The Electronic Entertainment Expo — E3 to the technorati — kicks off Tuesday in Los Angeles, and the first big deal of the week is the Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) news conference scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET on Monday. The E3 tradition is that the big guys — Microsoft, Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE), Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA), Ubisoft — hold their major press events before the show actually begins. Nintendo gets into the pre-show announcements early Tuesday morning.

The Redmond, Wash., company is expected to provide some details about new games for its Xbox One console, among other things. Monday evening at 7:30 p.m. ET, Sony holds its press show and, like Microsoft, is expected to announce a host of new games for its PlayStation 4.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the launches of the Xbox One and the PS4 may have saved the video game console industry. According to the most recent announcements from the companies, Microsoft has shipped 5 million units of its Xbox One to retailers and Sony sold 7 million units of its PS4.

Before last November’s launch of these two consoles, the November 2012 launch of Nintendo’s Wii U had been the most recent update to a gaming platform. And while the Wii U was a success, it couldn’t carry the load by itself. The console has sold a total of 6.17 million units to date.

Microsoft brings its Kinect-less Xbox One to market next week at the same $399 price that Sony charges for the PS4. Microsoft had already tried to beef up sales of the new console by offering a bundle with the Titanfall game included at a price of $439, with some retailers dropping the bundle’s price to $389.

The simple, direct approach to gamers who had been waiting for years for new consoles paid off for Sony. The PS4 was presented first and foremost as a gaming device. Microsoft pushed a wider marketing message about the Xbox One as an entertainment platform. That atomized the message, and the Titanfall bundle offer was the company’s attempt to get the focus back on games.

Monday’s press conference has been dubbed “Xbox: Game On” by Microsoft and will reinforce the company’s game message with further looks at upcoming games, trailers for new games expected later this year, and even games that have not been announced yet for the Xbox. There is not much question about what Microsoft is trying to do. The only question is whether or not it will work.

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