Microsoft kicks off E3 2011 week this year, hosting the first of the major press conferences at 9am Pacific Time (5pm BST) on Monday 6 June.

The Xbox 360 fun and games show kicks off in grand style at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, followed later the same day by Sony’s E3 conference (5pm PST/1am BST). Yet while both Sony and Nintendo’s E3 showings are fairly easy to predict this year (a focus on the new Next Generation Portable and the Project Café/”Wii 2″ console, respectively) Microsoft’s plans are still shrouded in mystery.

 

Best Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

 

So what is in store for Xbox at E3 2011? Is there anything in those online E3 rumours about the possibility of a new Xbox console hardware reveal? And, most importantly for the celeb spotters in the crowd, which Hollywood megastar or rock royalty might the company wheel out on stage in 2011? Elvis?

Remembering milo: might we see him again at e3 2011

REMEMBERING MILO: Might we see him again at E3 2011?

Gamers are hoping that Microsoft’s focus at E3 this year will be squarely on revealing and detailing a strong line-up of killer new AAA-games such as Gears of War 3, Activision’s new Call of Duty Modern: Warfare 3, alongside a smattering of hardcore-gamer-friendly games for Kinect.

Xbox 720: the truth

Firstly, let’s consider those recent rumours that a new Xbox console hardware reveal is a possibility for Microsoft at E3 2011. Is an Xbox 720 on the cards this year?

The rumours started earlier this month, following a report over on Develop claiming that next gen Xbox development kits were already with developers at Electronic Arts.

“The new hardware, sent to EA last month, is a very early build with no casing – it is in fact being stored inside a PC shell,” read Develop’s initial report.

A claim that EA moved very quickly to deny, with a spokesperson telling IndustryGamers: “This story is a total fabrication – 100 per cent not true.

Still, truth is generally the last casualty of a good pre-E3 rumour, with that particular story spreading across the internet in minutes and kicking off thousands of heated forum discussions.

Kinect revitalises 360

“I’d be amazed if Microsoft announced a new console,” admits Jon Hicks, editor of Official Xbox 360 magazine. “The huge and ongoing success of Kinect has revitalised the Xbox 360 platform, and it makes perfect sense that Microsoft would seek to capitalise on that rather than making it obsolete with the announcement of yet more hardware.”

You have to look at the business case. Microsoft is not going to rush out new console hardware, purely because its rivals at Sony and Nintendo have announced their own plans to do just that. This is not how the slow and steady process of gaming hardware design and commercially-viable tech development works.

Xbox slim: microsoft could well steal the show again in 2011

XBOX SLIM: Microsoft could well quietly steal the show again in 2011

“Nintendo has to reveal a new console because the Wii market has collapsed,” Hicks explains. “Sony has taken so long to get the PS3 up to speed that it can’t afford to replace it yet. Microsoft, by contrast, has a very successful and profitable console business and very little reason to change it this year.”

The OXM editor is far more hopeful that we will see a few more of the “hardcore” Kinect titles announced at the Tokyo Game Show. “E3 would be the perfect time for Microsoft to reveal these in more detail, along with other titles that would broaden Kinect’s appeal beyond the family titles that arrived at launch.”

With any luck, we should be treated to demos of the Kinect functionality in titles such as Forza 4, as well as being offered a glimpse of other hardcore-friendly Kinect titles such as Kinect Star Wars and Codename: Kingdoms.