Sony has dropped a bit of a bombshell on everyone by confirming that it will not be attending E3 in any capacity whatsoever in 2019. To be clear, this is separate from when, for example, Nintendo opted not to have conference or even a Direct at E3–at that point, they still brought their games and had them playable on the show floor. Instead, Sony has confirmed in no uncertain words that it will not be at E3 at all, including on the show floor, and also that, unlike what EA or Nintendo do, that it will not be having its own off site stream or show around then either.
Sony’s official reasoning for this decision is that it has come up with other ways to share news and communicate with fans through 2019, which are things that it will share later.
“As the industry evolves, Sony Interactive Entertainment continues to look for inventive opportunities to engage the community,” the company told Game Informer in a statement. “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.”
However, this news comes on the heels of PlayStation Experience’s cancellation for this year, which, according to Sony America’s head Shawn Layden, was simply because Sony had nothing new to show. Given that Sony has been showing the same set of games for the last few trade shows it has attended—Days Gone, Death Stranding, Dreams, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us Part 2–it’s likely they didn’t just want to have repeated content again, and risk negative reaction from the community as happened after E3 this year.
Of course, it also simultaneously at least indicates that Sony’s studios are now working on games that cannot be shared as of right now. I assume that might be because the system those games will end up coming out on hasn’t actually been announced yet…