This strikes me of Nintendo's E3 showing this year in that they didn't really have enough big ticket items to bring, so they scaled down their attendance. Of course, if Microsoft are out of big ticket items so soon, for me it would lend even more weight to those rumours about Microsoft being much further behind in their launch plans than they're telling.
Slashing countries from the launch lineup and having nothing to show at GC doesn't paint a picture of a company who is well prepared for the long game. I think Sony's staggered approach to their reveals is going to add even more momentum for them moving into the launch period, which is what Microsoft desperately needed to do at this point. It's just so damn... odd.
Of course, Sony knows how to engage a worldwide audience, and the importance of ensuring that each segment of the market is given something of their own isn't lost on them. Microsoft just can't shake their "America!" mentality, killing off secondary markets and handing Sony entire continents on a silver platter to keep their US customers serviced.
I hope that they surprise us, and come out with something. Anything. Otherwise, I feel they've just conceded the launch, spending their remaining press time on rolling back all of the rubbish they wasted their press time on at E3.
