E3's experimental move to Santa Monica last year cost the ESA $5 million after breaking its contract with the LA Convention Center. Kotaku obtained IRS documents showing that the contract's end and an expected drop in E3 revenue, due to the event's smaller size, caused the association to dramatically increase membership fees.

Kotaku speculates that the increase, as well as the decision to hold E3 in Santa Monica, may have been the reasons LucasArts and Activision/Vivendi jumped ship from the ESA. The ESA says membership dues were lower in the past because of income generated by E3, but revenues dropped significantly when the ESA board (made up of executives from publishers) moved the venue last year.

Not only was Santa Monica's E3 bad due to its invite-only policy (meaning publishers got to decide who came and who didn't), it was also horrible for journalists to cover -- not good for a "media and business summit." Thankfully, this year E3 will be back in one spot at the LA Convention Center. We're still waiting to hear what Activision/Vivendi has planned.

Though Bethesda has been exclusively linked to Fallout 3 as of late, the developer had also been working with Zombie Studios on a tactical shooter based on Dick Marcinko's Rogue Warrior book series. Now that we've jogged your memory, you should know that the game will not be on display at this year's E3 summit.

Speaking to FiringSquad, Bethesda's Vice President of PR and marketing Pete Hines said, "We aren't talking about RW until we're ready to show what we've been up to." Rogue Warrior, powered by the Unreal Engine 3, was originally scheduled for release this year on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Microsoft is reemploying their Bringing it Home campaign for this year's Min-E3. The campaign has previously been seen during last year's E3 and their X06 event in Barcelona, Spain.

As part of Bringing it Home, a barrage of content will be made available via Xbox Live, including their July 10 press conference, game trailers, themes, gamer pictures, demos and other video updates. Some of the games mentioned include Assassin's Creed, Bioshock, Blue Dragon and Project Gotham Racing 4. A partial list (expect surprises from the show) is available after the break.

[Via X3F]

When coupled in the same sentence, the words "Sony" and "E3" will forever resonate memories of their legendary 2006 press conference. A year has passed and while Sony has managed to shake off the giant enemy crabs, their PlayStation 3 is being trampled by larger entities: the competition. With a management shake-up and a few promising titles, it's time for Sony to come out swinging.

Last time on the guessing game, we said that Nintendo could have the most to lose coming out of E3 and you asked, "Well, who has the most to gain?" The answer is Sony, because, let's face it, the only way from here is up. Phil Harrison's GDC presentation ushered forth a feeling that change was in the air and that it was still, obviously, too early to count Sony out in the new arms race.

What's in store for Sony's presentation this year? Mum is the word but that hasn't stopped any and everyone from taking a few, well educated stabs in the dark. Will Metal Gear Solid 4 remain an exclusive? Will Sony open their conference with "Momma Said Knock You Out?" Saddle up, dear readers. It's time to venture forth towards rumorville.

In the second of our three part guessing game series, we take the current darling of the retail space, Nintendo, to the rumor mill and see what the buzz is regarding their E3 presentation. The Internet is spinning with everything from the probable to the wet dreams of fanboys, but like Microsoft, the crystal ball has never been fuzzier.

And while Nintendo has seen nothing but gains in these past few months, they could very well be walking into E3 with the most to lose. With publishers still wary of the hype train and a delicate bubble surrounding the success of the Wii, it's becoming more and more vital for Nintendo to prove they're more than just a fad. At the very least, Nintendo should be laying out their holiday season -- one that currently has more question marks than Matthew Lesko's closet.

We've changed up the format this time around in order to bring the focus more on existing rumors than the hopes and dreams of our circle, but it's the same, great tasting hype you've come to love from pre-E3 shenanigans. Dig in after the cut.

We thought we'd never live to care about another E3, but here we are, giddy as puppies with peanut butter to be preparing for our annual trip to Southern California. The corpse of E3 may be paraded about in Los Angeles as usual, but the big news has shifted to Santa Monica and boy are we without a clue.

Thankfully, so is the internet, as a smaller show means fewer people producing which results in fewer loose lips. Microsoft, aside from having the biggest title of the year, is something of an enigma this E3. We know of their lineup that includes heavy hitters like Mass Effect, Bioshock and Halo Wars, but what about those we haven't heard of in a while such as Alan Wake? Or games we haven't seen, but know exist like Marathon: Durandal?

Of course, when you don't know what to expect, making things up is always a great solution and the rumor mill has been working overtime. We've heard everything from the likely (Gears of War 2 trailer, Rare to show Banjo-Kazooie 3) to the totally absurd (Microsoft announces Power Stone 3, Phantom Dust 2).

Join us behind the cut for the first of three speculatory sessions this week as we attempt to ground ourselves in reality and think out loud about what we're hoping to see in Long Beach.

After punching out a rampaging E3 hopped up on sex, drugs and caffeine and sending it to conference rehab, the ESA is already preparing plans to welcome a more discreet and otherwise polite press gathering in 2007. The change has garnered much discussion, with one of the central points revolving around the kind of support the major industry players will provide to a significantly smaller event.

According to Gamesindustry.biz, Nintendo is the first of the major three platform holders to confirm involvement with next year's Min-E3, though the level of said involvement is still up in the air. A couple of Super Mario Galaxy posters on the wall of a barren hotel room would likely fail to generate the massive lines Nintendo enjoyed at the last E3, though it certainly would help alleviate the problem of getting trampled by an army of wand-waving nerds (always a plus).

Microsoft and Sony have been less decisive in their response, though it should only be a matter of time before they reveal intentions to join the officially dubbed "E3 Media Festival" or simply bulldoze the proceedings with conferences of their own.

[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

GameSpot is reporting that ESA president Douglas Lowenstein has confirmed that E3 2007 will now take place in July.

After the announcement of its downsizing, GameSpot contributes an anonymous analyst saying that the new E3 will "give publishers more time to polish their holiday releases. Publishers apparently weren't pleased at rushing their schedules to have late-year releases ready for the show each May."

Now the summer drought problem is solved thanks to the kinder, gentler E3.

According to Dean Takahashi's new book, The Xbox 360 Uncloaked, the Xbox 360's hardware team have been divided in two: half to work on reducing production costs for the Xbox 360, and the other half is at work on making a portable console (we've blogged about this before). The portable, we've learned, is meant to launch halfway through the life span of the Xbox 360, when sales usually start to decline due to announcements about next-generation home consoles (Xbox 720?).

Will we see any announcements at E3? Highly doubtful, but we would suspect an unveiling at E3 2007.

[update 1: fixed typo, time]