Following the Scent of Microsoft at E3 2012

In their excitement to be able to offer a definitive word on the matter these games journalists are repeating -- with great emphasis -- the words of Pinero: "What we have seen with the Xbox 360 is that the Kinect has extended the life of the console. Historically in the 6th or 7th year console sales start flattening or going down because it's kind of the end of life."

That is all well and good -- and true -- but it is not a denial or a statement of fact with respect to whether or not Microsoft will announce their new Next Gen Console. In fact considering what we actually know for sure about the new Xbox -- like the fact that it has been engineered to fully integrate Kinect and actually expand what it can do -- well, far from being a denouncement of an announcement, it sounds like Pinero is confirming that there will be movement on the Next Gen Console front!

And getting back to the various announcements that Microsoft's Frank Shaw has been making over the course of the past six months -- he has insisted that the company's decision to withdraw from CES is purely due to the bad timing that the show has -- and hey, we get that. It comes after the Christmas holidays and well before any announcements would be beneficial for ramping up for the next holiday season. In fact the only way that CES could make itself more attractive was if it was held in June. You know, a major electronics and gaming show held in June would be the ideal place and time for a major announcement from Microsoft...

Forget for the moment that CES is an annual consumer-oriented show at which Microsoft has maintained a major presence for most of the past two decades -- the reality of changing market dynamics is a big hammer for that nail, and you have to look at the bottom line for the industry, which as Shaw is quick to point out moves very fast and changes even faster; demanding the sort of nimble-footed and willing response times that the lethargy of CES in January cannot offer.

And then there is the fact that while the organizers of CES are finally willing to embrace the whole video games, hardware, and peripheral scene in a more organized way (they got their own section at the show last year, which is a major victory for the games industry to be sure) when you strip away all of the pomp, the noise, and the remote controlled helicopters with spy cameras that are flitting around in the parking lot outside of the show, CES is really a show about Consumer Electronics, not video games and gaming consoles, and much of what has become Microsoft's "thing" at CES is its console and games...

Now if you were looking for a place to make that sort of an announcement... Well... E3 in June? Now, that is a Who of a completely different color.