Regarded as both a shock and a blessing, The Entertainment Software Association has announced that E3 Expo is “evolving” into a more intimate event rather than the circus it was before.

“The world of interactive entertainment has changed since E3Expo was created 12 years ago. At that time we were focused on establishing the industry and securing orders for the holiday season,” said Douglas Lowenstein, President of the ESA, the trade association representing U.S. computer and video game publishers and the owner of E3Expo. “Over the years, it has become clear that we need a more intimate program, including higher quality, more personal dialogue with the worldwide media, developers, retailers and other key industry audiences.”

And that’s not all. ESA plans on cutting down all the excitement that marked the previous E3s and replaces them with “small meetings with media, retail, development and other key sectors.” Basically, it will not feature the large trade show environment it had in its previous years. Additionally, the show has been moved to July from its May timeslot and its name has been changed to “E3 Media Festival”.

Following the above news, Gamespot, Game Informer and Rocky Mountain News carried out Q&As with Doug Lowenstein, the president of ESA, on the changes and why they were made. Tons of editorial were written as well, here are some: CNN Money, EuroGamer, FiringSquad, GameZone, MMORPG.COM, IGN and Next Generation.

Adding to the above, Gamespot carries an article offering their staff’s view and the industry’s reaction to the change.

Conducting meaningful relationships with various publications, including catering to the thousands (if not millions) of games sites out there can be a daunting task for any PR guy. However, that does not necessarily mean they can ignore most publications and get away with it, expecting the ignored ones to offer coverage for their products.

GameMethod’s Managing Editor Tracy Erickson takes a look at all the mismanagement that happened during E3 2006, noting that most companies really don’t seem to care about your average gaming site, or any other publication other than the big three (IGN, Gamespy and Gamespot).

If I was the only editor to have experienced this treatment, I wouldn’t have published this article; unfortunately, my words represent numerous complaints from fellow journalists who are tired of dealing with uncooperative public relations staff. As journalists, we do not have an obligation to cover a company’s games; rather, companies should actively seek coverage, not the other way around. It is the responsibility of public relations staff to disseminate information and work with press to facilitate coverage. Why is it that some companies fail to address these responsibilities?

Before the exposition even starts, evidence of substandard public relations work is evident. Companies like Koei and Capcom provide perfect examples this year of the challenge in setting appointments for E3. Two and a half weeks before the show, I sent e-mails to several companies requesting an appointment to preview their games, Koei and Capcom were included. Two weeks later, both companies replied denying our request for an appointment. Since when has delaying media requests two weeks become an acceptable practice? Perhaps if both companies had responded to our requests in a timely, professional manner, they wouldn’t have denied our request for an appointment. At least these companies replied. Square Enix representatives never responded to our multiple requests to attend their press conference. Similarly, a 2K Games representative was wonderful in connecting us with an outside firm to schedule an appointment; too bad we were never contacted after that.

However, there are always exceptions, and Sony, CDV and Microsoft were all applauded for their great work. I agree with him from personal experience, and believe that publishers should expect the sort of coverage that they can bestow upon us.

E3 2006 saw the unveiling of quite a few big titles: Halo 3, GTA 4, Wii games, Assassin’s Creed and many others. But it also saw the absence of many notables of the past year. Gamespot has an article up that details the games absent, including Killzone PS3, Devil May Cry 4 and, most noticeably, Resident Evil 5.

They forgot to include Duke Nukem Forever! Never mind…

One post for it all…

• ActionTrip, TeleFragged, Guru3D, Hot Hardware, Gaming Nexus, SimHQ (day two), Seriously! and GotFrag (day two) all offer coverage of the first two days.
  
• Booth babes can be found on FiringSquad (more), FutureLooks (part two and part three), Virtual-Hideout Seriously! and PCApex
  
• CNET compares the booth babes of yesteryears with this year’s ones.
  
• Adam West, well known for his role as Batman in the classic TV series, was at E3. So was Paris Hilton, who couldn’t even say the name of her game properly. Lara Croft Karima Adebibe, the “real-life” Lara Croft, was at E3 - CNN’s resident gamer offers insight on her first expo experience. GamersInfo has an interview with her up too.
  
• Coverage for the third and final day can be found on TeleFragged, ActionTrip (more), SimHQ, GameMethod, FiringSquad, GotFrag and GameBrink.
  
• Images from the event - PlanetQuake4, Thankeeka and Futurelooks.

E3 is unforgivably a loud, noisy affair. But what is this? NCSoft, creator of Auto Assault, Lineage and Tabula Rasa, has been fined $5,000 for making too much noise by the organizers!

As Mutaytor finished its set with fire-swallowing and dragon dancing, the audience was implored to get as loud as it could, and the booth shook with reverberations from the music.

Once the band wrapped up, NCsoft vice president of strategic development Fred Schmidt took the stage and addressed the fine. He blasted Sega (which inhabited a neighboring booth during the show), saying they had three people with decibel readers monitoring NCsoft’s booth for the slightest infractions. Schmidt said the company made every effort to keep the noise within five decibels of the restricted limit, and for the most part did that successfully.

Schmidt then turned his attention to the ESA, essentially saying this whole experience has the company reconsidering its annual E3 presence.

“We’re not sure we’re on the same plane with this organization… We have been harassed for three days straight, and I’m not sure we’re coming back here, but we are going to have a party next year–real near here–and we hope you all will come.”

How can one company be harassed like this when all of them are making so much noise? And what’s with NCSoft’s hatred against Sega?

This year’s E3 was all-out crazy, thanks to Sony and Nintendo fully unveiling their consoles, and Microsoft announcing their second wave of games for Xbox 360, as well as Halo 3. Now that the event is over, ESA, the organizer, sent word that the expo had had more than 60,000 attendees, which is surprising since last year’s E3 saw more than 70,000 visitors.

Even though there were lesser people this time, E3Insider.com, the expo’s official consumer site, had attracted double the number of visitors since last year. The site received nearly 1.5 million visits during the three days of the show. It was offering DVD-quality video broadcasts, photos from the show, as well as behind-the-scenes action at the LA Convention Center where the event was held.

E3 2007 has been scheduled for May 16-18, 2007, in Los Angeles.

Probably coming as no surprise to anyone, ESA announced that it has sold out of exhibit space for E3 Expo 2006, having sold more than 540,000 square feet of space covering all five exhibit halls at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This year’s expo will be host to more than 400 exhibitors covering space equivalent to 4,650 Olympic swimming pools.

E3 2006 will be held from May 10-12, with conference and workshop sessions taking place from May 9-11.

This year’s E3 is shaping up to be quite big, and 10tacle Studios will be on hand to take advantage of it. The studio will be showing off Elveon, their fantasy action epic powered by Unreal Engine 3 for the PC and Xbox 360.

The company will be set up in the Kentia Hall, booth #6937, and will also be showing off GTR 2 - FIA GT Racing Game, the sequel to their racing simulator. “After our E3 debut last year we are looking forward to present with “Elveon” and “GTR 2″ an impressive portfolio once more. With these two extraordinary titles we underline our high quality standard in development and also give a strategic outlook of the company. At the same time we will take advantage of the E3 to acquire promising new projects and studios”, Michele Pes, CEO of 10TACLE STUDIOS, sums up the expectations of their participation in the trade show.