Very good decision for Microsoft.
Any more negative press will just hit the nail on the coffin, might as well bury the XBone now if another mistake like that happens.
Just ride the wave of hype that the XBone will generate with all those 15 exclusives.
And when the media starts asking questions the response shall be sorry no questions bye bye.

I just had a really interesting thought.

What if Nintendo's decision to cancel their press conference was actually because of MS?

Specifically, what if MS paid off heaps of third parties to not let Sony or Nintendo show off their games at E3... and Nintendo went "Easily fixed, we just won't do the E3 conference, we'll have a Nintendo Direct and show them off that way". Bypass MS's moneyhatting entirely.

Not sure if it's good or bad :/

Guess it is what it is.

Then let their round table discussion be about games.  But nope because...

They cannot stop the press from pressuring the truth out of them.

hmm perhaps I'm just not being very clear. (I'll bold the points, so as to sharpen the idea)

I believe that cancelling this roundtable, and ergo not doing a quote/unquote proper e3, will not really affect their market strategy very much.
Sure, games are very important to x1, but a roundtable has almost always been somewhat of a gamer-centric (and when I say that, I mean nerd-core) panel. It's there to talk about cool features that people might not know about, answer questions....etc etc. It's like going to a scifi convention, seeing a conference about upcoming startrek movies, and then seeing a panel (insert: roundtable) with Patrick Stewart and the wesley crusher actor. It's not super crucial, but they perhaps slip information they weren't supposed to about upcoming things, and are cleared to break news about other events or works.

Roundtable has always been, at least for me, the whip cream on pie a-la-mode....it's extraneous.

Now, before I continue rambling, allow me to segway into your argument that the tv implementation is not enough to sway the mainstream.

You're right. It's not enough.
HOWEVER

It's also an xbox....and everyone and their momma knows what an xbox is for. But when they see this tv feature, I believe it's really going to take everyone by surprise. They'll say 'it's multipurpose', 'it's great for having company'. The console just oozes modernity and 'cool'. Play a dance game while tracking your calorie intake, then go to the kitchen to grab a water, simultaneously ordering commands like "xbox, HBO, nevermind, xbox play deadmau5".

Maybe you don't see it like I do, but I can see a whole lot of people paying for that. I mean, they did it for wii fit, and that didn't even have half the features of an xb1 plus dance/yoga game. I mean, as I sit typing this, I could easily just say, xbox, play Samurai Champloo...and have that play. And even if the console isn't designed to do that, even if it can't find shows by voice, or can't acess netflix automatically, etc etc, it doesn't matter, because people will just ASSUME you can...they'll assume much more than it is actually capable of. And my point, finally, is that this behavior is entirely due to the fact that the mainstream doesn't care about roundtable discussions.

For somone who has been preaching  selection bias (I think that's what you call it) on these forums for a while. I find it very ironic that you yourself display it so frequently.

There's nothing wrong with preferance, but there are some things you just can't justify as positive. Microsoft canceling their press meeting is one of those things.

I personally think this is a smart move on MS's part and will give them time to recover from their conference and set their ship straight. If the rumors are true, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, they need the time to iron out the kinks in the system. I hope they can get it done in time for a proper launch.

It is a positive thing from MS's perspective. If they hide the DRM etc as long as they can, none of the early buyers will know it. After that nobody cares. We are talking about people who accepted paying for online multiplayer. This will go under the radar as long as there is a new Halo at the show.

Just tweeted to Major Nelson about....maybe he will tweet an answer back

He probably won't according to this;

Microsoft Cancelling One-on-One Interviews with Xbox Executives at E3

http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/15240/article/microsoft-cancelling-one-on-one-interviews-with-xbox-executives-at-e3/