According to Steve Tilley of the Toronto Sun, Microsoft has cancelled the media roundtable session that was scheduled to take place after the company’s Xbox One E3 press conference on June 10th.
Tilley announced the cancelled post-presser roundtable on his Twitter account, noting that the news was given to him via an email from Microsoft’s PR agency. Apparently, the cancellation was required “due to some changes in execs’ schedules ‘including some external industry and partner sessions.'” Tilley later noted that all other Microsoft E3 sessions are still on the schedule, and the media roundtable about the Xbox One was the only cancelled session.
Assuming this news is correct, the timing of the cancellation of the Xbox One media roundtable just before E3 is a bit suspect. It was widely expected that Microsoft would use the now-canceled session to finally answer some of the lingering questions about the Xbox One hardware — specifically, the console’s exact online requirements and the company’s plan for used games — as the E3 press conference itself will likely be devoted entirely to upcoming software.
Even with the Xbox One media roundtable session cancelled, it seems unlikely that Microsoft will be able to avoid the question of how they intend to handle used games. The NeoGAF led #PS4NoDRM and #XboxOneNoDRM campaigns have been extremely successful in bringing the issue to the attention of the public, and it would be unwise of Microsoft to continue to dodge media questions post-E3.
We will keep an eye out for any further word from Microsoft on the cancellation of their Xbox One E3 media roundtable and update this post with any new details.
