The Entertainment Software Association announced today that the 2007 E3Expo would represent an "evolution" in the annual event, making it more "intimate" and focussing it on "targeted, personalized meetings and activities", instead of setting it up as the traditional large trade show environment.
The ESA says that regional events like the Tokyo Game Show and the Games Convention in Leipzig have lessened the need for a "mega-show". The "evolved" event is to be held in July and renamed the "E3 Media Festival", with a reduction in attendance from 60,000 to 5,000, and held in conference rooms in hotels around the city of Los Angeles rather than at a convention center like the LACC.
The E3Expo was originally formed in 1995 by the then-named Interactive Digital Software Association, or IDSA. (The IDSA became the ESA in 2003.) Crack N-Sider historian Glen Bayer has traced the roots of the expo as well as written about several of the show's highlights over the years in his annually updated piece The History of E3.