E3 Sony 2006 Giant Enemy Crab

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Giant Enemy Crab is a catchphrase that came out of Sony's disastrous E3 2006 press conference, where a producer described a Genji: Days of the Blade boss fight as being based on real Japanese history. The clip, along with lines like "attack its weak point for massive damage" and "$599," became one of the most mocked moments in video game marketing.

Overview

Giant Enemy Crab is the nickname for a mid-level boss shown during Sony's E3 2006 press conference for the PlayStation 3 launch title Genji: Days of the Blade3. The moment became a meme because Sony pitched the game as being grounded in actual Japanese history seconds before the demo cut to a samurai fighting a house-sized crustacean1.

The crab is usually paired with two other quotes from the same show: producer Bill Ritch telling the audience to "attack its weak point for massive damage," and Kaz Hirai's shouted "Riiiiidge Racer!" plug for the PSP1. Together with the $599 PS3 price reveal, they became shorthand for everything wrong with Sony's E3 that year3.

How It Spread

YouTuber Macaw45 uploaded one of the first remixes on May 14th, 2006, cutting the crab clip together with the "$599" and "Ridge Racer" callouts into a loop that gaming blogs kept reposting for years2. The Eurogamer forums ran long threads picking apart the presentation line by line, with "Riiiiidge Racer" and Giant Enemy Crab as the two lines everyone quoted back1.

Within weeks the phrases spread to TeamXbox, GameSpot and IGN comment sections, and a browser game called Giant Enemy Crab Battle went up on Newgrounds3. "Attack its weak point for massive damage" broke out of the gaming crowd on its own and is still quoted whenever a boss has an obvious glowing spot3.

The Genji clip is now standard footage in E3 retrospectives and "worst press conference" video essays, usually paired with Sony's 2013 PS4 reveal as the karmic reversal2.

How to Use This Meme

The line is typically dropped as a mock-serious voiceover whenever a game presents an absurdly large enemy, or as a reply when a company oversells a mundane feature. "Attack its weak point for massive damage" is common convention for calling out obvious weak spots in any game, and "$599" often gets recycled when a new console price leaks.

Frequently Asked Questions