Expect this year's media coverage to be more about the games and the gear and less about the Expo itself.

E3 has trimmed its fat, and I don't just mean some of the booth babes.

This year's E3 will admit only media and business partners, no longer allowing all the tiny stores and other people who finagle their way through the doors. That will essentially reduce attendance from more than 60,000 to less than 4,000. To prove how much leaner and less extravagant it can be, Entertainment Software Association (ESA) even changed the name from the "Electronic Entertainment Expo" (E3), to "E3 Media and Business Summit," driving home the refocused event.

It's really not that much of a coup, simply devolving the Expo back to its original intention: letting game companies gather to drink and conduct face-to-face business and alerting the media about all the great and wonderful videogames and gaming products being release in the next year (or so). By putting the focus on the news and not the hotties, huge monitors, thumping sound systems and multimillion dollar booths, expect this year's media coverage to be more about the games and the gear and less about the Expo itself.

As for the business side of things, expect those announcements to trickle to media outlets the weeks following E3. After all, companies don't want to prematurely shoot their wads and then discover they were going to make some ugly babies.

As for what to expect from this year's liposuctioned Expo, all the major players are still scheduled to attend, already contacting media and filling schedule books. Here's some the groovy news we expect - and hope - will be revealed.

Covering Our Asses:

Remember, this is all speculation. Even after contacting various game companies prior to E3, they've all remained rather tight lipped and nothing is actually confirmed. Even the lists of games provided by the companies are assumed to be incomplete.

Big Three Part 1: Microsoft
Press Conference: 8:30 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Microsoft has already offered a few looks into it's E3 offerings this year. Bungie's Halo 3, of course, will be the big Xbox system release with one or two video clips of highly rendered gameplay likely shown ad nauseam. In fact, this might very well overshadow all other Microsoft announcements unless they can pull a games system out of their pockets. Literally.

If the oft rumored Microsoft handheld system (at one time called Origami) makes any kind of appearance - non-working prototype, 3D render or even an artist's sketch - in a year free of new console releases, it would completely eclipse anything else that might be announced by any other company. The chances of that announcement this year, however, are slimmer than the thinnest iPod. The Zune media player has pretty much taken over Microsoft's handheld concerns for the foreseeable future.

Other big game names like FPS Bioshock by Irrational Games and Tom Clancy's End War have already been teased with trailers on Xbox Live, while Pandemic Studios' and LucasArts' Mercenaries 2: World in Flames and IO-Interactive's Kane and Lynch: Dead Men will wait until E3 to be more fully exposed.