Aside from pricing, hot spots at E3 will include the next chapter in the story of Xbox Live, the much-hyped online gaming service Microsoft announced at last year's E3. Olhava said Microsoft will need to show a convincing roster of new games that take advantage of Xbox Live. "They really need to prove to the industry this online console gaming thing can take off," she said. In the midst of stagnating sales for the Xbox, Microsoft will also need to cough up some killer games for the console. Olhava expects a lot of promotion surrounding games developed by Rare, the studio Microsoft acquired in a $375m deal late last year. Nintendo, stung by sagging GameCube sales, is expected to emphasise the market it does dominate -- portable gaming. Pidgeon expects a number of new games and hardware products that will connect Nintendo's market-leading Game Boy Advance handheld player with the GameCube. "They're going to try to use their advantage on the handheld side and really exploit the connectivity between the GameCube and Game Boy," Pidgeon said. On the PC side, expect more hoopla surrounding big-scale online games, despite several recent high-profile blunders in the sector. Sony and LucasArts will again show off "Star Wars Galaxies," the oft-delayed online games based on the movie series, as well as a slew of smaller-scale games targeting everyone from pirate aficionados to armchair generals. Mobile gaming will also get plenty of attention. Nokia is set to reveal more details on its N-Gage wireless gaming device, and game publishers such as Sega will have scores of new titles for cell phones. "There's a lot of interest in mobile gaming and how you make that business model work," Olhava said. "Basically, it revolves around the carriers...and how willing they are to subsidize this kind of content."
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