For the first time in 24 years, Sony will not be attending E3. Additionally, Sony will also be canceling their yearly annual press conference, the PlayStation Experience.
Sony would release a statement to Variety.com stating that they were not showing up to the expo next year.
As the industry evolves, Sony Interactive Entertainment continues to look for inventive opportunities to engage the community. PlayStation fans mean the world to us and we always want to innovate, think differently and experiment with new ways to delight gamers. As a result, we have decided not to participate in E3 in 2019. We are exploring new and familiar ways to engage our community in 2019 and can’t wait to share our plans with you.
This is not the only event that Sony will be skipping out on next year. They are also skipping their own PlayStation Experience event. Their reasons for skipping PSX are simply due to a lack of games to show. Shawn Layden, the chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, would state, “Now that we have Spiderman out the door, we’re looking down in 2019 to games like Dreams and Days Gone but we wouldn’t have enough to bring people altogether in some location in North America to have that event. We don’t want to set expectations really high and then not deliver on it.”
A New Console?
This is a worrying sign for PlayStation fans, who think that a lack of games is to blame for their absence at E3 2019. This news also coincides with a recent announcement by the company back in October. Sony’s president and CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida, would announce that the company is planning the creation of a successor to the PS4. This gives the notion that Sony may be slowing down their efforts on the PS4. As a result, they would be able to focus on the upcoming new console, which could release in 2020.
However, where does this leave PlayStation and their already-announced projects? There were a few big titles that Sony has been teasing this year. Death Stranding, The Last of Us 2, and Days Gone are all highly anticipated games, that have nowhere to go now that E3 is off the table. One option that Sony could use, is a possible online press conference. Another company that favors this method of announcements is Nintendo, who actually skipped out on E3 in 2013.
E3 loses out
PlayStation usually takes up a huge part of E3’s timeline. Unfortunately, with Sony leaving the expo, this leaves a big gap to fill for the show planners. The Entertainment Software Association, the association that runs E3, will have to find something big to replace Sony with. This is another big blow to the annual gaming trade show, which has seen multiple big-name publishers bow out in the last few years. For example, E3 has seen Electronic Arts host its own event, as well as Microsoft and even Nintendo. Now that Sony is leaving the E3 stage, this means that the grand expo only has a few marquee conferences to its name.
What are your thoughts on Sony canceling their E3 2019 appearance, as well as PlayStation Experience? Let us know what you think in the comments below! If you want more video game news, check us out here!
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