The Electronic Entertainment Expo is regarded as the world’s largest annual gaming convention, and has a wide variety of publishers exhibiting their forthcoming attractions on a yearly basis, as well as manufacturers showing off their upcoming game related hardware.

This year E3 will take place between June 15 and June 17 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and a list of exhibiting game companies has been revealed.

The list ranges from heavyweights like Activision and Bethesda to third party companies like Brady Games who develop strategy guides.  Gaming publications such as IGN and Gamespot will also have their own stands.

Other publishers and developers confirmed to be exhibiting at the show include EA, Epic Games, Konami, LucasArts, Capcom, Nintendo, Rebellion, Sony, Square Enix, THQ, Xbox ( Microsoft) and Ubisoft.

On the hardware front, Nvidia will be making an appearance, a fact which will help snuff the rumour that the company is not focusing on gaming going into the future. There is no sign of other manufacturers, and neither AMD nor Intel will be there.

The company that made such a big splash at last year’s event, OnLive, will once again have their own stand at this year’s E3.

Interesting omissions from the list include Valve, Take-Two Interactive and RockStar Games. As usual, Blizzard will not be exhibiting at the event as they save all their big announcements for Blizzcon which takes place later in the year.

The lack of a Valve stand has many speculating that a Half Life 2: Episode 3 announcement may not be in the cards for this year, unless it is made at Microsoft’s press event.