Preliminary E for All Expo Details Revealed; Sony, Nintendo to Attend

With the E3 Expo shrinking down to a significantly less ostentatious affair this year, GamePro magazine publisher IDG last year announced its intention to launch its own annual industry showcase event. In January, the name of the show was revealed to be the E for All Expo; it will run October 18-20 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, former home of E3. Today, Gamasutra published initial details of the event, gleaned from a March 6 exhibitor list obtained by the site. E for All is a consumer event, unlike the theoretically industry- and press-only E3 trade show. Also unlike E3, the show is expected to showcase a large number of already-released titles. It remains unclear how much the show will prove to be conducive towards major announcements, given its public nature and close proximity to the holiday season, by which time publishers traditionally have already released their major news in preparation for the several months of high sales volume at the end of the year. Still, Gamasutra reports that platform holders Sony and Nintendo will maintain a presence at E for All, along with organizations such as IDG, Future Publishing, G4/TechTV, DirecTV, and the World Series of Video Games Tournament. Major exhibitors are likely to have smaller booths than they maintained at the massive E3, as E for All occupies only one of the convention center's halls. There are also more stringent restrictions placed on exhibitor noise levels and display of sexual materials and models, both of which the Entertainment Software Association attempted to limit at E3 in recent years as the event grew steadily more circus-like. Though Gamasutra's sources did not reveal registration or pricing information for E for All, the site expects further details to be released in the coming weeks.