Even as the Entertainment Software Association's (ESA) E3 Media & Business Summit draws closer this week, the invite-only event may have scared off many publishers and developers, aside from consumers, due to extraneous costs and a smaller retail presence. Reports are coming in that companies have declined their invites, while others have wanted to go but never received an invite.

Tecmo (Ninja Gaiden Sigma) was one company that had turned down the invite to the E3 Media & Business Summit, following a history of impolite treatment from the organizers, lower retail presence and a pessimistic outlook on the part of Tecmo. "New show management didn't seem to know what they were doing," said John Inada, vice president.

A representative from GameStop had claimed that the company had "limited folks" who were going to attend the show, but it appeared to major publishers that no retail presence was going to show up at all. Retailers such as Best Buy have been reported to opt out entirely, prompting other publishers to high-tail it out of the event.

"Why should we bother dealing with the ESA's confusion when we can meet with our retail partners separately and then stage our own gamers' day event later on in the year where we set the rules? It just doesn't make any sense," said a source, coming from a publisher not going to E3.

In contrast, XSEED Games (Brave Story: New Traveler) didn't have a choice laid out for them. Even while the publisher decided to go to the event, they didn't receive an invite. "Assuming we had a chance to participate, the costs of securing a meeting area in one of the hotels, from what I've heard indirectly through third parties, would have been cost-prohibitive for us," added XSEED's Ken Berry, head of sales and marketing.

Money was another issue, forcing even some of the big name publishers to re-think their showcasing strategies and host their own events, rather than attend E3. GameCock Media Group (Sector 8) created their own little E3 in response to the new invite-only arrangement.

Publishers believe that E3 needs more tweaking if they're to attend the succeeding events - a possibility that's fast fading after many other companies anticipate 2007 as E3's final year. In an end-note, GameCock's co-founder Mike Wilson said:

We're going to have some fun on the beach and say good-bye to the magical beast of yore that was E3. I'd say there's a fair chance there won't be a show called E3 anything next year, which is why we're saying farewell to it on the beach. But I can't wait to see what emerges.