E3 Media and Business Summit: Some questions for industry, players

With the video-game-industry gathering for the E3 Media and Business Summit, here are questions that will be asked and may be answered at the conference in Los Angeles this week:

For everyone:

Will gamers have enough left in their wallets for new games and consoles after they fill up gas tanks and grocery carts? And how will the individual companies position their products to value-conscious consumers?

Is there a smash hit like "Grand Theft Auto IV" or "Halo 3" in the pipeline?

For Nintendo:

Can it increase Wii production to match mass-market demand for the runaway console leader?

With a series of hits already in the market this year, including "Mario Kart Wii" and "Super Smash Bros. Brawl," what will it do for a holiday encore?

Given that many other hit Wii titles are from Nintendo, how does the company attract more third-party game developers?

How will game developers make use of the Wii Balance Board, a new controller that is changing the way people interact with games?

For Microsoft:

How important is the mass-market audience to the Xbox business? And how does Microsoft reach that audience?

Rumors of a motion-sensing controller have circled the Xbox 360 for months. With news of a console price cut announced Sunday, some analysts expect something bigger from Microsoft's news conference today.

Don Mattrick, new head of Microsoft's video-games business, has shuffled the executive deck in the last year, going with experience over marketing flash. How will the new team recapture the momentum Xbox 360 had around the launch of "Halo 3"?

For Sony:

How does Sony convert its massive PlayStation 2 user base to PS3?

Sony's "Home," an avatar-based world accessed through the PS3, has been delayed. The PlayStation online gaming network is a far cry from Xbox Live. So what's the online story?

Will Sony also chase the mass-market Nintendo has cornered with a new controller or accessory of its own?