Last year, the Entertainment Software Association announced plans to severely reduce its annual game tradeshow E3. Usually catering to tens of thousands of people, the newly branded E3 will now only cater to a few thousand in a private event. Today, the list of game companies that’ll appear at E3 2007 has been revealed, which is certainly smaller when compared to last year’s E3 2006.
In attendance: 1C Company, Activision, Akella, Atari, Atlus, Capcom, Codemasters, Crave Entertainment, Disney Interactive Studios, Eidos, Electronic Arts, Foundation 9 Entertainment, id Software, Konami, LucasArts, Majesco, Microsoft, Midway, Namco Bandai Games, NCSoft, Nintendo, Sega, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Online Entertainment, Square Enix, Take-Two Interactive, THQ, Ubisoft, Vivendi Games, and Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment
The list is not 100% complete, as a follow-up report noted that Bethesda Softworks would be attending E3 despite not being on the above list. Dreamcatcher may be attending, too, but it’s not officially decided yet. Past notable game companies who won’t be attending include CDV, Webzen, and D3Publishing. The only two independent companies that’ll appear at E3 are Foundation 9 (which claims to be the largest independent developer in the world) and id Software. In addition, the only two non-gaming companies are accessory makers Logitech and Nyko. In a surprise, PC hardware developers AMD or NVIDIA are not on the list, despite appearing numerous times in the past.
E3 2007 will take place in seven Santa Monica hotels in California from July 11-13. Other planned events include a software showcase, an indie games showcase and a serious games showcase in nearby Barker Hangar. The three major console game companies, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, are expected to hold their own E3 press conferences elsewhere in LA during E3.
