E3 EXHIBITORS SHOOT FOR EARLY INTEREST IN NEW GAMES.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

Surrounded by toga-clad, sword-wielding women and angry soldiers bearing rifles, thousands of video-game programmers, writers and sellers are seeing this week what your kids (and probably you, too) will be begging for come the holidays.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, an annual gathering of 60,000 video- game makers and media members at the Los Angeles Convention Center, showcases the multibillion-dollar industry's best hopes for sales six months away.

``This show has what your kids are going to want for Christmas,'' said Angela Emery, director of public relations for Glendale-based Buena Vista Games. ``You've got to have a good show, so you can impress the press and the retailers. Good buzz will help the game stand out in a crowded field.''

For Buena Vista, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Co., programmers hope titles like ``TRON 2.0: Killer App'' and content based on the ``Kim Possible'' and ``That's So Raven'' television series will draw that interest. While many developers haven't completely finished their games, they have spent serious time polishing the creations enough to turn heads and get their feet in the door. In the next few months, they'll work out the kinks, ship the games to retailers and hope that the scrutiny received at E3 will elevate titles into must-haves in the key fourth quarter.

``It's not just limited to fun here. This is big business,'' said Phil O'Neil, president of the North America division of the Los Angeles-based Vivendi Universal Games. ``The consumer will feel the results because E3's the showcase for the whole year. New software, price cuts on hardware - everything's announced here.''

Industry watchers liken the 10-year-old trade show to a Hollywood premiere, but that only tells part of the story. It's like several hundred Hollywood premieres all exploding at once, with green-haired, tattooed girls punching at keypads while financial analysts in khakis roam the floor, looking to see which publishers brought the best slate; crowds cluster around displays from the industry's big names - Electronic Arts, THQ, Activision and Microsoft - gaping at the latest graphics and user interfaces.

``I want to look at the titles I know are coming out but (I) don't have any experience with,'' said Andrea Titus, a sales associate for retailer Electronics Boutique who made the trip from Tucson to scope out THQ's ``Polar Express.'' ``If I've played the game, I can give much more info when people ask. I'm here to have fun, but that goes hand in hand with work.''

Those questions, whether aimed at highly anticipated releases like Vivendi's ``World of Warcraft,'' iD Software's ``Doom 3,'' for the hard- core gamer market, or nostalgic fare like Ubi Soft Entertainment's ``Dukes of Hazzard: The Return of the General Lee,'' will be coming hard toward winter. The Electronic Software Association, which hosts the show, reports domestic video-game sales have more than doubled in the last decade to $7 billion in 2003, with analyst reports placing the total international market at more than $20 billion. Experts project this holiday season will be another blockbuster sales season as more and more kids get into gaming.

Then again, some at the show had other consumers in mind.

``I'm going to get Pokemon Leaf Green for myself,'' chuckled James Host, a software engineer for Burbank's Prolific Publishing Inc., after seeing Nintendo's Game Boy Advance title. ``The kids have to get their own!''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) At the Los Angeles Convention Center this week, an audience watches a panoramic screen for previews of newly created video games.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer