E3 2007 Exhibitors Revealed (Updated)

April 23, 2007 1:05 AM

A list of publishers and developers currently slated to attend this July's E3 Media & Business Summit in Santa Monica has been made available to press registered for the event. The news follows months of speculation among gamers and members of the games industry regarding how many companies would be attending the newly slimmed down trade show. Said NIS America president Haru Akenaga last month, "We have almost no chance to join the big E3, because we are too small," echoing the fears of some that smaller publishers and developers would be locked out of the event. Indeed, the trimmed down exhibitor list consists mainly of major publishers and the three major platform holders, though there are a few independent developers, niche publishers, and peripheral manufacturers as well. The site refers to the exhibitor list, current as of March 30, as a "complete listing of Participating Companies," implying that there may be no further participants added in the runup to the event.

Participating publishers are 1C Company, Activision, Akella, Atari, Atlus, Bethesda Softworks, Buena Vista Games (now Disney Interactive Studios), Capcom, Codemasters, Crave Entertainment, Eidos, Electronic Arts, 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 Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

The only independent developer exhibitors are Foundation 9 Entertainment and id Software. Accessory manufacturers Logitech and Nyko Technologies are also set to attend. This year's exhibitor lists contains 32 (update: 33) companies; by contrast, last year's exceeded 400.

Despite the low count of independent developers and niche publishers listed as exhibitors, the E3 Media & Business Summit will host the Indie Games Showcase, featuring titles ranging from commercially produced independent games to student projects. Indie Games Showcase will include contributions from the first IndieCade festival, to be held later this year and intended to promote and support the independent game development community.

E3 Summit will consist of an exhibit hall in Santa Monica's Barker Hanger as well as company-run demonstrations in nearby hotel suites. Third party press conferences will be held in a common location, while platform holder press conferences will, as in past years, be entirely hosted by the three manufacturers themselves. No press conferences have yet been announced. Attendeeds to this year's invitation-only event are expected to number 3000-4000 in total, a mere fraction of 2006's 60,000 or 2005's 70,000. The event will be held on July 11-13, 2007.

Update: Developer and publisher Bethesda Softworks has contacted Shacknews, stating that it too will be attending this year's E3 Summit despite its current lack of inclusion on the exhibitor list.

Update: Further contact from Bethesda suggests that the omission of the company on the E3 exhibitor list was merely an error on the part of the Electronic Software Association in compiling the participating companies.