The ESA has announced that E3 2017 will be teaming up with producer Geoff Keighley to bring the E3 Coliseum to The Novo at L.A Live on the 13th and 14th of June. The E3 Coliseum will act as a main stage for the E3 2017 event, where developers will take attendees behind the scenes on the latest announcements from E3. The stage will also feature special guests including gaming luminaries and entertainment industry talent. Publishers confirmed to be attending include; Activision, Bethesda Softworks, Gearbox Publishing, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Square Enix, Ubisoft, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, and Xbox, with more still to be announced.

The Entertainment Software Association, or ESA, is the trade association that represents the US gaming industry and the owners and producers of the E3 event, their CEO Michael D. Gallagher had this to say about the new Coliseum stage,

The E3 COLISEUM adds rocket fuel to E3's position as the pre-eminent global event for the video game industry. We are incredibly proud to give the most exciting voices in video games a unique opportunity to connect directly with fans and create a platform celebrating the role video games have in shaping popular culture.

It's an honor to partner with the video game industry and ESA to add this exciting new element to the E3 consumer experience. We are working around the clock to produce programming that will give fans unprecedented access to the biggest games and news from E3 and celebrate this industry's importance to entertainment culture.

Long time games journalist and presenter Keighley is perhaps best known recently for as the executive producer of The Game Awards, first broadcast in 2014. His influence could help to bring some polish to the presentation of proceedings, to an event that has been notorious for eye-wateringly dry information dumps from various publishers' CEO's in the past. Keighley said this of his collaboration as producer of the E3 Coliseum,The announcement also included the news that E3 Coliseum will be partnering with Facebook, offering Q&As with attendees and streaming certain panels via Facebook Live. During the event, users will be able to visit Facebook.com/E3Expo to watch the panels and submit questions to the panelists. Select panels will also be streamed via Twitch, who remain the official streaming partner of E3.

The E3 Coliseum will be accessible for all E3 attendees, with priority being given to consumer and business pass holders. More information on the event program, panels and guests will be released in the coming weeks. If you're interested in attending the event, you can find more information and tickets on the official website here.

Will you be attending E3 2017? Are you an E3 regular? Let us know down in the comments!