We reached out to Activision to verify that they were out of E3 and received the following statement:

"After careful consideration, for business reasons Activision has decided not to participate in any official E3 activities. We wish the ESA best of luck with the show."

I`m not going to say this is the death knell for the event but when the #1 company in your industry doesn`t come to your event you know you have problems. That means that Call of Duty 5, Guitar Hero IV and the rest of the Activision lineup will not be shown at E3. Activision is having a press event the first night of the show but this is a major blow to the event.