The Rise and Fall of Space World: Nintendo's Own E3

In the early 1990s, years before the debut of E3 from the Los Angeles Convention Center in 1995, there was another gathering of like-minded individuals devoted to video games. Unlike E3's focus on the industry as a whole, however, Space World was an event organized by Nintendo to showcase their latest and greatest games.

Running from 1989 to 2001, Space World was one of those dream events that I wanted to go to back in the day. While the first day of Space World was press only, the rest of it was left tantalizingly open to the public. This knowledge was seared into my mind, as despite my best efforts, I never made it to a single one.

Looking back, however, I feel like Space World wasn't just a standard E3 precursor. Instead, it's a microcosm of what the industry used to be like, and I often think about how similar, yet unusually different, things were back then.

The World of E3 Before E3

In the time before E3, even before Space World, trade shows devoted to video games were pretty much non-existent. Video games would sometimes get time at shows like the Consumer Electronics Show, which started in the 1960s, but a show built around gaming was fairly uncommon.

In fact, it was more common to see information about new video games on certain syndicated technology shows. If you were able to catch shows like Computer Chronicles, there would often be segments devoted to video games. Computer Chronicles was where I first saw a lot of video games, and that pretty clearly extended into the 1990s with shows like Electric Playground and X-Play.

In reality, if you were a fan of video games during the 1970s and '80s, CES was the place to go to see stuff in person. Video games were exploding, but I don't think anyone truly knew what they were going to become. Indeed, everybody who ran these shows thought the hardware was the most compelling part. Perhaps they were, but a show built for developers to show their newest software seemed like the next obvious step.

A Generational Run

The first Space World still feels somewhat shrouded in mystery. It was apparently held sometime in 1989 in Japan, where Nintendo showed off the SNES and Super Mario World. Details of that event, its location, and who was even there seem lost to time, but Space World would become much more public in the years to come.

Throughout the 1990s, Space World was the place to keep an eye on if you were interested in Nintendo products. Over the years, Nintendo would use Space World to get eyes on their latest stuff. It was often pretty big projects as well, as Space World was where Nintendo debuted things like the SNES, the Super FX chip, and the 64DD add-on for the N64.

Even when E3 came around, Space World kept going. It was often held at the end of the year, anywhere from August to November. It steered fairly clear of E3, but it was also quite obvious that these two shows had different audiences and expectations.

Space World's run from 1989 to 2001 was nothing short of spectacular. It wasn't just a one-off, random show for Nintendo. It was important, and it felt huge every single year. Though it would skip 1998 due to issues with the 64DD, Space World was a place where Nintendo felt comfortable showing some of their biggest upcoming products, including EarthBound 64 and the GameCube.

2001: A Space World Odyssey

The 2001 edition of Space World wound up being its last, but throughout its decade-plus run, it would end up being the absolute best iteration. It's hard to fathom what it was like getting news online from Space World 2001 back in the day, but I have fond memories of this show.

Information from the show floor trickled in slowly, but there were already low-quality versions of trailers for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Super Mario Sunshine. While Sunshine was seen as something to be excited about, The Wind Waker was met with criticism for its jarring new cel-shaded art style. Though it would later get dubbed with the dubious nickname Celda, I still hold The Wind Waker in the highest esteem as my personal favorite Zelda game of all time.

It was honestly such a cool time, and no matter what you thought of The Wind Waker's art direction or Retro turning Samus Aran's latest adventure into a first-person shooter with Metroid Prime, the discussion was half the fun. If you were a Nintendo fan, this time of year was like Christmas and your birthday rolled into one.

Nintendo ended Space World following the 2001 show, as the cost of hosting their own event compared to taking part in E3 just didn't make financial sense. Even now, Nintendo's presence at what we now call E3 season feels largely coincidental, as they have their own tiny version of Space World with Directs throughout the year.

Following the demise of E3 in 2021, Nintendo always felt the least impacted. They'd been doing their own dedicated shows, be it Space World or Directs, since the 1980s. They adapted to new technology and broadcasting avenues, while Sony and Microsoft are only just now catching up to the concept of what we know as a Nintendo Direct. It's fair to say that Space World laid the groundwork for that.