Microsoft Won’t Bother With Gamescom 2012

Oh dear. It’s not looking like a great show in Köln this year. Nintendo, of course, are already out of the running for a large platform presence at Gamescom in August, and now Microsoft has decided not to show up as well.

Neither company has been particularly active at the biggest European games show in recent years so it’s not a huge surprise but it’s still a little bit disconcerting that they seem to put such little value in a European base for their hype and announcements.

Microsoft has also said they’ll miss Tokyo Games Show, which will disappoint approximately seven people, all of whom were hoping to find employment building the demo stands*.

Larry Hryb, Xbox’s Major Nelson, posted on his blog that “This year, Xbox will be focusing on smaller, more localized promotions and experiences for press, partners, retailers and customers around the world,” which sounds like they want a more direct, personal approach.

Don’t be fooled: they want to control the audience more closely and spend more time with people who can market or sell their products and less time with people who are going to whine about Kinect controls in their favourite shooters.

So, are Gamescom’s days numbered then?

*Not really. I made this up to make a joke about how little the Japanese care about anything Microsoft is doing. Hi-lar-i-ous, right?

Source: Larry