E3 By The Numbers

With the largest video game event of the year coming up, websites, such as the one you are on right now, write thousands of articles pertaining to E3. This mass rush of preivews, demos, trailers, screenshots and unnecessary pictures of random booth babes can get even the most casual of gamers to drool in excitement, as well as wallow in confusion. That's okay. Many a video game journalist do not even survive this event, let alone make any sense of it. Therefore, today I have taken it upon myself to offer up some numbers about the event itself.

E3 By the Numbers

3 - The number of days E3 runs for. And the number for the next Halo. Or is it?

21+ - The number of days publications run E3 coverage. This includes pre-E3 articles, E3 articles, post-E3 articles and what have you. This is the main cause for some journalists to drink heavily.

1,000,000,000 - The number of online articles posted over the course of those days.

10 - The number of print articles written over the course of E3. And yet those guys get the same amount of free stuff.

18 - The minimum age to attend the tradeshow. That and you have to be a journalist. For some, the time will come. For most others, you're gonna have to stay envious of sites like these.

400 - Companies showing off their products at E3.

90 – The number of countries represented that those companies represent.

540,000+ - square feet of area available within the LA Convention Center for the event.

5 - Halls within the LACC used for the event. Kentia Hall, Petree Hall, South Hall, Concourse Hall, and West Hall. Western developers and publishers are usually in the South Hall while the West Hall is for the Asian companies, Sony and Nintendo being right next to each other on the floor.

70,000 - or more attended last year's event according to the Entertainment Software Association. If you take into account the space used for booths, exhibits and other attractions, that isn't exactly much space per person, even when you divide the number over the three days.

2006 - The first year booth babes were rumored to be banned from E3. It ain't gonna happen.

5 - The number of companies pushing their own hardware back in May 1999. Only 2 have actually remained competitive 7 years later. Microsoft would come to E3 a year after, much to everyone's surprise. Now they own much of the South Hall.

3.0 - The Unreal engine that is heavily on display this year. Notable games using the engine include Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 2007.

XIII - The Final Fantasy that may or may not be revealed by the end of this week. No press conference has been made for the game but we are due for one.

5,800 – Roughly the number of flat-screen computer and television monitors that will be on the floor in public areas.

850,000 – Lowballing the number of pounds of equipment that will run along the ceiling at the convention. Yikes.

2 - This number will probably just disgust you by the end of E3.

Here's some shining examples:
Ninja Gaiden 2
God of War 2
Fable 2
Forza Motorsport 2
Killzone 2
Full Auto 2
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2
LOTR: Battle for Middle-earth 2

Indefinite - Hours all the VG Core staff who didn't get to go to E3 this year will spend praying that he gets to attend next year.

Article By: VGcore Staff