Microsoft will be skipping out on both the Tokyo Games Show and Gamcom in Germnay this year in order to focus on smaller promotional events the hardware manufacturer announced today through Major Nelson’s blog.

This leaves Sony as the only big manufacturer left to attend Gamescom, which is the largest public gaming convention in the world. Nintendo confirmed earlier this year that they too would also not have a presence this year at the show. Now that I think about it, Microsoft also pulled out of CES, this year. Their keynote at the Las Vegas show was unfortunately their last after a number of years in attendance.

Does this mean that Microsoft will go the Nintendo route? – Smaller invite only events and live streaming conferences? We’ll see in the months leading up the launch of Halo 4 and Smart Glass. Surely they can’t launch both of these products without some kind of promotion.