any chance MSFT decided to not answer the more controversial questions until after the holiday sales season- much of the general public are not as aware or informed on the" always on" and "used game" controversies. MSFT can just do what Nintendo did re the launch games- wait till after the heavy holiday sales period to say- "oops we don t have most of the games we iwe were going too have for launch and forget about the 3rd parties- just wait 6-12 months -besides, we need that long to complete the Wii U anyway via firmware updates.

Think about it: little Billy and his parents won t realize their 2 mbps internet connection won t cut it till after they purchase the XB1 and it will be even longer before they realize their ability to trade used games is limited until much longer. So they can answer all the hard questions after they have a few million XB1 s out the door, the games start to come in and they have momentum.

I think what Nintendo did was not very wise or even ethical and if MSFT does something similar- hold back key info until after the holiday sales then I think the same about them- I would not suggest either practice as a good way to operate on multiple levels- but it is beginning to look like msft may try to hold off as long as possible even after the console hits the sales shelves- but we will see there is still time-

If MSFT declines to use E3 as a means to sincerely clarify their mssg- then when would they practically be able to do so between now and the day they go on sale?

I think I figured out how they will solve the used game dilemma- they will give people the opportunity to purchase single game discs for $60, 2 game discs packages for $120, 3 discs for $180..... then you can lend your extra discs out to your kids and friends- if you have lots of friends or kids you want to lend games to you just buy more copies- I mean who wants to show up at the cash register w a 1 game disc pack (indicating you u have no friends and family) when so many others will be buying the 3 or 4 pack if for no other reasons than as a status symbol?

problem solved re MSFT and used games

Refresh my memory: what'd they do?

but..but i want to know the advantages of drm

Not sure if serious...

My guess is they are canceling the roundtable talks with the media after E3 as they will NOT be giving clear cut answers to the things people really need/want to know about the X1. Things like used games and how it will work. Things like Always on and how it will work. All the stuff that consumers will want to know, they will not speak about, as it's clear that it's impacting them negatively. So they don't want to give media the chance to ask the questions, so they won't have to dodge the question. Anyone worth their salt can see that this means bad things are the answers. Save your money for a PS4, don't like M$ buy your console vote.

I agree. I also agree with sales in that it's good to just skip delivering a message if you're not sure of what message to deliver.

Trouble is, they should be, unless the criticisms from the May 21st unveiling were so different from what Microsoft expected that they still haven't conceived of a unified response to them.

Pretty weak response for backup, nsanity, but at least you tried.

Anything MS does at e3 will not matter, as I said, because the sales power for this console wil come from the mainstream who are interested in the television functionality, which, as it happens, is what I'm most interested in....what made me think, "man, ms is going to kill it with this console" during the console reveal.

The mainstream gives no shits about e3 or gamescom or reviewers. They care about features that apply to them, and their venues are talk shows, not electronics shows, and they don't ask technical questions.

It's just a fact of this kind of console. See: Wii/Kinect marketing strategy.

So you think the general public will spend several hundred dollars, plus an annual fee, to utilize features on their television that they're already paying for separately?