A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated the 10 Greatest E3 Moments in the history of the gaming's most storied event. And indeed, E3 is known for giving us the incredible moments that will live on throughout the annals of gaming history. However, it's also known for being...well, sometimes, less than satisfactory.

In fact, E3 has been home to some of the most cringe-worthy, face-palm moments in all of entertainment. So, pull up your boot straps and get ready to wade through the worst of the worst. The 10 most embarrassing E3 moments ever.

-

10. Konami's Rock Revolution Failure (E3 2008)

Konami is responsible for being pioneers in the music game genre with games like Dance Dance Revolution, but the genre didn't reach mainstream success until Guitar Hero came out. Konami then attempted to compete against Rock Band and Guitar Hero at E3 2008, but the result was a complete flop in the form of Rock Revolution.

To make matters worse, the presenters on stage playing the game actually failed the song. They were booed off stage virtually, and while E3 goers are usually too polite to boo in person (unless you're trying to sell an AT&T Vita), watching such a weak performance from people meant to be experts probably tempted many in attendance to raise their voices.

-

9. Wonderbook (E3 2012)

People like Harry Potter. People like video games. Let's make a "magic" book loosely based on Harry Potter that players shake a Wii remote knockoff at. Thus is the concept behind the ill-conceived Wonderbook.

In an attempt to appeal to the casual market, Sony cooked up the idea to use motion controls in conjunction with a book-shaped peripheral. Acquiring the backing of Harry Potter author JK Rowling was a smart move, but not using the name "Harry Potter," however, was not. Furthermore, the E3 stage demo of the device was full of technical issues and the device not working properly, which probably wasn't good advertising.

To Wonderbook's credit, it at least released on a national scale. The next E3 peripheral failure, on the other hand...

8. Battle Tag (E3 2010)

[HTML1]

Joel McHale is notoriously grumpy when he's dragged on to present gaming-related things, whether it's the VGAs or E3, but who can blame him when he's forced to hawk something as ludicrous as Battle Tag.

Basically, Battle Tag is Ubisoft's attempt to sell a Lazer Tag game as being more than Lazer Tag...except it's honestly just Lazer Tag. McHale did his best to not be completely embarrassed when playing the game, and the unbridled enthusiasm of the developer is almost funny, but mostly sad.

Battle Tag is more peripheral than it is game, and because of that, Ubisoft didn't really know how to market it. Realizing the product's appeal was extremely limited, the publisher decided to only release Battle Tag in select test markets, specifically Canada and Texas (sorry Canada and Texas). Seeing as how Battle Tag has never seen a wider release, it goes without saying that it failed in those test markets rather candidly.

-

7. Vitality Sensor (E3 2009)

vitality-sensor

Nintendo is known for releasing a wide variety of peripherals, especially for the Wii in particular. Some of these made sense, while others, such as the Wii Vitality Sensor, seem to serve little to no practical purpose. Not even the creative geniuses at Nintendo could come up with a significant use for the device, and so it's never been seen again since E3 2009.

Announcing something at E3 and then never releasing it is bad, even worse than only releasing it in two markets like we saw with Battle Tag. As for what its purpose was, the Vitality Sensor was apparently going to be for a game based on "relaxation." Nintendo claims that they couldn't get the technology to work properly with enough people, and that we may see the hardware return one day down the road. Considering the dead silence that greeted the device at E3 2009, let's hope that it stays canned.

-

6. Xbox One (E3 2013)

Microsoft's E3 2013 briefing for Xbox One will go down in history as one of the most botched presentations of all time. The company clearly believed strongly in the always-online Xbox One infrastructure, but completely and utterly failed at conveying why it was necessary or how it would improve gaming. Their confusing message and Sony absolutely decimating them during E3 forced Microsoft to pull a 180, and backpedal on the entire Xbox One concept.

Microsoft executives such as Don Mattrick seemed intent on digging Microsoft an even bigger hole. Speaking with Geoff Keighley about the always-online Xbox One controversy, he said, "Fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity. It's called Xbox 360." Telling consumers to stick with their old device instead of adopting the new system that was debuting later in the year added on to the Xbox One PR nightmare, and it's a hole that Xbox still hasn't fully dug itself out of yet.

5. Mr. Caffeine (E3 2011)

[HTML2]

Let's go back in time, shall we? To a time when Ubisoft wasn't known at E3 for their last minute surprising reveals of games such as Watch Dogs, The Division, or Rainbow Six Siege, but rather, their embarrassingly bad host, Mr. Caffeine.

Mr. Caffeine embodies some of the worst qualities of an E3 host. His humor is juvenile, almost exclusively "dick jokes", and to make matters worst he can't even pronounce "Tom Clancy" properly, uttering Tom Ca-lancy instead. Mr. Caffeine was unbearably annoying, but as we'll find out later, he's not even the worst host in E3 history.

-

4. Sony's Entire Press Conference (E3 2006)

[HTML3]

At E3 1995, Sony announced the original PlayStation at the low price point of $299, which shocked attendees and gave it a serious leg up over the competition. In 2006, Sony announced the price of the PS3 to be a ridiculous $599. For comparison, neither the PS4 nor the Xbox One released at that price point, and it's doubtful that a game console will hit that point ever again due to the ridicule Sony received after announcing such a hefty price tag.

It would be one thing if such a high price could be justified with high quality gaming software, but Sony had little to bring to the table in 2006, resulting in their press conference being absolutely abysmal. One of the PS3's biggest games that they showed off was a new historical action game called Genji that was supposed to feature real battles from Japan's history. Sony must have gotten their hands on some interesting history books, as Genji features giant enemy crabs. Remember everyone, hit their weak point for massive damage.

Sony even embarrassed themselves when trying to push the PSP during E3 2006. The PSP was a relatively hot system at the time, and the best hype Sony could muster was Ridge Racer. Or Riiiiiiiidge Racer! rather. It seems that Sony has learned from their past mistakes, though, and their conferences are consistently one of the more exciting parts of E3 every year.

-

3. Nintendo's Entire Press Conference (E3 2008)

[HTML4]

Nintendo's E3 performance is inconsistent year in and year out. Sometimes they deliver fantastic presentations, like their 2004 event in particular, but other times, they show just how clueless they really are when it comes to pleasing their true, hardcore fan base.

Nintendo, in an attempt to appeal to the casual market that was all the rage during the height of the Wii's market dominance, decided to have an E3 press conference aimed entirely at that audience (people who do not watch E3). Simply put, it was one of the worst conferences of all time.

From Cammie Dunaway's cheesy Wii Sports Resort demo to the usually great Reggie Fils-Aime making a fool of himself trying to sell the Wii MotionPlus peripheral, Nintendo's E3 2008 was a disaster. To cap it all off, Shigeru Miyamoto's big game for the conference was the critically panned and almost universally despised Wii Music, which debuted amongst disturbing arm-waggling from the hilariously named real-life drummer, Ravi Drums.

2. Jamie Kennedy (E3 2007)

[HTML5]

If one already didn't have plenty of reasons to dislike Jamie Kennedy, he gave everyone another at E3 2007. Hosting on behalf of Activision, the actor and comedian gave what is arguably the worst guest host performance in the history of the event.

Not content on just insulting the audience for being gamers, making the stereotypical, low-hanging fruit jokes, Kennedy also attempted to ridicule the presenters. This included Kennedy interrupting a clearly annoyed Tony Hawk in an attempt to get over a thinly veiled dick joke, and later suffering at the wit of a game developer, with a member of the audience declaring, "He's funnier than you!" Kennedy's brilliant retort was, "You never get out of the house I bet." Bravo.

-

1. Konami's Extremely Weird Conference (E3 2010)

[HTML6]

Konami has been in the news a lot lately, thanks to their mishandling of key properties and talent. This includes the firing of famed developer Hideo Kojima, and the unceremonious cancellation of Silent Hills. As it turns out, Konami actually has a history of embarrassing themselves in the public light, and one of their biggest embarrassing moments came at E3 2010.

Virtually everything they showed off during this conference flopped with the audience, and Konami's execution is entirely to blame. The conference included a confusing reveal for the mediocre NeverDead, a trio of professional wrestlers, and Japanese developers struggling with English. Why Konami didn't hire translators or simply have more native English-speakers present at their conference remains a mystery to this day.

That being said, one of the only English speakers involved in the conference did spend a considerable amount of time staring at the back of his colleague's head with unprecedented strain and determination, so maybe Konami made the right call.

Konami's conference at E3 2010 was so embarrassing that they haven't really had a significant presence at the show since, beyond having their games featured in the conferences of other companies. Konami's decline has been happening for years, and while the recent events certainly sped up the destruction of a once proud gaming company, signs of their inability to understand what their audience wants can be found as far back as five years ago, at E3 2010.

-

This year's E3 event takes place from June 16th to June 18th in Los Angeles. While there will certainly be plenty of epic moments and shocking reveals, also count on plenty of embarrassing moments like the ones presented in this post. It will be hard to top these debacles, but with any (bad) luck, we'll have plenty to shake our heads at next month.