The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is the biggest and baddest gaming fair in the world, attracting more than 62,000 industry professionals this year, according to its organisers.
Tommy Tang, a consultant to the Hong Kong Digital Entertainment Association, estimated almost 100 businesses from Hong Kong went to Los Angeles, California for E3 - 60 of them at the government-funded Hong Kong Pavilion, and about another 50 from Greater China.
Just how big and how bad was this year's show? In a publicity stunt, a low-flying helicopter hovered overhead and a dozen soldiers spilled out and abseiled down in front of the show's venue, the Los Angeles Convention Centre, last week.
The three-day expo, first held in 1995, is a trade event that now sparks an annual pilgrimage for developers, resellers, publishers and the media from all over the world.
With total computer and video game sales reaching US$6.9 billion last year, this is a huge market. Wall Street analysts expect sales in the United States for this industry to hit US$20 billion by 2005.
The movie entertainment industry has taken notice and more and more games are being released almost simultaneously with movie releases. The combination of The Matrix: Reloaded , the movie, and Enter the Matrix , the game, is a perfect example of this.