Almost 40,000 people attended the very first E3 at the LA Convention Center. The show's big news came from Sega, which announced the surprise early launch of its Saturn console - it made its way into some shops during the show. Sega boasted that it would have dozens of games ready for the system by Christmas.

This news was all the more juicy thanks to Nintendo revealing that it was delaying the release of its Ultra 64 (later to become Nintendo 64) until April '96, effectively giving its rival almost a year head start. Nintendo big cheese Howard Lincoln told GamesMaster magazine that the reason for the delay was "Nintendo's never-ending quest for better games".