The (Entertainment Software Association) has announced that the E3 Expo, in just over 2 weeks time, will feature over 5000 gaming products, of which 1000 are brand new. Nearly three-quarters of these new products will be on the shelves before the spending-spree inducing season kicks in.

The ESA have also released some interesting stats regarding which platforms these products are available for –

  • 40.3% - consoles
  • 30.7% - PC
  • 18.4% - PDAs & wireless phones
  • 6.8% - handheld game devices
  • 3.8% - online/internet games.

The near 1/5th stake for PDA and wireless games shows the impact this form of gaming has had on the industry, whereas the 4% figure for games is a little misleading given that the categories can overlap.

Action games dominated the games that the ESA surveyed, with "Edutainment" making an impressive showing (perhaps suggesting more games of this genre coming to consoles?). Strategy gaming is going to make a poor showing with only around 6%, however.

Here is the rundown -

  • 26.6% - Action/Adventure
  • 15.8% - Educational/Edutainment
  • 12.5% - Sports/Driving/Racing
  • 7.3% - RPG
  • 7.1% - Child/Family
  • 6.2% - Strategy
  • 4.9% - Arcade
  • 3.7% - Simulation
  • 15.8% - Other

The show is certainly demonstrating the boom the gaming is going through at the moment. Having previously occupied over 4.5m square feet of floor space in its nine year history, the 525,000 square foot showing this year is certainly above the norm. What's more that's 520 times the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, we're reliably informed.

More on this year's expo as we get it.

By Jason Cartwright