Five years ago, videogame publishers 
decided they were spending entirely too much time and money on their annual trade shows and dramatically scaled back the events — with fewer attendees and none of the largess for which the shows had become legendary.
But as it turns out, largess is a key component for an industry that thrives on energy and adrenaline. So this year, the circus was back in town.
While some videogame publishers are shying 
away from licensing deals, THQ is stepping up. The company has signed a multiyear deal with DreamWorks Animation to make games based on upcoming films.
The first title, based upon the upcoming “Megamind,” is due this November.
Avi Arad wants to bring Pac-Man back 
to television — and he wants to do it in 3D.
Arad, former CEO of Marvel Studios and now executive adviser for Namco Bandai, showed a three-minute teaser of his vision for the new Pac-Man at an E3 event celebrating the pellet chomper’s 30th birthday.
Nintendo may have a huge 
hit on its hands.
The Nintendo 3DS – the company’s Hail Mary pass to turn heads away from the Apple juggernaut is a rare thing that seems able to live up to the hype – coming through on its promise to provide stereoscopic 3D without glasses and producing images that pop as much as they do on the majority of 3D TVs on the market.
While there has been a lot of talk about the 
future of 3D in gaming, Nintendo on Tuesday made the clearest statement yet that the technology is about to become a major factor.
The company officially unveiled its Nintendo 3DS handheld system, managing to live up to the high expectations surrounding the device. As promised, the 3DS offers true stereoscopic 3D on a 3.5 screen without the need for any special glasses.
If you thought Microsoft’s multi-million dollar 
Cirque du Soleil backed introduction of Kinect, its gesture-recognition controller, was extravagant, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Activision, publisher of such games as “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,” “Guitar Hero” and “World of Warcraft” reached into its coffers and pulled out what might have been the most extravagant party in the video game convention’s history.
Sony will jump into the motion sensing 
game this September.
The company announced Tuesday at its E3 press conference that the PlayStation Move peripheral, in essence an enhanced version of the Nintendo Wii controller, will go on sale in North America Sept. 19.
Richard Branson has a history of turning 
industries on their ear. And now he has his eyes set on the video game world.
The billionaire entrepreneur’s re-entry into the gaming world with Virgin Gaming Tuesday caught a number of people by surprise. While it was hardly shocking that he’d want a piece of the $10.5 billion dollar industry, most expected Virgin would approach it from the publishing route.
The rumor mill might have ruined Microsoft’s 
announcement of a slim Xbox 360– but the company still had a surprise up its sleeve.
The revamped console, which comes equipped with a 250 GB hard drive and built-in 802.11n wireless connectivity, will begin shipping to retail this week – much sooner than anyone was expecting. That will put the system on retail shelves by early next week at latest. It will cost $299 – the same price as the current top end Xbox 360.
Indie and amateur filmmakers
looking to add some historical context to their works have a new outlet.
The recently launched CriticalPast.com offers an extensive collection of royalty-free photos and video footage, most of which hasn’t been online previously. With video of everything from Coney Island in the 1890s to World War II to news reports on 1994’s Whitewater scandal, the site has things covered.
Chris Morris: Journalist 