Up until today, we were fully expecting Rockstar Games to bring their 'A' game to E3 along with all the other developers and publishers, but this no longer appears to be the case. Rockstar was set to showcase both Max Payne 3 and L.A. Noir at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in LA, two weeks from now, but have today announced that they are pulling out of the show entirely, and will instead be presenting the games "in the coming weeks".

Speaking to CVG, a Rockstar spokesman had this to say about pulling the games from videogaming's biggest event:

"In the end, we feel we simply don't have enough time to show as much as we would like in the time available"

In addition to this, Rory Buckeridge from the low-brow UK magazine Nuts tweeted that Rockstar Games has "pulled their E3 game launch". Now, "game launch" sounds like something new, possibly the often-rumored Agent, but it's unlikely we'll find out now that Rockstar has backed-out of the show entirely.

It is unfortunate that the overbearing drive within development houses to deliver something solid for E3 usually hampers the development of the final product itself. Some companies use E3 as a mid-term goal to embolden team-focus, while others see it as a misappropriation of resources that ultimately undermines the games' creation.

Additionally, the noisy bedlam of E3 can be so overwhelming that some developers find their game demos get washed out by all the spectacle going on around them, opting for a quieter, less intense showing at a later date - preferably when there isn't a chance of another game stealing its thunder.

Whatever the reason for Rockstar's sudden change of heart, there are a lot of folks who were looking forward to seeing what they had to offer with the Max Payne reboot and the long-in-development L.A. Noir.

What about you, Ranters? Is this a disappointment? Were you looking forward to Rockstar's products at this year's E3?

Source: CVG