When the birthday boy decides not to come, sometimes clowns, whistlers, and candy aren’t enough to make the party. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, is going to be without Activision, the largest third-party game maker this year. "After careful consideration, for business reasons Activision has decided not to participate in any official E3 activities," a statement written to Gaming Nexus continued to read, “We wish the ESA best of luck with the show.”

“While the Entertainment Software Association remains the preeminent voice for U.S. computer and video game publishers, we can confirm that Activision and Vivendi Games opted to discontinue their membership,“ said Rich Taylor, an ESA official.

Activision remains the largest third-party game developer with huge hits such as the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero franchises. Their headlock on the industry strengthened when Activision merged with World of Warcraft makers Blizzard/Vivendi. The news that they opted to forego the expo will no doubt continue to make headlines going into this year’s E3.

In what has been well covered, ESA’s recent downgrading of the once behemoth video game showcase might be beginning to snowball out of control. In 2007, the event closed its doors to much of the public when Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony acknowledged the rising cost and poor return on investment into E3.