Microsoft have today confirmed that they will be absent from this years Tokyo Game Show or Gamescon. Instead the film plans to focus on smaller, more localised promotions. A post on Major Nelsons blog explains

As you saw at E3, we have a solid line-up of games launching this holiday, along with other entertainment experiences. We’ve changed our approach a little, though. This year, Xbox will be focusing on smaller, more localized promotions and experiences for press, partners, retailers and customers around the world. Which means that as you might have seen on some of the news sites today, we won’t be taking part in gamescom orTokyo Games Show this year.

Given that the only game worth seeing from Microsoft at this years E3 was Halo 4, it’s not all that surprising.