Geek sneak peaks: Not even Microsoft wizards can resist the lure of E3.

MICROSOFT Corp. descended on Los Angeles last week, booking 5,000 hotel rooms for the Electronic Entertainment Expo--the biggest video game trade show on earth. With an army of 1,000 employees working the show, the software giant had a lot to prove: it launched the Xbox 360 last year, so while rivals Sony Corp. and Nintendo Corp. were unveiling their next-generation consoles, Microsoft had to dress up its ancillary offerings, like the Xbox Live Online game-playing community, its coming cell phone offerings and, of course, new games.

But Microsoft is no tourist here. Its Southern California offices recently moved from Santa Monica to downtown L.A., and beefed up its staff to more than 300 employees.

Most of the year, those employees are engaged in consulting services, enterprise software sales, e-mail security, and working with Hollywood creative-types and music industry executives. But last week, the office was pretty empty. "As you might imagine, we have a fair number of gamers on my staff," admitted Sandi Thomas, general manager of Microsoft, Southern California. Most employees went to E3 in the nearby Staples Center. "They all like to try and push the software to its limits."