Leipzig Games Convention is being held since 2002 at the Leipziger Messe Fairgrounds, a huge complex of modern structural buildings. Along with Tokyo Game Show, at GC gamers of all ages can visit the show floor, while the Business Centre is reserved for professional visitors only. Besides video games, the exhibition covers also Infotainment, Hardware and Edutainment. This year we had the chance to visit the exhibition one day prior to the official opening, to take an exclusive look at some of the major publisher booths.

Workers manipulating transport machineries for merchandise, electrical power equipment, isolation materials, cables, nails, rivets, etc, were covering most of the GC exhibition surface this morning. Considering that this is day zero, the situation can be considered normal. But some of the big exhibitors were already done while others were just starting building their booths.

And this situation is not present only here, but also in the gaming industry, where the pantagruelic publishers devour from the birth stage any little developer or indie publisher. For all of you who had any connection with gaming industry in the last five years, you know what I mean! For the rest I suggest an exercise. Close your eyes for ten seconds and try to remember the last games that you have played lately. Write their names down and search for the publishers anywhere on the Internet. Isn't it weird that most of them are repeating themselves constantly? Can it be a monopoly situation?

But let's try not to go on so radical against the system and see from a backstage point of view who are the favorites this year. Most of the exhibitors are using the same advertising strategies used at E3, with a product line-up completed only by strictly European and especially German products. If you make an exception and ignore this regional products, the favorites would be: EA (with Mirror's Edge, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Need for Speed: Undercover, Mercenaries), Ubisoft (with Tom Clancy's EndWar, Tomb Raider: Underworld and H.A.W.X.), Activision (with Call of Duty: World at War, Guitar Hero: World Tour), Capcom (with Bionic Commando, Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil 5), Konami (with PES 2009, Silent Hill: Homecoming), Disney Interactive (with Pure), Ubisoft (with Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia), Blizzard (with Starcraft II, WoW: Wrath of the Lich King), Deep Silver (with Sacred 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky), NCsoft (with Aion: Tower of Eternity), LucasArts (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Clone Wars).

The list is subjective but reliable, considering what had happened at E3. Anyway we will try to keep you in touch with the latest news and maybe from somewhere out of space some surprises and exclusive GC announcements will make our lives more happy for a couple of days. Until new reports take a look at the first set of exclusive GC screenshots and at a backstage Guitar Hero: World Tour session.