Gamers Daily News - Video Games : - - Story: Confirmed E3 Exhibitors Once Over 400, Now Just 33

Since the implosion of E3 last July, gamers have had a very large, very gaudy hole in the middle of our collective consciousnesses. Much like Alderaan, the unexpected annihilation of a complete gaming ecosystem has left a lot of questions hanging amongst the space dust. Foremost among these is the big question: "What will the new E3 look like?"

Today, we have a slightly clearer image of this emergent beast, thanks to a confirmed list of E3 attendees which has recently started circulating around members of the gaming press. Surprise! The new slimmed-down E3 is looking a lot less like a crazy house party and much more like a quiet evening at home with The Sopranos. E3’s list of exhibitors -- which last year numbered over 400 -- has been scaled back to a select handful of 33, big players all.

Here’s the complete rogues gallery:

1C Company, Activision, Akella, Atari, Atlus, Bethesda Softworks, Disney Interactive Studios, Capcom, Codemasters, Crave Entertainment, Eidos, Electronic Arts, Konami, LucasArts, Majesco, Microsoft, Midway, Namco Bandai Games, NCsoft, Nintendo, Sega, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Online Entertainment, Square Enix, Take-Two Interactive, THQ, Ubisoft, Vivendi Games, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

That’s it. A few big players are among the surprisingly absent -- notably Blizzard Entertainment and NVIDIA.

If you’re wondering where the indie developers are, you’re not alone. In the past E3 had played host to a veritable termite mound of small-developer talent, but today only two -- iD software and Foundation 9 -- remain. This is a shame, since it was previously hoped that the event’s paring would help shine a brighter spotlight on promising up-and-coming studio talent. Attendance of the expo has also been proportionally scaled back to match the event’s new scope. This year’s guest list numbers under 4,000 attendees... contrast that to the 60,000 journalists, fanboys and bloggers who lounged poolside in ’06.

The whole affair is going to be taking place in a single location (Santa Monica’s Barker Hanger) as well as a few outlying demos and presentations of the sort commonly put on by studios at their local hotels. Whether this narrow scope and reduced craziness will ultimately prove for more intimate gaming coverage remains to be seen. One thing’s for sure, though: without the booth babes, hordes of great unwashed, and an entire pavilion devoted to crazy Asian paraphernalia, it’s certainly not your dad’s E3. July 11-13 is the date. We’ll keep you covered from the front lines -- subdued as they may be.