Arriving like an obituary for the thoroughly
deceased E3 of yore, the exhibitor list for the
E3 Media and Business Summit 2007 (or Min-E3, if you prefer) provides an interesting glimpse of the event's new format. The list,
as unfurled by Chris Remo of Shacknews, represents the exact opposite of E3 in many ways. It's short, manageable and entirely devoid of
scantily-clad ladies. And we just lost half the readers with that last link, didn't we?
For those that use tabbed browsing: Remo observes that the list has gone from bursting with over 400 exhibitors last year, to containing a mere 33 this year. Of those, two are independent developers (
id Software and
Foundation 9 Entertainment) and two are peripheral manufacturers (
Nyko Technologies and
Logitech). Despite the list being primarily filled with major publishers, the event will also host the
IndieCade festival, an independent games showcase.
While July's Min-E3 represents a welcome departure from the lax
entry requirements and inhibitive masses of E3, its reduction to a series of meetings with a focused group of publishers still seems tragically dull when compared to the glitz and
clamor of previous spectacles. It's clear that smaller industry groups aren't well represented either, but then, there's only so much room in an
aircraft hangar. The full list of exhibitors can be found in the second part of the post.
