MediaFile

Somebody at Ubisoft must be a big fan of the films “Jaws” or “Predator,” where the title characters do not materialize until late in the movie. Or maybe it’s the play “Waiting for Godot” they admire — Godot never shows at all.

Why else would they — for the second year in a row — devote a chunk of time at their E3 event to a highly anticipated video game, and not show any footage from the game?

Ubisoft ended its show on Monday with a wonderfully loud, energetic, amped-up dance routine featuring six of the talented performers from Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” concert rehearsal documentary. They were giving us a taste of what we can expect from the game Ubisoft is developing in conjunction with Jackson’s Estate (due later this year on all major platforms.)

Or at least we assume it was a taste — they didn’t show any actual game footage. Just dancers.

Don’t get me wrong, the dancers were amazing and the show-us-more-game-video loving crowd lapped it up. But I left wondering, wasn’t this just like last year, when big-giant-huge title for the holiday season “Avatar” was teased, but not shown, by Mr. Avatar himself, James Cameron?

To say the film “Avatar” is eagerly awaited would be an understatement. The 3D film is 4 years in the making — twice as long as it took for director James Cameron to make the blockbuster “Titanic.” It is due to hit the screen in December, but fans who call some of his other works (“Aliens” and “Terminator 2″) sterling works of art (guilty, as charged) are itching to see a glimpse of the film. What better way to do that than at E3, the video game conference in Los Angeles this week, since there is a sister video game also in the works, right?

Wrong. Cameron gave a very (very very) detailed description of the (mildly complicated ) flick, which all seemed to set the table for a butt-kicking clip, a must-see trailer. But none was forthcoming. Not even a clip of the game, which is developed by Ubisoft.

Strange behavior at a show — E3, the annual Video Game conference — whose every briefing, bar none, includes some kind of glossy video of cinematic or real-game action.