Playstation End of an Era: Sony Skipping E3 2019 Conference

[Chandoo]

Not only skipping a conference, but not attending at the show at all.

Sony Interactive Entertainment, currently riding high on record sales of its PlayStation 4 gaming console won’t be hosting its annual press conference or showing up at all during next year’s massive E3 expo.

The news was buried inside the Entertainment Software Association’s announcement of the 2019 show.

This will be the first time in E3’s 24-year history that PlayStation will not be attending the event, it is also the second major PlayStation event canceled by the company in recent months.

In September, Shawn Layden, chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, said the company wouldn’t be hosting this year’s PlayStation Experience citing a lack of games to show.

“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,” Layden said.”We don’t want to set expectations really high and then not deliver on it.”
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PlayStation Experience started four years ago as a celebration for PlayStation’s 20th anniversary as a way to “bring fans together” for a consumer event, according to Layden. The event expanded over the next few years as a place to give news updates. This year, though Layden expressed that “we have a lot of progress that we’re making in our games” but also that there’s not much to share at this point for upcoming titles.

The same could be true for E3 2019, though that does raise concerns about the PlayStation 4 itself and a potential lack of upcoming titles.

The timing also comes just a month after Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida confirmed that a successor to the PlayStation 3 is going to happen.

“At this point, what I can say is it’s necessary to have a [sic] next-generation hardware,” Yoshida stated. Yoshida declined to confirm whether or not the next PlayStation console will be called the “PlayStation 5,” which seems like the natural choice.
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[golabucha]

“Successor to ps3 is going to happen “ ?
dont we already have that ?

 

[Chandoo]

“Successor to ps3 is going to happen “ ?
dont we already have that ?

Probably a typo, the article itself isn't formally up anymore. It went up then got taken down. Probably announced it earlier than Sony intended to.

 

[SolitarySoldier]

It makes sense. E3 2018 made it clear that Sony is done producing new titles this gen. What is yet to release is either already revealed to a reasonable degree or is not enough to warrant a whole E3 conference, especially when a new hardware reveal is not expected until 2020.

 

[manigamer]

yeah from past two years seeing same games and delayed and such, sony is done with first party titles this gen...

plus no new console announcement in 2019 or perhaps late 2019 and a 2020 launch for ps5

 

[venom]

This is sad. E3 can never be good without either MS or Sony. I was sure this year's E3 would be about next gen for both MS and Sony. Wonder how and when Sony will now reveal the next gen of their consoles.

 

[Muaaz]

What horseshit! So the only chance of learning about PS5 is if Sony holds The Playstation Experience next year.
Or are they quitting E3 completely in favor of their own event?

 

[Necrokiller]

Dreams, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us 2 and Death Stranding are not enough to "get people together in the same location"?

 

[CerebralTiger]

Well this came out of nowhere. Maybe they're saving all forthcoming major announcements for the PS5 reveal event.

 

[Muaaz]

Dreams, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us 2 and Death Stranding are not enough to "get people together in the same location"?

With the exception of Ghost of Tsushima, all those games have been present at least at two E3s. None much left to show about them at an event of this scale.

It seems as if Sony is slowly giving up on PS4, without dropping any considerable hint about PS5. And the wild success of PS4 raises even more questions why this is the case.

 

[GloriousChicken]

E3 has been reducing in hype lately too I guess they got burned out of it.

 

[Necrokiller]

With the exception of Ghost of Tsushima, all those games have been present at least at two E3s. None much left to show about them at an event of this scale.

Except for Dreams, all those games only got 1 highly scripted gameplay trailer with no hands-on time to the press. None of those have a release date either. That's barely enough.

 

[venom]

Dreams, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us 2 and Death Stranding are not enough to "get people together in the same location"?

My exact thoughts !!! I read somewhere that the organizer was demanding huge sums of money so that could have been an issue. They have also been emphasizing more and more on PSX every year so we might just see all major announcements including the hardware reveal there. But man E3 is E3, i dont think any event comes close to the hype and exposure you can get at E3. Personally, the level of excitement for E3 every year is far far more than any other gaming convention.

 

[Chandoo]

Dreams, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us 2 and Death Stranding are not enough to "get people together in the same location"?

It wouldn't make much sense to have the exact same games as this year again though ...

also Dreams has been delayed to infinity, the last thing that game needs is a 20 minute stage presentation .. it just needs to come out.

 

[Necrokiller]

It wouldn't make much sense to have the exact same games as this year again though ...

... so it makes more sense to cancel the show altogether than to show new gameplay and hands on material? lol what are you guys on

 

[Muaaz]

... so it makes more sense to cancel the show altogether than to show new gameplay and hands on material? lol what are you guys on

It's about the illicit "who won E3" thing, as it's clearly a competition. And clearly Sony has nothing new to show.
My money is that they want to leave E3 in favor of The Playstation Experience and/or Paris Games Week.

 

[Radical]

Sony e3 2019!
Gather everyone in one place for hours!
Tease the PS5.
Move them afterwards to another location for the regular PS4 demo reel!
I think they just want to reveal it in its final form with ‘real’ realtime demos/games at PSX later that year.

 

[Necrokiller]

It's about the illicit "who won E3" thing, as it's clearly a competition. And clearly Sony has nothing new to show.
My money is that they want to leave E3 in favor of The Playstation Experience and/or Paris Games Week.

This has no significance outside of forum wars.
But yes, looks like they want to make the PS Experience or PGW their main stage of announcements.

 

[Chandoo]

... so it makes more sense to cancel the show altogether than to show new gameplay and hands on material? lol what are you guys on

It makes sense to not have a conference if you don't have anything new to show .. they've already announced their 2019 lineup and shown it multiple times, they're probably saving the remaining load for 2020 for the PS5 reveal.

or ... we don't know yet if Sony is going to do a Nintendo Direct style presentation or anything, we just only know they won't be attending E3 2019.

 

[CerebralTiger]

Sony e3 2019!
Gather everyone in one place for hours!
Tease the PS5.
Move them afterwards to another location for the regular PS4 demo reel!

Hahah I'm surprised it took 2 pages for someone to crack this joke :hah: