E3 and WWDC 2011 coverage starts today

It’s that time of the year again where half the Pocket Gamer staff jet off to hot foreign climes for a week and get a little sick from eating copious amounts of food and beer.

No, it’s not the annual tax-dodging trip (that’s in October), but the Electronic Entertanment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles.

It’s the biggest games conference of the year for good reason - everyone from Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, EA, Activision et al will be showing off what they think will have gamers across the world shaking in excitement over the next year.

Known unknowns

What do we know will be shown?

Well, we know that Sony will be showing more of the NGP (possibly called the Vita), Sony Ericsson will be demoing a new range of Xperia Play titles (including Minecraft Portable), while Nintendo is likely to pull the covers off its latest home console and reveal a few more 3DS titles as well.

Does Microsoft have a portable gaming suprise in store, too? We suspect not, but here’s hoping the company has some news on how it hopes to get gamers interested in Windows Phone.

Not quite every major player in gaming (or more specifically, portable gaming) will be at E3, though.

At the same time as the start of the expo, Apple is holding its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, where the company will be unveiling the next version of iOS to an expectant room full of journalists.

Maybe we’ll also see the mythical iPhone 5? Stay tuned to the site for the liveblog from the show floor.

Look out for our liveblog from Sony's E3 presentation here, too.

Whatever happens, our reporters both at the office and at the events will be rushing around trying to bring you guys the breaking news and views from around the industry, no matter how many cans of Red Bull we need in order to keep typing.

Manufactorers’ keynote schedule (all times British Summer Time):

Monday June 6th
Microsoft - 5pm
Apple (WWDC) - 6pm

Tuesday June 7th
Sony - 1am
Nintendo - 5pm