e3-09 posts

We're one week away from the industry's biggest event, and Big Download wants to play prediction bingo! For our second annual E3 Expo bingo cards, we've compiled what we think might happen at this year's big show. E3 2009 begins on June 2 and Big Download will be there in full force to cover every morsel of PC gaming goodness.

Make sure to click on each prediction square above to learn more about what we think might happen at this year's event. If we can strike Bingo! that means E3 '09 was one helluva PC showcase. Have your own predictions? Let us know in the comments.

Download the card (PNG file) and play along!

In just three weeks, the single biggest game event in the US will launch once again. The Los Angeles Convention Center will be the nexus of the game industry world as the 2009 edition of the Electronic Entertainment Expo is held the week of June 1. After two years of an E3 that was small and invite only, the show's return to a larger trade show format is certain to be covered far more extensively by both gamers and mainstream media.

Big Download will be attending the show in full force and leading up to E3 we will be posting up our most anticipated games that we would like to see at the expo this year. However, some of you might not be familiar with E3 at all. To that end we have got a quick little feature that gives you the 411 on the show and what you can expect from this year's expo. Which companies are attending and what major publishers are sitting it out? Is E3 even needed anymore? And the biggest question of all: Will booth babes make a return to this year's show?

Click on the image to read more of A Primer for E3 2009

If you happen to be one of the 40,000 people projected to attend this year's revamped E3 event, you will be able to rest and relax yourself at the Bullseye Lounge. No, it won't have a mechanical bull but it is being sponsored by big retailer Target.

Not only will the Bullseye Lounge let people chill out in between walks around the Los Angeles Convention Center they can also have some snacks provided by Target's Archer Farms food brand. The press release also states that the lounge will have on display "a few of 2009's hottest video game titles from some of its biggest publishing partners." Specific games and publishers have not been revealed.

With just three weeks to go before the launch of the revamped E3 event, one of the game industry's bigger publishers is pulling out of exhibiting at the trade show. According to a statement from an Atari PR rep that was sent to our sister site Joystiq, "Atari has made the proactive decision to attend but not exhibit at this year's E3 event. Although we feel E3 benefits the entire games business, we are very focused around other selling and marketing initiatives for our upcoming Ghostbusters, Champions Online and other to be announced titles."

Atari is still listed as exhibiting at E3 2009 at the event's web site, both in a meeting room and in one of the larger exhibit halls at the Los Angeles Convention Center so this decision seems like something made at the last minute. When contacted by Big Download, Atari's PR rep would not comment on this sudden decision to pull out of exhibiting at the show, referring only to their official statement. They did say they did not have plans for any press events in the LA area during E3.

They have been giving hints about this title for some time but in just a few weeks developer Splash Damage and publisher Bethesda Softworks will finally reveal the first details on their new collaboration at E3 2009 in early June. The collaboration was first announced a year ago.

In a chat with Gamesindustry.biz, Bethesda Softworks' European managing director Sean Brennan stated, "We're not announcing the name yet, but it's a first-person shooter. That's a product that we believe is a genre-breaker, it's a real killer app." He added, "We've kept it under lock and key, there are so many innovative features in there we don't want to reveal them too soon." Splash Damage has been on a major recruiting drive for their game, bringing in talent from BioWare, Ubisoft, Criterion Games, Lionhead and other developers.

If you are like us (and that's a stretch, we know) you never miss watching an episode of The Soup. The clip show showing the week's high-and-low lights from pop culture is easily the best thing on the otherwise horrible E! cable TV network. A big part of its appeal is its host Joel McHale who has a super-sarcastic delivery that fits right in with The Soup's take no prisoners attitude (but in a nice way).

So we were ecstatic to hear that McHale will be the emcee for Ubisoft's pre-E3 press conference on June 1. The event will show off a number of the game publisher's upcoming titles including Assassin's Creed 2 and reveal some unannounced games for the first time. But the truth is we are going because we want to see McHale pretend to shoot someone; that always gets us laughing. If you can't get invited to attend, Ubisoft will show the press conference on their web site the next morning.

As we get closer and closer to the launch of the revamped E3 show in early June, publishers are starting to release some hints as to what they will be showing at the LA Convention Center. Capcom's blog site has posted up a list of the game they will be showing at the event, including Dark Void, Lost Planet 2, and (behind closed doors) Dead Rising 2. PC ports of Bionic Commando and Street Fighter IV will also be shown and Capcom plans to announced two more games at E3 (one of which will be playable at their booth)

Meanwhile Paradox Interactive has announced that it will be showing three games at their E3 exhibit space; the fantasy sim game Majesty 2, the strategy title Hearts of Iron III and the historical strategy-sim title East India Company. In addition Paradox will reveal more info on upcoming projects at the show.

While E3 2009 may be a return of sorts to the larger and louder trade shows of the past, that doesn't mean that it's organizers, the Entertainment Software Association, don't care about helping others out. In a new press release this week the ESA has announced a number of charitable efforts that will be run during E3 2009 in early June.

One is a way for folks to submit designs for the official E3 2009 T-shirt which will be sold during the expo. Anyone can submit their designs by May 14 and the winner will have their creation made into the shirt for all of us journalists to buy as a memento of our trip. A portion of the t-shirt sales will go to the Los Angeles-based homeless services organization the The Midnight Mission.

E3 2009 will also hold a blood drive during the event on June 4 run by the American Red Cross. You can register for the drive by going to the http://www.givelife.org web site and entering the code E3. Finally the show will host a "Pro vs. GI Joe" gaming tournament where pro athletes and celebs will battle against military personnel. Attendees can also send what they are calling a "video challenge to the troops" during E3 which will be seen by military troops around the world.

Well, it's certainly about time. After years of press releases and hints, the MMO game developer Trion World Network has finally announced that it will reveal its first game at next month's E3 event. They even gave us the name of the game in today's press release: Heroes of Telara,

Details about the game are still pretty vague with the press release saying that " . . . Heroes of Telara will feature an unprecedented level of rich and dynamic gameplay, driven by recurring events, unexpected challenges and limitless new content." This sounds like the same game that was being directed by Trion World Network founder Jon Van Caneghem. However he has since left the company under a cloud of . . . something so it will be interesting to see how Trion spins this game at E3. The company is also working on an MMO in collaboration with the Sci-Fi Channel (soon to be SyFy . . . ugh) and just announced plans to work with third party developer Petroglyph on an unnnamed MMORTS game.