With E3 2018 right on our heels, the video game retail monopoly GameStop has teamed up with Extra Life to host a charity event just outside the LA Convention Center. E3 2018 attendees will have an opportunity to receive VIP entrance and premier access to the show floor. But there’s a catch: you must donate video games and be one of the first 150 people to do so. Thankfully, this spans the entirety of the E3 2018 visitor showcase, so you’ll have three chances to be Charlie Bucket and parade around the event with your golden ticket. In addition to VIP access, donors will also receive a buy-2-get-1 free plus 50 percent trade-in coupon from GameStop. That seems like the best time to power through your ever-growing backlog and pick up some games you may have missed.
All donations will benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMN Hospitals), an organization that raises awareness and funds for 170 member hospitals that provide 32 million treatments each year to kids across the U.S. and Canada. GameStop will also use its retail locations to raise donations for critical treatments and healthcare services, pediatric medical equipment, and charitable care at local CMN Hospitals. In a press email, Jason Allen, the head of marketing at GameStop, said, “Together with CMN Hospitals, it is our hope to give children of all ages the miracle of living a better life.”
But what if you can’t attend E3 2018? From June 1-30, GameStop is offering shoppers two ways to contribute to CMN Hospitals:
- Guests can Trade for Charity by offering 100 percent of their trade-in to local CMN Hospitals; or
- PowerUp Rewards (PUR) members can donate their points to support national charities, including affiliated Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
“The funds raised by GameStop’s initiatives will impact over 10 million children treated each year at local Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals throughout the country and we are very grateful for their support,” said John Lauck, president and CEO of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. There’s always an opportunity to give to the less fortunate, and GameStop wants to make it as streamlined as possible this year for ardent game fans.
Biggest E3 Surprises in Sony History
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A Glimpse Into the Sony Archives
From an erratic Kevin Butler to Final Fantasy VII HD Remake, here are just some of the moments from E3 past that took us by surprise.
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PlayStation Price Reveal
We begin with one from the gaming archives: Sony’s reveal of the PlayStation price tag. More than 20 years ago, executive Steve Race walked on stage to announce that the PlayStation, a landmark machine that would go on to redraw the lines of console gaming, was to be priced at $299 – a full $100 cheaper than the Sega Saturn. It was the equivalent of dropping the mic…in 1995.
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PS3, Starting at $599
Proving that 10 years is a lifetime in the video game industry, Sony's E3 2006 press conference wrote its name in the history book for all the wrong reasons, whether it’s Kaz Hirai's half-hearted cry of "Riiiiiidge Racer!” or the mere mention of PS3’s eye-watering price point which, at $599, would’ve required two jobs to afford at launch. Yeesh!
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Valve Chief Gabe Newell Swings By Sony
To say that Gabe Newell was left disappointed by the PS3 would be to deal in wild understatement. For one, the Valve boss deemed Sony’s flagship hardware to be a “total disaster” and even suggested that the company cancel it and start over. Ouch!
So you can imagine our surprise when Newell swung by Sony’s E3 2010 presser to talk Portal 2. His appearance helped stoke excitement among the crowd, and it certainly helped that he was announcing one of the most beloved sequels of all time.
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Final Fantasy Jumps Airship
For the first time in the franchise's decorated history, XIII marked the first Final Fantasy title to go multiplatform, meaning Lightning's adventure was also available for Xbox owners.
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That Killzone 2 Trailer
Before the PS3 even hit store shelves, Guerrilla Games was already swinging for the fences – so much so, in fact, that the studio created a by-now infamous E3 trailer for Killzone 2 without actually knowing the PS3's final specs.
And sure enough, the sizzle reel blew everyone away with its deft animation and character models, though it later transpired that the studio was really playing fast and loose with its graphics benchmark for Killzone 2.
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Kiefer Sutherland Supplants David Hayter As Snake
For many Metal Gear fans, David Hayter is Solid Snake…and Big Boss, and Naked Snake, and Old Snake and, well, you get the drift. Fast forward to E3, though, and Konami announced changing of the guard. No longer would the gravel-voiced Hayter portray Metal Gear’s beloved lead; instead, the Powers That Be had chosen 24 actor Kiefer Sutherland. And Metal Gear would never be the same again.
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Kevin Butler’s Epic E3 Speech of 2010
With each passing year, E3 tends to serve up a headline-worhty speech (here's looking at you, Jason VandenBerghe), but none more memorable than Kevin Butler's epic speech of 2010.
Butler, a fictional marketing character brought to life with real glee by Jerry Lambert, took to the stage at E3 2010 to deliver a celebration of the gaming industry and all of its many quirks.
Cheesy? You betcha'. But there hasn't been another E3 speech like it.
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Sony Stakes a Claim For the Console Throne
If the Playstation powerhouse stole headlines left, right and center in 1995, only to drop the ball quite spectacularly in 2006, then E3 2013 marked Sony's claim for the console throne.
With the industry still reeling from Microsoft's newly-unveiled DRM policies and online requirements, all of which formed the basis of the Xbox One architecture, former Sony boss Jack Tretton executed what is perhaps the perfect PR coup, one which allowed PS4 to become the most sought-after console of 2013.
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E3 2015 and its Many Megatons
If Sony's 2013 presentation was all about hardware, then E3 2015 brought what will now be referred to as the hat trick of PS4 megatons: an HD remaster of Final Fantasy 7, The Last Guardian, and Shenmue 3.
Only one of those titles has made it to release (and even it took close to 10 years), though we'll be damned if Sony's E3 2015 presser wasn't one for the ages.
