Ensemble Studios' Bruce Shelley says that "several demo stations" of Halo Wars will be available at E3. This is generally considered good news, because it means Halo Wars has gotten to the point where it's no longer held in captivity by the developers who don't want anybody to touch a thing. It also eases our fears of further delays following Ensemble's "when it's done" quote from last month.

We will certainly have hands-on impressions of the game at E3 and with luck, we'll be able to nail down a more solid release window. We keep hope alive that Halo Wars, built from the ground up for the Xbox 360, could finally figure out the RTS genre for consoles.

[Via X3F]

Did you hear Alan Wake was confirmed to be shown at E3? How about Kid Icarus Wii? Half-Life 2 Episode 3? Doom 4? All these games have been listed on E3.net under the E3 Games tab. There's just one problem ... E3.net isn't the official E3 page. (If you're curious, here's the official site.)

Take note of the top banner, the bottom collection of links and all the latest news posts: yep, it's an UGO site. We've put in a call to their PR to see if there's any affiliation with the media summit, but that said, we doubt Microsoft, Nintendo, Valve or id Software would ever let these high-profile games be revealed so unceremoniously. Chalk this up as wishful thinking in the meantime.

Marc Franklin, director of public relations at Nintendo, tells GamePro that "core gamers" will be interested in what the company has in store for E3. Although Franklin mentions Mario Super Sluggers (we can sense Europe going into fever pitch!), he gives very little detail on what else the company has planned.

There's been plenty of speculation about what Nintendo may reveal, but Franklin's comments come as Nintendo's more casual oriented Wii Fit storms the sales charts and a certain executive takes a jab at the Nintendo faithful. Franklin concludes that third-party publishers are rolling out more titles as they realize the "Wii is the current platform of choice in this generation." True, but these rollouts don't always equal payoffs. We're looking at you, Boom Blox.

The worker bees at IGN have been busy, buzzing about and gathering lists from some of the major E3 presenters of what's going to be on display in July. Of course, we're sure the powers-that-be have scrubbed these lists clean of any potential product spoilers (if you squint just so, you can barely make out Night Trap 2 ... or is that just us?), but we did want to share a few of the things that popped out:

• Two untitled Capcom projects that weren't shown off at their recent CAPtivate event (Dead Rising 2 perhaps?)
  
• Bionic Commando Rearmed: Considering E3's mid-July schedule, and the game's since-lapsed May release target, does this mean Rearmed isn't making a June release either? [Update: A Capcom rep told us the game would definitely be released "post-E3."]
  
• Halo Wars is there, but Alan Wake is still missing from Microsoft's lineup. Unless they're still playing it close to the vest, 2009 then? [Update: A Microsoft rep told us, "We're still finalizing our E3 plans, so we can't comment quite yet."]
  

Of course, the list is still incomplete; we're missing games from Atari, Codemasters, Crave, Disney, Eidos, Konami, LucasArts, MTV, Nintendo, Sega, Sony Online, Square-Enix, Take-Two, Tecmo, THQ, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. Interactive. So, yeah ... we're missing lists from just about everyone. It ain't far away now though.

The ESA today released an up-to-date list of 2008 E3 Media and Business Summit exhibitors and confirmed through early RSVPs that attendance will reach an expected 4,000 visitors. "Clearly companies and attendees value what the E3 Summit offers that nobody else can," ESA CEO Michael D. Gallagher said in a statement that reads less like a pat on the back and more like a defense against cascading doubts posed by Activision's decision to withdraw from the event and discontinue its membership with the organization.

As previously reported and reestablished today, NCsoft, Foundation 9 and Atlus will also skip the trip -- and id Software is still absent from the list. However, LucasArts continues to remain present, despite declining to renew its ESA membership. The complete list of "who's in" is posted after the break.

The ESA announced this morning that Texas Governor Rick Perry will give the keynote at this year's E3. OK kids, remember that E3 is a business and media summit before flipping out and asking why the governor of Texas is keynoting the event. Texas actually has a large development community (particularly in the MMO space) and even supports the industry with financial incentives.

The ESA says Perry's "forward-thinking leadership" is a roadmap for other states on how to welcome the video game industry. As a side note, Perry also defeated an anti-gaming gubernatorial candidate during the last election who sought to place a 50% tax on violent video games. It'll be interesting to see if Perry's keynote is pure business or if it addresses some of the other issues going like publishers leaving the ESA or the national game law ID bill.

With a number of names skipping out on this summer's E3, not to mention heavyweights Activision and Vivendi Games disavowing themselves of the ESA altogether, Gamecock sent word that its Grand Poobah Mike Wilson plans to step in to "right the ship" by announcing his candidacy for president of the Entertainment Software Association. The news, which was sent our way by Gamecock this weekend, included notice that the former GodGames co-founder plans to run on a platform of "bringing the fun back to the gaming industry."

While details remain light, the exec expects to announce more of his plans in the weeks leading up E3 (an event we all donned black to help Gamecock bury last year). The re-imagined conference will take place the week of July 15, during which both Wilson and Gamecock proper will run a campaign headquarters at L.A.'s Hotel Figueroa.

According to Gamecock, the location will be open to anyone and everyone in the public to drop in and play games -- no invitation necessary. We're on the fence as to if we're supposed to take this announcement seriously, or if this is just another grab for attention by the indie publisher, though either way Gamecock's track record promises that the end result will be strange.

[Via press release]

Last year's smaller and considerably more inconvenient E3 marked quite a dramatic change from the glitz and glare we had grown accustomed to. Gone was the inescapable nexus of pulsating lights and the deafening roar of booths competing to be the loudest, instead replaced by warmly lit hotel rooms and, of course, tastefully dressed women. No wonder Tecmo didn't bother to show up.

Jokes aside, the publisher has confirmed to Joystiq that it will be attending the E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles this July, though it's unclear which games will be shown off. With Microsoft-published Ninja Gaiden II out of the way in June, we'll likely see more of Tecmo Bowl Kickoff, Rygar: The Battle of Argus and possibly some game about ninja babes slapping each other on the beach.

Last week laid the groundwork for what promises to be at the very least a confusing E3, with a number of familiar faces jumping ship in favor of the uncertain waters below. However, the news of who would and would not be attending the show this July got a bit hazy with regards to talk of developer id Software, with conflicting reports painting the Doom masterminds as both planning to attend and turning their backs on the annual event.

Rather than seek the wisdom of the office Magic 8-Ball, we turned to id co-owner and CEO Todd Hollenshead, who conceded uncertainty with regards to the company's E3 plans. Admitted the exec in an email: "Actually, we haven't determined in what capacity we'll be attending E3 (if any), so everyone is wrong." Interestingly, his response echoed that of our own prognosticating orb, which replied simply "Reply hazy, try again."

The E3 2008 confusion continues. Following the soon-to-be merged Activison and Vivendi Games' departure from the Entertainment Software Association and its E3 press event, we got to wondering who else might not be showing up for the annual game industry showing. The list of attendees on the (password-protected) E3 site leaves out some pretty big names, including MMO-publisher NCsoft who tells Joystiq that, though it's been an ESA member since last year, it will not be attending E3 this year because the timing of the event didn't work out for their upcoming releases. Gamespot reports that Foundation 9 won't be attending, stating, "We just didn't feel like we got enough out of the investment last year in order to justify the expense this year." Atlus also confirmed to Joystiq that, despite attending last year's summit, it too would be skipping out on E3 2008.

Gamespot confirms that other names missing from the list – Bethesda, id Software, Majesco, and D3Publisher – still plan on attending. Kotaku claims that id Software is not attending despite Gamespot's story to the contrary. We've contacted id for clarification. They also assert that Her Interactive (best known for their popular Nancy Drew games) won't be attending, though the publisher didn't attend E3 last year either. We reached out to peripheral manufacturer Nyko who said that, though they aren't listed on the official site, they will nevertheless be attending.

As for a specific reason for the absences, outside of timing and exposure, Kotaku cites several unnamed sources who pin the blame straight on current ESA pres Michael Gallagher's well-tailored lapel. Is Gallagher out of touch with the video game industry?

[Update 4:58pm: Added Atlus and Nyko details.]


Read – Activision/Vivendi leave ESA, skip E3
Read – Five Publishers Drop Out of E3 This Year, Some Blame ESA President
Read – NCsoft, Foundation 9 bypass E3 '08

The ESA has found a familiar home for the 2008 E3 Media & Business Summit: the Los Angeles Convention Center. The reunion of super structure and trade show follows an ill-considered retreat to Santa Monica, which played host to a mind-bending E3 this year – how can one thing be scaled way down, yet spread so far apart? But the reestablishment of a centralized location for the event doesn't mean a resurrection of old ways. E3 2008 will retain the 'intimate' structure of this year's gathering (in other words, the ban on GameStop regional managers and booth babes is still in effect). The emphasis will be on "press events and small meetings with media, development, and other key sectors," confirmed the ESA in a statement today. So, the new formula: (confusion/distance) + (disorganization*cell phone bill) - shuttle buses = E3 2008.

E3 is scheduled for July 15-17, 2008, and, like last year, attendance will be by invitation only.

If you've already read the Joystiq E3 2007 Awards (you have read them, right?), you already know we picked Rock Band as Best in Show. Now, the winners of the 2007 Game Critics Awards have been announced and, whaddya know, Rock Band takes the title of winningest game with three awards, including Best in Show!

Second place goes to Bioware's Mass Effect, winning Best Console Game and Best RPG. Some more fun stats: Xbox 360 is the winningest platform, with 11 wins, while Electronic Arts is the winningest publisher, with 6 wins (remember, three are for Rock Band!). Bringing up the rear, surprisingly: Nintendo.

We're just going to say the editing by GameTrailers was done to spare you. We've shown you the face of a man after the Disney press conference, we even gave the thing an award for being so fantastically painful. Is it as bad as the Jamie Kennedy performance at the Activision press conference? Well, it's a different type of pain. Instead of feeling bad for the man on stage making a fool of himself, in this case you have to feel for the audience who definitely didn't sign up for what was incoming. Watch, enjoy, and remember that this is supposed to be a press conference -- not the halftime show at some Six Flags concert.

We haven't fully recovered from E3 2007 just yet, but in the final stages (there's 12, naturally) of recovery, we're told it's only proper to hand out awards for the best (and sometimes the worst) of what we saw in Santa Monica.

The nominations for this year's Game Critics Awards were given out on Monday and, next Monday, we'll learn who the final winners are in categories such as Best of Show and Best Original Game. For our first Joystiq E3 Awards, we've borrowed those two categories and made a bunch of our own.

So what did we like the most? Assassin's Creed, Metroid Prime 3, My Word Coach? Those were all great, but one title stood above the rest. The answers you seek lie after the break. Disclaimer: Any comments regarding Harry Potter were made prior to the release of the book and therefore do not necessarily reflect what happens in the book.

At E3, we had a chance to talk to SCEA Senior Vice President Philip Rosenberg and John Koller, Senior Marketing Manager of the PSP. We talked to these two Sony executives to find out more about Home, possible PSP integration with Home, the redesign, and more.

The press conference was narrated through Home. Why does Sony believe Home is such an important part of the PlayStation family?

Phil: That's a great question. Home for us is a way to engage all of our users in real community, but in a real 3D manner that gives them a place to meet and to share their successes or their failures and then jump into gameplay. It creates an opportunity for us to help engage them even more in our platforms. I think when you look at the interface -- like how a PSP pops up in Home -- our whole proposition is around the ecosystem of PlayStation. It's not just about one platform. If you're in the house, or away from the house -- no matter where you are, you can stay connected with your peers.