http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/microsoft-e3-conference-announced

(Update: A second invite to the Natal event has now arrived. Apparently it's a "Technology-free event". "Please leave your technology at home, no photography or video allowed." Perhaps they're scared of the Blacksmith of the Future.)

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Ah poo

Oh well, let's hope they show something awesome at their real conference then...

And yes, my headline makes for a brilliant pun, and no, I didn't think that far when I made it

Really inspires confidence, doesn't it...

why ?

That doesn't sound good. They're launching it this year, after E3.

They should be asking for more camera's.

My guess is because the Natal event is before E3 officially starts and MS' official presentation will lose some thunder. 

You will probably see final tech build of the Natal camera (at least how it will look)... and you will see some new games too.

My quess would be to garner hype in those invited to the showing that is it a really special, super secret event and they should feel privalliged to get an invite. Thats also the way i would play it

I think they already did this last year.
If something goes wrong or if they don't have the rights to show 3rd party footage (for example, netflix footage) they can just cut out that part. This doesn't mean you won't be able to watch a live stream of the event.

Maybe they're taking precautionary measure incase someone tries to show you the bottom of an Avatar's foot again. That or they want to save some hype for the E3 presentation.

So afterall the two events are basically just one.

It only has a special event at closed doors like others...

I remember Nintendo did the same with a Metroid Prime 2 demo running on the Wii to show the controls.

It's gonna be a regular E3 =)