• BBC News, Monday, July 9, 2007 12:53 PM

The video game world is getting ready for the annual E3 (electronics entertainment expo) show in Los Angeles, which for years has been the industry's main promotional event. The tone is decidedly lower-key than in previous years, as organizers scale back the number of invitations and sponsorships it doles out. And the general public is no longer allowed. Is E3 is becoming a more exclusive or less important event for the video game industry?

"The new E3 is a very provincial event," says Rob Fahey, editor of the popular industry site gamesindustry.biz. It's ironic that as the new Web-fueled video game world expands into a more global, interactive community, the industry's most important show should become something smaller and more exclusive--it's very anti-Web 2.0. "Formerly, E3 was the world's games trade show -- now it's very distinctly North America's games trade show."

And it's not just the public that's getting squeezed out, it's budding video companies and software developers that can't afford to buy space on the trade show floor. Indeed, bigger players like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are taking a lesson from Apple CEO Steve Jobs' playbook, moving marketing dollars to their own private events.

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