The re-revamped E3 2009 will be "smarter," "less wasteful" and still have the buzz of large-scale E3s of years past.

So if we're just switching back to a big and noisy E3, what was the point of the last two years of rinky-dink E3?

Entertainment Software Association president Michael Gallagher, who didn't join the organization until after the move to downsize the event was made, washed his hands of that decision in an Edge interview. "I would just say we're doing the right thing, right now. It'll be the pre-eminent show in North America, it'll be the must-attend show of 2009, and that's exactly what this industry deserves."

The show that the industry deserves, according to the ESA, will have a target attendance of around 40,000 media and industry types, way up from the sub-5,000 mark that defined E3 2008. But attendance will be notably less than the 70,000-person peak in 2005 or the 60,000 that attended in the last "big" E3 in 2006.

"[E3 2009] will be smaller than E3 2006 because it will be a much smarter show than E3 2006," Gallagher said, proclaiming that the expansion was a "100 percent consensus decision" among industry publishers. And it will be more cost effective, he claimed.

Getting in

The ESA and co-organizer IDG World Expo will be tailoring admission criteria to meet that attendance target. While exact details have yet to be revealed as to who can and can't attend, Gallagher said, "We have criteria set up to define what is an analyst, what is a media attendee. We want to make sure bloggers and others in the online space have the right path to admission, as long as they're legitimate."

A press release from the ESA on Tuesday said any "qualified" industry or media figure would be able to attend.

One group that definitely cannot attend the upcoming show is that of Joe Consumer. While the Tuesday through Thursday dates may lead one to believe the ESA would open the floor to the public for the weekend, Gallagher said flatly, "This is not a consumer show."

He elaborated, "Consumers will absolutely be the targets for the output of the show through the eyes of the media. But the key is that the attendees have the environment they need to do their business. ... E3 has never been a consumer show. We're not competing with PAX or Comic-Con."

The noise, the "waste," the booth babes

Games industry and media workers had a love/hate relationship with E3 of old. The packed crowds, the noise and overboard booth setups (not to mention the cost of all this) made it difficult to conduct business. Gallagher confirmed that the intimate publisher suites introduced in 2007 and 2008 will return as part of the larger format.

But that's not to say that the ESA will be sacrificing spectacle on the show floor for the third year straight. "[Booths] will be much bigger than the last two years, obviously," he added. "There will be much more opportunity for publishers to display their products and display their brands. That's for sure."

He also said that for the first time, third party publishers will be allowed to have booths equal in size to first party game makers.

Despite being toned down from when E3 was at its peak, Gallagher assured that the show floor would be "very high energy," but "there won't be the same degree of waste that we saw in 2006."

Asked what he defined as "waste," Gallagher pondered for a moment and replied, "Companies will have the full opportunity to display their brands and their titles. ... It doesn't need to get out of hand. They have a very large tapestry on which to portray themselves, but not to the degree that in the aggregate is wasteful."

But are booth babes "waste"?

"Here's the thing. Our publishers will have the maximum ability to drive energy and excitement around their titles and their products. I would expect that you're going to see models there, but there will be controlled guildelines, just like we've had previous years."