Mike Murphy

This year will be the fourth-straight E3 that I will be attending. All of them with GamerNode; all of them a ton of fun. However, this one has left me more excited than perhaps even my first.

In 2010, I got to enjoy my first E3 ever: experiencing Los Angeles, the convention center, booths, games, pressers, parties, and everything in-between. I was so overwhelmed with joy that it was like being a kid in a candy store, to steal that overused cliché.

When I returned in 2011, it was my first trip as a veteran — even one that had admittedly at the time become a bit jaded — and 2012 was my first E3 where I was on camera. Granted it was smartphone cameras and done via livestream for an attempt to give viewers a true all-access experience, but it was a first for me, GamerNode, and — as far as I know — game journalism as a whole.

That said, all of these firsts don’t fully compare to the one that will be occurring at E3 2013: A new console generation in full swing. This is not intended to slight the Wii U, but at E3 2012 it was just one system, one console maker, focused on next-gen. Now we have the Wii U gearing up for its first full year with the new hardware released, while Sony and Microsoft rev up the hype machines for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Each company will be kicking it into high gear and bringing its A-game in an attempt to control the beginning of this new cycle.

I’ll literally be witnessing and covering the birth of a new generation of video games. It’s an event that hasn’t happened in nearly a decade, and something I’d dreamed about since I was in middle school. To be one of the first to see and touch these consoles and/or their controllers, then relay that knowledge to the world is going to be an experience nigh beyond explanation.

It helps remind me why I decided to jump into the world of game journalism in the first place. Why I love writing about this medium and criticizing its products for good or bad. Being one of the lucky few who provide the masses with insight and information on these watershed moments of not just gaming, but entertainment as a whole*, is a blessing that I’m truly grateful for.

This also reminds me that when E3 2013 is over, I’ll be just about all out of E3 firsts. As a result, I need to enjoy this one as much as humanly possible. Until, of course, I end up writing as a staff member on one of the big-league sites.

For now though, I hope you all enjoy the coverage I bring you of this super-important E3 in the coming weeks on here, via GamerNode.

*This is meant as a reflection that video games have become a serious, major form of entertainment. Not, as that statement may incur, a reference to the Xbox One as an “all-in-one” entertainment device.