at IGN gave Sony cover saying that he had seen personally these running real-time on actual hardware even though Nvidia hadn't made a single PS3 GPU yet.

[@joethehitman4479]

Mone Sabri oh like when Mark Cerny said PS4 Pro is capable of 8tflops instead of 4? Oh thats right game industry let that slide too. Game industry always letting Sony slide because its their favorite. Human behavior nothing surprising though. If Microsoft said Xbox 1x could do 12tflops instead of 6.....................yeah you know they would of started WW3 with that bullshit lol. Sony still gets a pass mostly nothing new. I say this as an owner of all Sony and Xbox consoles.

[@BenjerminGaye]

Joe TheHitman He didn't lie tho. the amount of Tflops is dependant of the floating point precision. FP32= 4.2 tflops, FP16= 8.4 tflops etc. . .

[@complaingel6967]

Mone Sabri no one lies better than Sony.

[@leonthesleepy]

I didnt know DigitalFoundry did roastings.

[@mrcraggle]

leonthesleepy a lot of the staff are British and Brits love a Sunday roast

[@ryanh.739]

mrcraggle LMAO

[@christiandeuctor3606]

PlayStation guy spotted. It was a joke dude chill.

[@CaveyMoth]

The roasting was almost as hot as the Playstation 3's hardware. Ohhhh! Almost as bad as the PS3's graphics. Oh, snap! Just kidding. But yeah, they really did hammer on the shortcomings of the PS3.

[@rexapis2125]

leonthesleepy It's a seasonal treat..

[@BatTech]

Hilarious that we look at 2005 as being so old saying "back in the day". Doesn't seem that long ago.

[@Ledgepls]

I think it’s becuase back in the day is more of a relative term, that usually has to do with how much something has changed. For example I would say back in the day was back in the flip phone/Nokia brick days of cell phones. Just because so much has changed, even if it wasn’t that long ago in real time.

[@NonsensicalSpudz]

its so weird lol. its amazing how that was time ago

[@sparky8453]

Racerprose crazy how time flys. I can remember my friend talking of getting a ps3 and looking at the magazine in his dinning room and laughing at the banana controller. Feels like yesterday sigh 😔

[@latinochico]

I purchased this E3 2005 DVD in eb games back in the day I feel old

[@1MuchButteR1]

It was a great year even if some of us were kids back then.

[@Adamgrider1982]

Omg this is making me feel old. I was only 22 during this E3. Turned 23 later that August. Now 35 turning 36 this August :( I’ve never felt old before till now. Jesus time flies.

[@mightyhadi6132]

LOl we are at the same ages.

[@mojojoji5493]

I was 1

[@hbkecahbk]

Yes you're old. I was 18!

[@Alex-zr7sj]

@@mojojoji5493 haha same

[@JJSideshowBob]

I'm with you man, but hey, we're still here. I think it's super cool to have grown up at a time when video games truly evolved. Things blew up in the 90s, early 2000s with hardware accelerated 3D and we were there to see it happen. 👍🏻

[@septillion2501]

2005: Phil Harrison selling PS3 lies 2019: Phil Harrison selling Stadia lies

[@mitchz465]

2013: Phil Harrison selling Xbox One lies

[@thephantom9080]

@@mitchz465 nice that’s a good improvement in selling lies from 8 to 6 years 🌝 we should expect the next one in 2023 so maybe selling a next switch lies by that time 🤔

[@supersequence14159]

True DAT!!!

[@Modenut]

I think /noclip has a video with people from Guerilla where they talk about this and what happened. If I remember correctly it was an internal Guerilla video. Supposedly it was a video that showed what they "aimed" for internally. It was not supposed to leave the office - much less being featured on E3. But somehow Sony got their hands on it and played it without notifying Guerilla. So the story goes, at least.

[@FerrariKangaroo]

You're right. This comment should be higher up. Shame it's hidden all the way down the KZbin comment well.

[@iamthezeldafan0626]

Tony McModeNut Yes, amazing documentary

[@bigbro890]

Yup, I am surprised none of the guys knows about it

[@SGVSOUTHSIDE]

link?

[@MrKeplerton]

Yep. I was gonna comment the same thing, but thankfully checked the comment field first.

[@BlitzvogelMobius]

Few people really understand that the Xbox 360's Xenon CPU is a direct cousin of the Cell BE, both of which are descended from IBMs work on developing a "narrow", in-order but extremely high clocked PowerPC compatible core (I forgot what it was called). Essentially Xenon uses 3x modified PPE cores from the Cell (the main command processor) with expanded vector unit functionality (VMX128, dual 128-bit registers) and dual processing threads per core. Alot of Xenon articles from over a decade ago emphasize the procedural rendering capabilities of the processo. While it's not at the Cell BE's level of theoretical GFLOPS, what MS got was a much more suitable CPU for a games console since it was functionally more akin to multicore PowerPC and x86 processors of the time. Deficiencies in issue width, the in-order architecture, and a small L2 cache did create it's share of problems, but developers had a much easier time working through them as opposed to having to vectorize so much of their code that shouldn't have to be.

[@bghoody5665]

So, what you're saying is ms stole Sony's CPU, just like they do with everything else they "create."

[@disconnectedcable9084]

@@bghoody5665 Kinda bumping this, but PowerPC and hence a lot of the engineering that derives from cell is/was owned by a consortium of companies, each having access to a whole lot of schematics. Folowing the x86 boom they tried to open-source a lot of the stuff as well so it really wasn't some 'golden cove' super proprietary technology.

[@suryasishtalukdar210]

@@bghoody5665 like sony stealing the gamepass idea, online multiplayer and every other thing and has to also pay ms to use their cloud for running psn 😂😂😂

[@SakuraAvalon]

@@suryasishtalukdar210 Which Microsoft stole from Sega. GamePass is just the modern Sega Game Channel, and Dreamcast did online before Xbox.

[@protocetid]

@@SakuraAvalon Computers had online multiplayer before any console and somehow the Atari 2600 is the first gaming machine known to have had games a available for download. I wonder if there are undocumented games/services for computers that predate it.

[@LyRaLex]

Those lamenting the change from the old Kutaragi-era approach of PlayStation hardware design to the more "PC" like hardware design from Sony of today simply don't understand the fundamental balances that a proficient hardware design must achieve. Three case studies: the Emotion Engine, Cell, and the Graphics Synthesizer. Each was essentially the result of pushing poor designs to next level with relatively huge silicon budgets. While they might've been interesting from a purely academic standpoint to see what those inefficient approaches looked like at a higher scale, that scale did nothing to correct the underlying flaws The Graphics Synthesizer relied on multipass rendering to create effects rather than multi-texturing. Somehow, Sony didn't figure out what the graphics engineers of all of the other companies in the industry understood post-Voodoo1 that multi-texturing was a more efficient approach to applying effects, and that any loss in flexibility as compared to multi-pass was more than made up for in the extra performance and efficiency that was achieved. GS's approach was EOLed with its demise, and the industry has marched on down its path of smarter design successfully. The Emotion Engine and Cell both fail for the same reason as one another. Their job within a game system was to serve as a strong CPU. The job of a CPU, not just for spreadsheets but even for games, is to handle serial workloads full of dependent data, conditional operations, and branches. In a well balanced system, cores/chips are specialized to handle a specific type of common workload, and these different specialists (CPU for serial, GPU for parallel, video cores/DSPs for certain specific algorithms, etc) should ideally master their own work independently yet be able to work in harmony with the other specialists in the system. This is the heterogeneous processing model that's finally being embraced today. The little MIPS and PowerPC cores of the massive EE and Cell die, respectively, were nowhere near enough to serve as strong CPUs. The extra area on each die was filled with a bunch of math/vector units, which made them more suited to assisting with graphics. The problem is, giving what is essentially GPU silicon to a CPU is just imbalanced and less efficient. Those who argue that the Emotion Engine's and Cell's ALUs were more flexible than even a DirectX 11+ GPU miss the point of why the evolution of GPUs follows ever-advancing models of restricted functionality like Direct X feature sets in the first place. From the beginning, GPU designers could've designed graphics processors that were as flexible as CPUs, but the limited die area budgets they had in the early days meant that they would've had almost no performance to power those flexible pipelines. Instead, they realized that they could accelerate a set of fixed-functions and get a better return on investment of the silicon they were using. As new fabrication processes afforded more and more silicon, they had the choice of speeding up those fixed graphics functions even more or spending the silicon on being able to do a wider set of graphics functions. Once the visual return on investment from being able to do new effects, or at least similar effects in a more efficient way, started to outweigh just doing more of the same old graphics function, the feature set of GPUs would expand to a new level, characterized by an evolving API like DirectX and such. So, designing CPUs like the Emotion Engine and Cell with a ton of FLOPs was missing the point, not using the silicon to boost the functions a CPU was actually supposed to be doing, and doing work a GPU would've done more efficiently and with a better return on investment of the silicon used.

[@miguelpereira9859]

The fact this only has around 60 likes is criminal, this is potential material for it's own video

[@SerBallister]

Great post. I was a console dev back then and the PS2 GS is one of the few "upgrades" that impressed me (coming from a PS1). The fill rate on the GS was something else, it almost made up for needing extra geometry for multi-texturing.

[@steveclock6051]

LYR I started reading this in March 2018. Its been two years, and they just announced the PS5, but I just finished reading this comment. Good read!

[@Armataan]

@@SerBallister The fill-rate of the ps2 GS was obscenely high. The system was absolutely built for ALL THE SPRITES. And then everybody went and did simple polygons instead.

[@SerBallister]

@@Armataan I remember benchmarking transparent overdraw, it did around 30 full screen alpha blend rects (30x overdraw) before slowing down. I guess the vector units were the bottleneck for 3d.

[@cheappyv5156]

Sony arrogantly thought every developer will be happy to spend years studying the intricasies of CELL, but the market decided differently, naturally. The market ALWAYS chooses the path of least resistance

[@DimitriMoreira]

Yep. Cell went on to become the most powerful CPU used in super computers and would certainly NOT bottleneck the PS4 or the Xbox One. Problem was, of course, gaming is mainstream and no developer would go into all of that engineering just to write some code. Turned out a couple of developers did, but 99% didn't. That was Sony's mistake. Unrealistic ambition.

[@MegaSmouke]

PS3 programming is not about Cell it's about highly parallel vector processing computation, it's quite native for GPU, but not for CPU. That was era when programmers need to learn multi-threaded environment, it wasn't common back then for mainstream programmers, which caused so much noise. But Cell itself isn't something out of bounds of programming and more like modern CPU's with AVX support. Today also very few games uses AVX correctly on x86 CPUs.

[@cube2fox]

Apparently the PS2 was also more difficult to program for than XBox/GameCube, but it still sold better.

[@miguelpereira9859]

@@DimitriMoreira If Valve and Id Software say your processor is an obtuse esoteric piece of crap, you done fucked up

[@aaronclay4665]

the ps3 still sold more than xbox, but thats mostly cuz they have better first party games

[@fancyslimoshady]

wow.. We made it ... Made it to were PS3/XBOX 360 is considered *"Retro"*

[@fancyslimoshady]

Axel Janes like.. what do you mean ? Lol

[@fancyslimoshady]

Axel Janes like .. what I mean is .. what is your point in telling me this lol. I don't mean to be rude. Sorry

[@awakenedsoul2638]

It was more than a decade since its release so it is now retro but not very.

[@TheAmazingMooCow2]

And just 2 years later, the ps4 reveal is now a Digital Foundry 'Retro'

[@mittens1509]

...in 2 years ps4 and xbox one will be retro...

[@swiftyunknown]

$600

[@buckeyesfan4700]

hey hey but the X is to expensive 😂

[@SGVSOUTHSIDE]

Except Sony never said that...it was the stupid media that made that interpretation.Dont be a jackass and do some research

[@DragonDDark]

Swifty Unknown We got blurays because of it

[@pickleadaykeepsthedoctoraway]

I got mine for $600, however it came with 15 free blu-rays when I bought it... Blu-rays were $25+ at the time, 25 was for complete garbage. So I figured I got a good deal. 15 movies to start out with that were expensive at the time and would be for years to come, along with a PS3 that held its value well because of backwards compatibility.

[@DragonDDark]

Mitochondriac Yeah, PS3 was like the cheapest Bluray player back then too.

[@LucianoIrigoyen]

Nothing better than a DF Retro in a Sunday morning.

[@LucasRazorBlade]

Agreed. ^_^

[@mdkgod43]

On a sunday morning

[@RyuRanXII]

Yep. No matter the game, the platform, the subject, it's always fun to watch.

[@exaltedb]

And a whole hour twenty of it

[@buckeyesfan4700]

serious, I'm enjoying them

[@Glitch969]

You MUST do the 2006 Sony E3 presentation. Legendary.

[@buzzclikverifyme]

First thing I thought of as well. Was it Warhawk where dude couldn't land the thing properly with the motion controls? XD

[@DendyTetris]

They did it today

[@SonicSP]

You know what? I missed these types of press conferences at E3 that was more data driven and less gimmicky in the presentation. I just like them a lot more.

[@frankjohansen3132]

It took 10 years and PS4 to reach the promised PS3 graphics standard.

[@sergeyakinin997]

The fluidity, geometry, particles and lighting is still beyond anything possible even with RTX ON... LOL

[@s_for_short2400]

@@sergeyakinin997 that is just not true...

[@ethanleasure1561]

@BalticFin I mean it's not

[@tydendurler9574]

@@sergeyakinin997 totally disregarding the huge Resolution difference...yeah, sure.

[@xXJeReMiAhXx99]

@@s_for_short2400 nothing at all exists like the killzone render and the motor storm render.

[@pras4499]

original ps3 design was awesome

[@CaveyMoth]

All the ethernets!

[@RWL2012]

All the Spiderman logos!

[@shanez1215]

It's interesting because when the consoles get discontinued and get super cheap, those extra features would have been super useful. Like when PS3 online is discontinued, using one console for 2 screens instead of split screen would have been awesome. As would not needing a router for LAN.

[@LateNightHalo]

I remember being pretty surprised when I got my PS3 in 2012 because almost universally games looked better on my 360. It wasn’t until I did research on the crazy development of the console that it made sense lol

[@JP-qb8qx]

I’m a good leader, but this time Richard Leadbetter

[@pferreira1983]

That was terrible.

[@zachsteiner]

Yikes

[@FarmYardGaming]

Why

[@metfan4l]

Excellent video, I really appreciate the amount of work you put into making these!

[@intrepidnick2939]

*599 US Dollars*

[@felman87]

That was 2006. We were still blissfully unaware of the price at this point.

[@SiGeTVee]

So here's this Giant Enemy Crab...

[@kriwient]

But no paid online? So you still saved money over the Xbox where exclusives are shit without the multiplayer? I didn't know people are that stupid. No wonder X360 actually managed to outsell the PS3 for a few years despite more and better exclusives lmao.

[@mjc0961]

Nope. Even back then, a 60GB drive was pathetically small. And "real browser"? You mean that slow piece of shit that couldn't load any webpages? A web browser is never a selling point of a console, let alone a browser that doesn't work. $600 was too much for a game console that had no games and wouldn't have games until a few years into its life. People clearly forget how awful the first couple of years of PS3 were.

[@greppim911]

Mosh At launch PS3 had paid online, and it was unplaylable.

[@fruitjuiceshibe]

Old video now but it would be cool for more DF Retro Extras like this where we can hear more about Richard's experiences from this era and around the earlier 2000s

[@lanasrj]

LOVE this idea. There's isn't enough looking back in the industry, at least not to the standards DF sets in their videos. Would love to see more of these!

[@Qurillion]

I agree, I love it too. The industry in general only ever looks forward, but there is so much nostalgia in gaming because of how quickly things move and change, resulting in very defined eras.

[@noa670]

The PS3 is now considered retro?

[@jcm2789]

Noah P Yup time flies fast...

[@latinochico]

Noah P yes

[@AshBashVids]

It will be 12 years old this November. So yes, definitely retro.

[@josephgarfield3363]

It came out 12 years ago.

[@birb_person]

Uh no

[@trenzinhodaalegria8012]

Well they didn't tell the truth that the PS3 was originally designed as a CELL B.E. SOC but they had to quickly re-engineer it to add an Nvidia GPU because it would totally fail if it was just the CELL B.E. so the PS3's launch had to be delayed 1 whole year. And also because it was a new architecture they couldn't make it backwards compatible with the PS2 which made them take the decision of adding the PS2's hardware inside which made it really expensive $600 at the time was more money than $600 nowadays. Because of inflation the dollar nowadays is less valuable, this is something that people NEVER take in consideration.

[@shinkansenhype8694]

people also do not realize that Sony basically gave people a $200-$300 discount (depending on all the models they had at launch) on all the PS3 hardware units.

[@tydendurler9574]

Ahhhhhh, a "Cell B.E. SOC", oook then, now we know🤔😒

[@zachsteiner]

Tyler Durden Cell Broadband Engine System on a Chip. There did you need it spelled out?

[@tydendurler9574]

@@zachsteiner yes, i did, that was the point of my comment. And i bet you most didn't know that. So thanks for clarifying.

[@tydendurler9574]

There really are mostly wise-ass idiots commenting DF-Videos, are there?!?😒

[@DannyWilliamH]

As far as the Killzone 2 trailer, the true story has come to light. Watch the Making of Horizon video. They spend a lot of time on how Guerrilla Games got to Horizon, going over the circumstances of the major Killzone titles and such. IIRC, NOBODY at GG intended it to be shown as gameplay. It was sent to Sony as a "target" or "design concept" video and they were all stunned when it popped up as their next game on a new system (lmao). Could be bullshit but they actually spend a good amount of time talking about this specific incident.

[@NikHem343]

There’s still a point to be made that the game turned out having insane visuals, anyway, because they were suddenly giving it their all under these immense expectations (albeit not reaching the quality of the trailer)

[@SuperJumpReviews]

man, I'll admit it wasn't easy being a ps3 fan back in 2006--2007. I used to be so excited for tuesdays cause that was when the psn store got updated with like a new demo or a new game trailer, haha, oh man takes me back.

[@tangerinetech5300]

SuperJumpReviews good thing they were hitting it out of the park with the psp so I could say they weren't being complete idiots

[@SuperJumpReviews]

Funny how you mentioned the psp. I was just playing that last night! gow chains of olympus :)

[@JHMBB2]

I still miss the old PSN layout. I miss the sounds colour, and how much quicker it ran. sigh...good times

[@ramon88us]

It was Thursdays actually. It sucked having to wait an extra 2 days to get the newest Rock Band DLC since 360 owners got it on Tuesdays.

[@batmangovno]

2005 "RSX - More powerful than 2 GeForce 6800 Ultras" 2016 "GTX 1080 - Faster than 980 SLI" Ahh, Nvidia. Some things just never change.

[@SianaGearz]

Being faster than something in SLI is just not that great an accomplishment. Sometimes a GPU will beat an SLI pair of itself. But push it maybe extra 20-30%, and you easily have the victory.

[@youtuberobbedmeofmyname]

I'm convinced SLI and crossfire "scaling" is artificial.

[@mrbean30392]

Lots of games actually only scale at 50% or less improvement in SLI. So in that context they aren't actually lying. I agree it is very misleading though.

[@rodmunch69]

I went from 970 SLI to a 1080 and the 1080 was faster, and more important, dramatically smoother, in particular for VR where everything with the SLI setup made me want to puke. Most everything still makes me want to puke, but it's not because of frame pacing at least.

[@PradiptaElFerrariSur]

what about the price premium then?

[@Dark_Ronius]

I wish they released the boomerang controller, even if limited edition. When you actually saw it in people's hands, it looked comfortable.

[@miguelroman4294]

I made it to the end of the video! please do an Xbox 360 console retro video!

[@RyanBurnsRed]

They should do one for the Kinect. Lots of hilarity to be had there

[@NeverQuit87]

miguel roman Xbox trash scrub

[@christiandeuctor3606]

PlayStation guy spotted. Chill lmao.

[@miguelroman4294]

Super Console Gamer beat it with that stupid console war crap! I liked both systems.

[@TheRedJadex]

miguel roman Playstation Move after.

[@gartgartsman478]

This is so damn entertaining. I could listen to John and Rich talk about this stuff forever. Long live DF Retro.

[@4468]

I remember being so annoyed at the gaming press during this time, they ran with how much better the PS3 games looked compared to 360, how much more powerful the Cell chip was & totally ignoring obvious pre-rendered bullshots and video but as it turned out game developers were able to get games looking and running much better on 360, mutli-platform releases anyway.

[@SianaGearz]

Some press members always fall for corporate bullsht, don't they.

[@FerrariKangaroo]

Sadly the gaming press haven't changed and are still just a pack of shills acting as another arm for the marketing departments for publishers.

[@Artictoc]

I remember the infamous "PS3 is on par with super computers!" bullshit lol

[@09222P]

+4468 One of the things that really held the PS3 back, was that it had only 256MB of RAM where as the Xbox 360 had 512MB. It's still pretty impressive how both systems were able to run what they were able to with that little of RAM.

[@damiank9443]

Axel Janes why for me you sounds like Xbox fan boy?

[@stealthninja4299]

Great video guys! I personally would like to see you revisit the conference where the Sega Saturn was revealed as this was really where the whole idea of showing videos not actually running on retail hardware began. And maybe a comparison of some arcade games from the mid to late 90s vs their console version too at some point.

[@bswift1991]

I love this series guys, been a gamer since i was old enough to hold a controller (early 90's) and getting these deep dives in to the stories of gaming's past is always fascinating.

[@dmg799]

I can't believe the PS3 can be called retro now. I still have an original fat one and I'm still getting new games to play for it.

[@kovugreen]

I use the 3 generations and beyond = retro method. I can't which developer said it though :/ ps4 current ps3 dated ( some games are still made for it) ps2 old ps1 retro

[@leegsy]

I have the last model PS3 and I still use it at least once a week and I probably use the PS3 more than my PS4 or PC for playing games.

[@toma01001]

That's trippy, hearing Alex being heralded as a new addition to the team. Haha

[@SPG8989]

One of their worst additions. Here he is actually not bad, but now he ruins everything he is in with his constant bitching and awful laugh that he obviously fakes since he use to not do it.

[@poppysilver]

@@SPG8989 ????????

[@Jadty]

Digital Foundry, would you be able to post the .iso of the E3's DVD's you have of the conference somewhere?

[@Hfajardo97]

It's amazing that despite the mishaps Sony ended up winning that generation based on the sheer dedication of its first-party developers. Third-party devs didn't get the hang of the console for most of its life cycle which forced Sony to commit to first-party studios and ultimately those studios showed what could be done and the PS3 ended up outselling the Xbox 360.

[@mk-1481]

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOO NEW DF MEMBER

[@FenderUsa]

cool that he's PC focused too

[@Will0502]

Hahaha

[@retrosoul8770]

I thought he was just a guest?

[@mslay-ultra1802]

Tom, is that you?

[@DoggedJoe]

"How many games are 1080p on PS3 John?" - An impossible question in 2018, but in 2022 John can finally answerr this question.

[@midnightripple]

As a Yakama Native American I can understand where those people are getting upset , especially with our languages getting lost due to boarding schools in early 1900’s. (My grandma was in one and she was born in 37.). Am glad you kept pushing through and went to learn why people were unhappy. It’s not that common and I feel even when people do recognize something they don’t realize the importance of losing a part of their culture for the masses and financial gain.

[@AbdulKarim-fu5er]

That motor storm trailer. Even today if somebody says ps5 will achieve that level of everything that was shown. I will not believe him.

[@ultraenergy313]

Not even RTX 2080ti level performance

[@xXJeReMiAhXx99]

yeah it's hilarious how high the level of bullshit is, unmatched for well over a decade.

[@DiplomatGaming]

E3 2005 was by far the best E3 show of all time. I remember watching this as a kid and was blown away by all the hype and promises.

[@dreammfyre]

Also, even tho there's a lot of faking here, last generation blow me away far more times than this current one, which more feels like a refinement than a giant leap.

[@eliotness4733]

great video digital foundry, one of the best you've done so far in my opinion, really enjoyed this one!

[@brandon_nope]

Man that silver PS3 looks sooo good

[@LionRafale]

Where is the giant enemy crab

[@chemergency]

That was the following year.

[@gabizi3553]

Chemical_E that's not historically accurate

[@chemergency]

Gabriel Alluto Are you saying battles against giant crabs DIDN'T actually take place in Ancient Japan? What are you, some kind of racist!?

[@youtuberobbedmeofmyname]

hit the enemy's weak spot.

[@chimeron260]

Really interesting to see this now, I remember being in middle school having beat DMC 3 with a bud from school a year or two earlier and watching this trailer and downloading the screenshots to DMC4, and my parents agreed to get me a PS3 if I did a good job babysitting my brother over the summer. DMC 4 was the first game I bought for it and I absolutely loved it. Very very different to the teaser shown, and there was a lot of backlash to nero which is funny looking back now with 5 out, but for 7th grade me it felt like a game that wasn’t possible on PS2 and really felt next gen at the time.

[@thatsnotthepoint-__-2666]

Good luck to the new Digital Foundry Team Member!!!

[@Dictator93]

ThatsNotThePoint - thanks a lot! :)

[@paperclip9558]

I dunno, but F1 championship edition definitely looks better as a whole than that f1 next generation demo. The graphics of Killzone 2 and Motorstorm on the final release actually are not that far from that rendered fake demo too. The final products might not have some technical stuff you guys mentioned, but they still pretty holds up to this day.

[@DJPsyq]

I love the hard trance jams playing in the background. Feels like a rave.

[@stevelawson7595]

Really cool retro video as usual. but I have to say, the audio is a little bit on the low side.

[@dark1x]

ken Hudson Yeah, sorry, we all shared one mic and the audio came out really quiet. Didn’t want to distort it too much.

[@widdowson91]

I kinda wish they had stuck with that original controller. I'm just fascinated with how it would have felt to use.

[@KevinTriforce]

I would love if they commentated over old E3 Press Conferences more. This was really great!

[@DavidTimothy]

Great video. I share the nostalgia for the days of companies creating exotic hardware to push the limits. As a kid seeing that was what inspired me to become an electrical engineer.

[@protocetid]

IDK if it’s a dumb question but could exotic CPUs and/or GPUs be used in a cost effective manner to get a more powerful console than something based on PC parts?

[@spicydeath82]

ironically my ps 3 turned on all on it's own while i was watching this. pretty creepy really.

[@ROBSILVERGUN]

Ridge Racer 7, not 6. 6 was on 360.

[@VariantAEC]

ROBSILVERGUN Yup 7 was much much better looking I compared them on my channel a while ago before I had legit capture equipment but the off-screen stuff still gives a good sense of the disparity between the PS3 and Xbox 360 games.

[@ROBSILVERGUN]

Axel Janes Just for the sake of information accuracy. I couldn't care less about it in fact. Both 7 and 6 are good games, but it's a nice fact that PS3 was pushing 1080p anyways.

[@ROBSILVERGUN]

Axel Janes If you remembered how Ridge Racer V looked, certainly you would not say that. But anyways, that's just ancient stuff.

[@Texshy]

Man, I remember being amazed looking at screenshots for Fight Night Round 3.

[@therealjuralumin3416]

While that F1 game trailer was total “bullshot", the actual game that came out (F1 Championship Edition) looked stunning, and still does. It looks better than all the other F1 games that came out later on the PS3, it also runs smoother than them. It’s a damn shame that Studio Liverpool (Psygnosis) got closed. They were the absolute masters of making F1 games. F1 05 on the PS2 was a particular stand-out, they nailed the handling, but more importantly they nailed the atmosphere, they had broadcast presentation and full commentary throughout the races. F1 Championship Edition also has really good damage modelling and physics, it wasn’t until F1 2016 that we saw something similar.

[@mrbones2235]

Yeah, and even 13 years after, it still manages to stand with f1 2017-2020 (games that run hdr and 4k)

[@SianaGearz]

Prettiest last gen UE3 title? Maybe Remember Me, one of the seminal works of PBR.

[@Dictator93]

Good Point, and woefully forgotten by me until you just said that! Industry leading regarding the use of PBS at the time!

[@rulewski33]

Siana Gearz Omg i loooove this Game

[@kpag3030]

I think ps3 ended up in the long run being the better console experience. Also, they eventually tied and I think even slightly surpassed Xbox 360 in sales of consoles. Wasn’t a great e3 for them though.

[@SPG8989]

No the ps3 was never a good experience

[@SteamPunk96]

more podcast-like video's like this please. this was a lot of fun

[@IceKoldKilla]

E3 was still press focused at the time. Different times. Now there's more fans (still press) in the audience and watching live. So it's tailored directly to the consumer more than ever.

[@KinoKonformist]

I think will be interesting to see DF Retro about Motorstorm, Killzone & Mobile Suit Gundam (or maybe about some worst launch titles in console history including this one).

[@theunbearablejuan]

Kino Konformist Gundam Crossfire was so bad. It is virtually unplayable.

[@ethanator6015]

Kino Konformist I’d love to see a DF retro on the first inFamous, that framerate is all over the place.

[@dw_drummer3828]

How dare you!? MotorStorm was a GOOD game! Lol No really it was, only thing it was missing was split screen.

[@KinoKonformist]

Motorstorm was very good, but perfomance... Game have struggles without split screen.)

[@Loundsify]

I personally felt Killzone 2 was pretty fair representation of the final game.

[@MrVonSchiller]

I hope you guys are doing this for every conference livestream of this years E3

[@switched_on]

Great video! DF Retro continues to grow. On the PS3, I imported mine from Japan as the DVD region was the same for DVD's and the games weren't region locked. BluRay at the time wasn't as important, especially as many disks weren't encoded to a region. Including importing, it cost less that when the console ended up costing in the UK. I then traded that model in for the Slim version later on as well as the first gen SixAxis controller for the newer model with rumble, all for £30. Yes there was no PS2 compatibility but I had an actual warranty, improved controller and new system. I would have never spent the full UK launch price for the PS3. Sony dropped the ball big time and it took them 6 years to eventually draw level with 360 sales. Coming from the PS2 dominance that fact alone is just shocking.

[@Raf8347]

Aaah yes I remember the good old times when Sony fucked up more than Microsoft and also had terrible surprises like Ridge Racer vanilla... Oh. And had Giant enemy crab to hit with massive damage

[@Scottoest]

I still remember when Sony said people would get two jobs in order to afford the $599 price, when people criticized it. And keep in mind that was $599 in 2005 dollars, which would be around $750 in 2018 dollars.

[@TheLinkmaster007]

Scottoest i never forget this.

[@latinochico]

The problem was gamers are too lazy to even have 1 job much less 2.. they just want to play games all day and eat Doritos. Sony failed too see that

[@SGVSOUTHSIDE]

Sony never said that...moron

[@DJBV]

source? or just bullshitting?

[@Scottoest]

As I said - I still remember. As in, I'm old enough to remember it. Don't have any link handy, but I'm sure a Google search would quickly return references to it.

[@KeeganJacobson]

I loved this! I hope you guys do some extra bits / hour long commentary in the future. Thanks guys

[@BlazeHedgehog]

The full story of that Killzone 2 demo did come to light -- NoClip did a documentary on Guerilla Games about Horizon: Zero Dawn, but obviously did a bit of history on Guerilla leading up to the game's release. It was an internal target render that Sony swooped in and started touting as real-time gameplay even though Guerilla never meant for it to get out.

[@PandaBearShenyu]

ps3 and cell was way ahead of its time. other than the rally and shooting game "in engine renders" everything else seemed pretty real. a lot of games ended up looking better than their tech demos. GT6 looks way better than the demo shown.

[@alex.starostin]

Remember playing Killzone 2 when it came out and being amazed how good the graphics looked. It also destroyed anything on 360 to that point.

[@GLegend360]

Man I played Killzone 2 so much because the graphics were insane at the time and I loved the chaotic Multiplayer too.

[@MrRaijuu]

Do sony 2006 next wih Giant Enemy Crab for massive views.

[@1beatcher]

"Where not interested in gimmicks" than show off the 6 axis controller and that card game

[@CaveyMoth]

What is this giant enemy crab everyone keeps talking about? Did someone pirate Serious Sam, spawning an invincible crab scorpion thing?

[@1beatcher]

Cavey Manta Look up Sony's 2006 E3 press conference

[@Oldschool_Gamer_]

You should do this every time a new console comes out, see how the previous stacked up to what they claimed it would be.

[@jimmelton5846]

Was the new guy narrating from the toilet?

[@TheSparkynuts]

omg I was watching this video and then my sister turns on the thundermans show on nickelodeon, then I hear the theme say "What you say is not what you get" and it made me laugh so hard

[@dan_loeb]

with the eyetoy segment, the movement of the glasses doesn't quite line up with his hands, sometimes the glasses dunk underwater before he's even lowered his hand. seems like he was even trying to copy the motions of pre-recorded footage.

[@MegaRayland]

And where there two more shooters over the grassy knoll? You are looking at Richard Marks from a lower angle, and to one side, and with the bit of lag introduced by sending the source through all the equipment necessary to display on the large screen. His moves match just fine. And let's not forget he isn't doing anything that wasn't already doable and done with Eyetoy for years at this point.

[@donatboy]

Please do the follow up of the Sony conference. The length was awesome!

[@Amarsingh-mj7di]

I would love to see one done for the Xbox 360 and its launch presentations. Would be interesting to see them side by side

[@fearlessjoebanzai]

Their theories on how the developers felt regarding the "real" story behind the killzone demo are almost spot on, now the truth has been told!

[@GuillaumeGamer]

The Getaway 3 :'(

[@pokezodia]

Thumbs up who made it to the end of the video!

[@CaveyMoth]

I made it to the end, and saw no boomerang controller. The thumbnail for this video is a lie, just like this conference was a lie!

[@davecarsley8773]

Comments asking people for thumbs up are incredibly childish

[@neonkapawn]

That background music of Ridge Racer at one point at the video was so epic.

[@RAYED2008]

Im from Saudi Arabia, and to get something like an E3 DVD in 2005 was amazing in of itself. I replayed that shit 100 times lol. My favorite E3 even though it was fake lol

[@ABK1505]

Retro does not exactly ring right with me talking about post 2000 consoles

[@VariantAEC]

ScumbagOkami Why, does it make you feel old?

[@Highwaysonyfan87]

ScumbagOkami it’s been 13 years since this conference. In 2008, you would have considered the ps1 retro. This is retro now

[@Y0URGRANDMA]

I find it hard to consider anything after 2005 'retro' because most of gaming at that point had become mainstream and homogenized and entering the HD era.

[@Sheepy007]

Well think about ist that way: this was 13 years ago. And 13 years before that, the super NES and Mega Drive were at their Peak.

[@latinochico]

It is retro you are just getting old mate

[@jzilla1234]

Wow 13 years ago

[@gman102formyspace]

I wish you would add subtitles for E3 so I know more about what theyre describing all the time, but can still listen to you guys too

[@Ghennesph]

IIRC, guerrilla games said that they were asked to make a concept trailer for the game, but weren't told it was even going to be shown, much less passed off as realtime gameplay.

[@jacobwarner9710]

History is repeating itself? 🤔

[@pissyourselfandshitncoom2172]

Then in 2016/2017, the xbox one x was promised as "uncompromised 4k60." War never changes lmao

[@honse246]

hl2 had image based reflections, programmable sharers (way more advanced ones), facial animation, realistic characters etc... in 2004

[@anontube1608]

you'd hope so, having the advantage of powerful PC hardware.

[@LEGIT_ELITE]

Who is disliking this video? This is great content. Informed nostalgia with little to no rose coloured glasses. I'd love for this to be a thing done with other platforms conferences/launches.

[@MrHandss]

i don't care if its totally shit, i wish i could try the original ps3 controller for a few minutes.

[@iREVOLTER]

@DigtalFoundry, do you guys can upload the DVD of the PS3 E3 2005 Conference (also if you have the Xbox360 and Wii first conferences) to youtube or any other resource?

[@jestinjund]

This was the only E3 I was able to attend/ work at and I have to say, it was an incredibly exciting show. While I wasn't able to go to the press conferences, the show floor was just nuts. Thanks to a press badge, I was able to get in to a special theater to watch a 5 min video from Sony and although it seemed too good to be true, I don't think a single person there wasn't at least impressed with what was on display. Namely, Africa looked like it was the true mark of what next gen could look like and we all know how that turned out. Moreover, seeing the actual console there in 3 (possibly 4) shiny colors just made the 360 seem like a true underdog. It was really interesting how last gen played out in the end because you would have never guessed it from this show.

[@JGRICH61]

Loving these E3 reviews. More please!!! Can you do the 90s?

[@protocetid]

Why stop there? Do 80s and 70s trade shows too (if they existed).

[@dookie_12]

Ps3's launch was miserable.

[@leegsy]

Resistance FoM was really brown.

[@medjrikais2419]

Yep but ps3 outsold 360 and ps4 crashed x1 😉

[@IISpYll]

how is microsoft was honest with the 360 reveal ? they did not show a burning console on stage.