According to reports (translated, possibly misunderstood, clearly speculative reports), come this year's E3, Nintendo could be rolling out a brand-spanking-new DS -- most likely very unlike the one pictured above. If you follow the text in a Bloomberg Japan article, Famicom magazine publisher Hirokazu Hamamura says that the timing of E3 would fall right in line with the two-year stagger the Big N has applied to other handheld releases. Of course, Nintendo is saying "no comment," though we find that's usually the last thing they say before introducing the Wii, Game Boy, N64, Harry Potter Wand, or Ultimate Doomsday Device.

[Via Joystiq; Image courtesy Kris/Rakka]

At E3 earlier this month, Saitek demoed a peripheral sure to spark the interest of many a flight sim enthusiast. Their product, for now with no name, enables flight simulators to display different, customizable information from the "game" on three separate LCDs. Effectively, the displays emulate a real cockpit, where each bit of information comes from a separate module that is integrated into the dash. The device is scheduled for a fall launch, will cost only $99.99, and will be supported in several flight sims beyond the obvious Flight Simulator X -- we're crossing our fingers for X-Plane support.

Microsoft

• Engadget & Joystiq interview: Peter Moore, head of Xbox
• Microsoft plans on slashing 360 to "mass market price point"
• Microsoft announces Halo 3 Special Edition Console
• Microsoft shipping Xbox 360 Elite in Europe on August 24th
• Microsoft shows off new Xbox 360 controller for casual gamers
• Engadget & Joystiq live from Microsoft's E3 2007 keynote

Nintendo

• Wii Zapper hands-on
• Wii Balance Board hands-on, er, feet-on
• Joystiq tries out Wii Fit and Wii Balance Board
• Billet's aluminum Wii steering wheel hits the road
• Nintendo Wii Balance Board gets you stepping in upcoming Wii Fit title
• Nintendo packing Wii Wheel with Mario Kart for Wii
• Nintendo Wii Zapper announced
• Wii's Guitar Hero III Les Paul unearthed
• Engadget & Joystiq live from Nintendo's E3 2007 keynote

Sony

• PSP lite approved by the FCC as the "PSP-2001"
• Sony says $499 60GB PS3 is staying alive (alive!) in US
• Sony BMG suing creators of MediaMax DRM for $12M
• Engadget & Joystiq interview: Kaz Hirai and Jack Tretton, Presidents, Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc., and America
• 60GB PS3 disappearing soon, no price cut for Europe
• PS3 to get another price cut by year's end?
• Sony's thinner, lighter PSP first hands-on
• Sony's new PSP is slimmer, includes video output
• PAL markets to see PS3 price drop on July 12th?
• Engadget & Joystiq live from Sony's E3 2007 keynote

E3

• What the hell happened to E3?
• Engadget crashes the Joystiq Reader Meetup tonight in Santa Monica
• Engadget's E3 coverage kicks off tonight!
• 2007 E3 attendee list lookin' bleak
• E for All Expo takes the reigns, stays in Los Angeles
• E3 to be reborn as GamePro Expo

Dear ESA,

We've been down in SoCal for E3 since Tuesday, and now that the show is all closed up and the 3,000 industry pros and journalists invited to attend are heading home, we can only ask ourselves one thing: what the hell happened to E3? We knew full well coming into this thing that the mammoth, gonzo interactive entertainment spectacle of years past may have been lost to the ages, but the hollow husk of a show you guys replaced it with is drab, depressing, and generally disorganized. In short, we're totally bummed.

E3 used to be our favorite week of the year -- the trade show nerds dreamt of attending. You knew it was E3 season as GameStop and EB clerks the nation over began to claw tooth and nail for even the slightest chance at getting a pass to a show which has since been reduced to four rows of HDTVs in a janky hangar, and what amounts to a shuttle bus tour of Santa Monica's five-star hotels (where exhibiting companies set up shop). It was kind of like seeing a band 20 years past its prime -- it's somehow capable of making you wonder what you ever saw in them in the first place.

So you tell us, were the cost cutting measures that led to the show's meltdown worth it? Because as far as we're concerned, something is really wrong when G4TV has a vastly larger floor show presence than Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft combined. For an industry that's larger and more powerful than ever, we can't understand how last year's line to play the Wii managed to be larger than the entire 2007 show. No one at E3 feels like a rock star anymore. So we're spilling a 40 on the ground for Kentia Hall, $20m booths, throngs of costumed nerds, and gamers having the time of their lives while we all felt vindicated for loving video games all these years -- even if only for a moment.

Your friends,
Engadget

P.S. -Just in case you've already forgotten, remember what last year's E3 looked like? Here, check it out:

• Microsoft's E3 booth tour
• Nintendo's E3 booth tour
• Sony's E3 booth tour
• E3: South hall walkthrough
• E3: Kentia hall walkthrough

And now compare it to this:

It's the first ever Joystiq Reader Meetup tonight, and Engadget's going to be there to show some love and support. So if you're not opposed to spending quality time with some E3-addled crazies, we'd love to have you. Get there early for the free t-shirts, stick around for high tales of liveblogging misadventure. If you do plan on attending, be sure to head over to Joystiq and let them know in the comments.

When: 6PM-9PM on Friday 13th
Where: Mahalo HQ, 902 Colorado Ave. Santa Monica 90401 (Google Maps link)

And yes, this event is all ages!

We're running off from Nintendo's E3 2007 press conference to Sony's. Check back here shortly for our live coverage of the event. The conference is set to begin 11:30 PDT.

11:30 PDT -- Ok, we're seated, and things are getting started. Swirling images on four massive displays, like the flowing background on the PS3.

11:32 PDT - Opening promo movie coming up, kaleidoscopes of PS3 and PSP, but no gameplay. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mr. Jack Tretton."

11:33 PDT - "We're extremely excited to unveil all our plans for the PS brand this year." Showing around Home. "We've already had our public beta going on for months, and this is the Home square."

11:34AM PDT We're taking our seats at the Nintendo press conference. Meaning we're sitting down and not, you know, exhibiting kleptomaniac tendencies. Stay tuned!

8:42AM PDT - Entering the auditorium, we're greeted (assaulted?) by the family-friendly sounds of the Monkees' "I'm a Believer."

8:49AM PDT - Giant screens flanking the main stage share a dozen plus shots of various demographics all enjoying the pick up and play experience offered by the Wii and DS ... or something. No one up there looks like us ... they're all well groomed and a significant percentage of them enjoy senior citizen mass transit discounts.

Ok, we're live from Microsoft's E3 2007 keynote! The event officially kicks off at 8:30PM PDT, but we'll be doing our usual pre-game coverage here.

8:06PM PDT - Ok, so the event is being held at -- get this -- a high school? It's a damned fancy one if you ask us, full coliseum style seating. More after the break.

Alright kids, we're locked and loaded at E3 2007, and while the list of attendees has been pared quite substantially from years past, there's still fun to be had.

The action here in Santa Monica will get kicked off tonight with Microsoft's press conference, and rest assured, we'll be delivering the blow-by-blow coverage right here with our brohams from Joystiq when it commences at 8:30PM PST.

The rest of the week will see conferences from big shots such as Nintendo and Sony (both slated for tomorrow), as well as lesser brand names such as Activision, Disney Interactive, Electronic Arts, Midway, and Konami. So if you've been itching for some fresh gaming minutiae to chew on, keep it locked right here for your E3 fix.

See also: Engadget's E3 2006 coverage, Engadget's E3 2005 coverage, Engadget's E3 2004 coverage

Remember those suffocating crowds and the completely non-game-related overload that eventually caused a restructuring at E3? If not, we certainly do, and you won't find us complaining about a more focused approach for 2007. Of course, toning down the antics inevitebly leads to less attendees, and such looks to be the case for the July convention in Santa Monica, CA. Reportedly, a paltry 32 companies are signed up to take part in this year's festivities (larger list after the jump), but big-timers such as Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Electronic Arts, and Square Enix (just to name a few) will still be making the hike. Still, going from some 400 exhibitors to less than 40 in a single year should make for a very different experience when July 11th rolls around, and considering that "only 3,000 to 4,000 invitations" will purportedly be sent out, getting a little hands-on time with an actual game will hopefully be less of a chore for the ones that get in.

[Via ArsTechnica]

Those of you so deeply saddened and hurt by E3's sudden departure can take heart, as there's a new trade show coming to town, and hopefully it'll be half as good as the tried-and-true Electronic Entertainment Expo of days past. Slated to open its doors to the public and adoring media on October 18th through the 20th, the Entertainment for All Expo sports a kinder, more inviting title, that apparently hopes to focus more on the general public rather than industry insiders and advertising giants. Clearly hoping to garner more attention by continually stating that "this show is for everyone," IDG World Expo also claims that we kiddos will be able to "test drive the latest in games and gadgetry" as well as purchase things we like right on site. So while it'll (probably) never live up the expo of old, we're still down with ginormous trade shows with too much to do in not nearly enough time, and hey, now you've already got something to look forward to in October.

While E3 may be long gone, and E3Expo may have been on the horizon for a brief time, it appears that GamePro Expo will now be taking its place as the king of the American gaming shows. IDG, the company that publishes GamePro magazine (and Macworld mag and Expo), will now run this latest show to take over the Los Angeles Convention Center come October 2007. Although GamePro is only slated for 30,000 people (half the size of E3), it should still rock, given that it'll bring live competitions among other goodies. And if you're looking for us while at the show, we'll be the ones hanging our heads in shame after getting totally pwned by the smarmy editors over at Joystiq.

[Via DSFanboy]

Just like Microsoft, Nintendo was a tad cramped in the PAX exhibition hall -- their full setup could've squeezed into a small corner of their Wii extravaganza at E3. But they're making the best of things with an all DS all the time booth, and quite a few new games on display such as Yoshi's Island 2 and Final Fantasy III. We can't deny we're a bit disappointed by the Wii's absence, and the resulting lines would've been fun to see as well, but it's not hard to see why Nintendo opted to keep their little mysterious console off the floor. Of course, with no plans by Nintendo to show the Wii at the Tokyo Games Show, we're starting to wonder if it'll show up in "public" at all before its still-undefined launch, but we suppose we'll see it when we see it.

Yeah, we're kicking it here with our Joystiq pals in beautiful Redmond, Washington for a weekend of rubbing shoulders with the game-nerd elite. PAX's 17,000+ attendees this year are bursting the Meydenbauer Center at the seams, which means exhibitors like Microsoft can't quite have their usual sprawl of a booth. Luckily, they're moving the show -- which is now the biggest games show in North America thanks to the demise of E3 -- to downtown Seattle at the Washington State Convention Center next year, so hopefully the claustrophobic among us will be able to manage a step through a booth in '07. Keep reading for pics of the setup, and start saving your pennies for next year's extravaganza.

Since E3 decided to call it quits as the bespoke conference and reorg into something a little more intimate, a number of alternatives are starting to crop up in its place. The most promising prospect, however, comes from the CEA -- harbingers of the one true doombringer event, CES, and outspoken consumer advocates -- who have formed a committee to explore a CES-like event for games to take the place of E3. CE3, if you will. Of course, this does not mean they're committing to any such thing, but when your last event was attended by some 162,000 or so industry professionals and members of the media, let's just say that if they did decide to do a CE3 they'd have a helluva mailing list to work with.