Returning for its seventh year, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) promises a sneak-peak at all of the coolest new gadgets and games poised to take the interactive entertainment industry—and the general public—by storm. From May 22 through 24, the Los Angeles Convention Center will be awash in over 1,000 product debuts from over 450 vendors offering wares such as entertainment and edutainment software; game consoles; Internet products, services and content; and special-interest software.

In the spotlight are new video games for the Sony PlayStation 2, the Microsoft Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube. "E3Expo sets the stage for hot products to be launched for the upcoming holiday season," said Carolyn Rauch, senior vice president of the Interactive Digital Software Association (the industry trade group that owns E3.) "In fact this year's exhibitors told us that about 75 percent of the products they'll showcase are expected to be on store shelves for the 2002 holiday season."

Show floor space is up 13 percent from last year as the interactive entertainment industry shakes off the grim spector of the flat tech sector. "History tells us that during economic hard times, entertainment is a haven for people, and one of the least affected sectors," says Rauch.

Video games seem to be where people are taking shelter. "Overall, we see continued strong growth over the next 3 to 4 years as the new consoles continue to push into tens of millions of American households, said Rauch. "With some estimating that 70 percent of American homes will own a video game machine by 2005, software sales could more than double from the current $6.35 billion level to $12 billion or more in that time frame."

Besides great new video games, E3 will have celebrities galore: NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr, Carmen Electra, skateboarder Tony Hawk, WWF Superstars Rob Van Dam and Stacey Kiebler, the Laker Girls, and Mr. T.

E3 doesn't have keynote speakers in the traditional sense, but the conference program includes more than 125 industry leaders, including LucasArts' Hal Barwood; Richard Garriott, formerly of Origin Systems, now with NCsoft and creator of the Ultima series; Oddworld cofounder Lorne Lanning; American McGee, designer of Alice, and now with his own company, Carbon 6; Peter Molyneux of Lionhead Studios; Crash Bandicoot designer Jason Rubin; Age of Empires' Bruce Shelley; Deus Ex designer Warren Spector; Alex St. John of Wild Tangent; Sega's legendary game maker Yu Suzuki; and The Sims creator Will Wright. The speakers are arranged into four tracks: Life Online: Cracking the Code; Business Strategies to Build On; Game Development: Strategies and Trends; and New Trends/Future Trends.

Last year's show drew 62,000 interactive-entertainment professionals from more than 70 countries. Declining to predict attendance totals, show planners quote strong pre-registration numbers for this year.

Ziff Davis Media's Game Group is a sponsor of E3Expo. PC Magazine is part of Ziff Davis Media. Trade partners include Animation Magazine, Gaming Industry News, GIGnews.com, and Variety, among others.

Visit PCMag.com throughout the week for continuing coverage of the show at www.pcmag.com/e3.

Copyright © 2002 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in PC Magazine.