Call them "booth babes", "booth models", "performers" or even "sexist", the fact is that in the past the Electronic Entertainment Expo has featured a large number of actors and models, mostly from the Los Angeles area, who have been hired to walk around the show floor or hang at specific exhibits to help companies promote their products at the video/PC game event. A few of the models have gone on to do much more higher profile work over the years.

When E3's owners, the Entertainment Software Association, decided to go for an invite-only conference meeting version of the show in 2007 and 2008, it seemed like the era of the E3 booth model was over. However with this week's announcement that E3 was returning to a larger event, the biggest question was, "Will booth babes return?" At the moment the answer seems to be that the ESA won't disallow models from the show floor but its ultimately up to the exhibitors to decide whether or not they will bring them to E3 2009.

Today we will look back at E3 over the years and highlight some of the trends in terms of booth model use at the show. Will we see these kinds of images next year at the show? It's still up in the air.

[Above photo credit: Firingsquad.com]

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