Microsoft Planning gamescom Press Conference This Year

Microsoft has informed third party studios and gamescom event organisers that they are planning to host a press conference at the annual German event which is set to be from August 21st to 25th CVG reports.

Last year, Microsoft bypassed gamescom but announced in May that it would be returning this year with the Xbox One in tow.

"2013 is a big year for Xbox. We can hardly wait to introduce the visitors at gamescom to the next chapter of Xbox," Microsoft's Phil Harrison commented at the time. 

According to CVG, the company will reveal the details of their conference shortly. Microsoft previously held a gamescom event which focused mostly on Fable 3 but this will be the first time they've held a proper press conference at the event and it's expected to last an hour. 

Sony holds a gamescom press conference every year and 2013 will be no different. Of course, this year's convention will see the PS4 go up against the Xbox One. Sony has confirmed that there will be a number of reveals made at the event. 

Nintendo will be returning to gamescom this year having also skipped it in 2012. 

Over 600 game companies will be present and the event's organisers expect visitor numbers to be above the 275,000 threshold which was achieved last year. In terms of attendees, gamescom is the largest game industry event in the world. 

News of Microsoft's press confernece comes after a hectic week for the company which announced the departure of Don Mattrick, the president of the Xbox division, on Monday. 

Julie-Lawson Green, the head of Windows, has been mooted as a possible replacement for Mattrick with speculation suggesting she could be charged with overseeing Microsoft's entire hardware division. Mattrick is set to earn as much as $46 million in his first year at Zynga.