10 Biggest Surprises In E3 History

It would be fair to say that Sony handled the launch of the PS3 in a less than stellar manner. Though the console would go on to be vindicated by history and play host to some of the greatest games of its generation, it seemed at one point as though it was destined to fail in the face of stiff competition from the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.

Sony most certainly didn't help their case with their presentation at E3 2006, where they utterly failed to capture the imagination of their gaming public.

Amongst the many disasters that their 2006 conference has become known for was the announcement of the price of a new top-end PS3. When Kaz Hirai stated that the console would cost $599 dollars - compared to the $399 of an Xbox 360 with all of the bells and whistles - attendees were shocked to say the least.

It was a price point that was ridiculously high and put the console on the back-foot immediately. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft and Nintendo dominated the early stages of that particular console war and it took Sony years to recover from that dreadful conference and its most shocking announcement.