In the past, the Electronic Entertainment Expo was an orgy of marketing might. Game publishers would spend millions of dollars to carve out floorspace, erecting massive themed booths and elaborate sound and light shows to get attention in an increasingly ridiculous spectacle. Everyone pretty much agreed: It was extremely cool, but admittedly a waste of money.

This year marks a major turning point. The games industry has grown up: instead of a giant show with enormous spectacle, the E3 "Media and Business Summit" will be a smaller press-oriented event scattered across hotels and conference rooms around Santa Monica. There's going to be less glitz, but hopefully more substance: The stars of this show are the games and hardware, not elaborate stage routines.

You'll be seeing a lot of E3 coverage all this week. Where can you find the good stuff?

GameSpy's Index is Now Live
IGN's Index is Already Cooking
and IGN Insider will have Live Streaming Coverage

And, of course, you'll want to Stick around FilePlanet to download high-def videos of new game trailers and more.


The biggest news will come from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, as all three companies reveal their position and strategy going into the upcoming holiday season. IGN Insider will stream the press conferences live, beginning Tuesday at 9:30 PM Pacific time for Microsoft's conference, then continuing Wednesday at 9 AM and 11:30 AM for the Nintendo and Sony conferences, respectively.

A PS3 Price Drop has already been confirmed, and Microsoft might follow suit in order to keep the numbers good throughout the holiday. Sony has a fight on its hands: the company has to overcome the PS3's so-so reception and demonstrate that the immensely powerful machine is THE next-gen system. I expect the company will spend a lot of time talking about Blu-Ray adoption and the PS3 as a whole home entertainment platform. Microsoft will probably focus on developers and games, both of which have been the 360's strong point this generation.

Meanwhile, Nintendo is in a great position. Every Wii sold earns the company a profit, and the system has done better than just about anyone predicted. But can the company maintain that leadership with a 'gimmicky' console that's far less powerful than the competition? I suspect Nintendo will spend a little bit of time going over the company's fantastic success, and then I expect the presentation will move on to talk about a suite of upcoming games embracing new untapped markets. Nintendo has a system that reaches out to everyone; the company is definitely going to play that up. And of course we can't forget the Nintendo DS, which continues to fly off shelves.

Stay tuned for more E3 coverage all this week on FilePlanet and the IGN/GameSpy Network!

      -Fargo