3 Possible Reasons Sony Is Skipping E3 2019

They’ve Got Nothing to Show

3 Possible Reasons Sony Is Skipping E3 2019

It’s easy to put a negative spin on Sony’s absence from E3 2019. For years, the company has dominated the event with grand spectacles of sizzling hot game lineups, live orchestral performances, and even themed rooms to add ambiance to select trailer reveals. Yet there’s no doubt that they’ve started to slow down recently.

E3 2018’s bizarre room-to-room live presentation was creative –artistic, even– and did well to add a bit of extra magic to the four big titles on display. But there were only four notable games on display, and hardly any notable new announcements.

Later in the year, of course, PSX was canceled after Sony admitted there just wasn’t enough content to warrant a specific event.

Understandably, the PSX no-show disappointed a lot of fans. The event has been a big calendar highlight for the past couple of years, a way for Sony to really interact with its player base in an intimate and entertaining way.

What we were all expecting, then? Was Sony to hold everything back and reappear with a bang next year? But maybe that’s just not possible. After all, we’re pretty up to speed on what every studio is working on right now, and studios like Guerrilla Games, Santa Monica, and Polyphony Digital have only just released games –they can’t possibly be ready to show anything.

Is there a possibility that Sony has fired all its ammunition and doesn’t want another showcase of the same games again?

Honestly, while there’s some truth to the point that Sony has shown most of its hand already for the generation, this argument isn’t altogether convincing to me.

Sony still has easily enough content in combination with third-parties to put on a decent E3 presentation. There’s no way that, if the overall strategy was to continue hitting big events like E3, they’d pull out simply because of a lack of content. Look at Microsoft, for example, they’ve spent most of the generation touting third-party content for a lack of exclusives and they’ve still put on a great show.

Sony Is Going Solo, Will Run Its Own Event

3 Possible Reasons Sony Is Skipping E3 2019

Industry analysts have been murmuring for years about the decline of E3, and they’ve had good reason to do so. YouTube, Twitch, and the internet, in general, has completely changed the way companies are able to engage with their audiences. Why wait for a video game show to tell journalists about your games when you can just tell the audience directly?

That’s the question Nintendo directors asked themselves years ago before changing their keynote model to the Nintendo Direct presentations we see today, and they’ve certainly not been any worse for it.

Recently, companies like EA, who for years occupied enormous floor spaces at E3’s convention center, decided they too could engage their audience with their very own show. Microsoft joined the movement this year, too, running its own event across the way from E3’s own show.

So is Sony’s decision to opt-out of E3 2019 fuelled by similar intent –to command their own showcase at a time and location of their choosing? Is this Sony’s way of ensuring the maximum amount of attention on their products, safe from being drowned out by other industry news at E3?

That certainly seems to be the case. Sony’s statement makes mention of the evolution of the games industry, and that the company is looking to engage their community in “new and familiar ways.” Perhaps in saying familiar, Sony is alluding to a grander showcase at PSX in 2019 that will fill in for E3? As for the “new,” we’re not sure –maybe a succession of trailer drops throughout the year in a Nintendo Direct-style?

PS5 Is Launching Next Year at Sony’s Own Event

3 Possible Reasons Sony Is Skipping E3 2019

The launch of PS5 is the boldest theory for Sony’s decision to skip E3 2019, but it might well be more plausible than it initially sounds.

For one thing, we’ve heard rumblings from Sony about the future of the brand moving forward. Weeks ago, the company issued its first official confirmation that new hardware was certainly on the way, stamping out any notion of an extended PS4 lifecycle in the same vein as the PS3.

Not that the PS4 is that young; it recently celebrated its fifth year in production, which would make a 2019 PS5 launch the same length of time between the PS1, PS2, and PS3. Only the economic crisis of the mid-2000’s extended the PS3’s lifecycle beyond the six-year norm.

What’s more, we’ve already established the list of upcoming first-party software, while it certainly looks compelling, is starting to slow. Does it not make sense that the generation is winding down, then? Doesn’t The Last of Us Part II as a swansong for the PS4 not sound about right, and are we really sure that Death Stranding isn’t a PS5 game?

It certainly doesn’t seem outside the realms of possibility that Sony would drop some trailers throughout the year to keep us informed, and then run a full-scale PS5 launch event. Post E3 would make the most sense, possibly around September, with a console launch date set for the holiday period.

So Which Is Most Likely?

3 Possible Reasons Sony Is Skipping E3 2019

My bet is that the PS5 is announced next year at its own launch event, and one or two of the games we’ve already seen showcased are cross-platform titles. Better still, that the PS5 is completely backward compatible with the PS4, and all its predecessor’s upcoming games are playable in 4K.

It would certainly be a huge statement for Sony to make, undercutting their rivals at a crucial moment. Consider that interest in Nintendo’s Switch has started to plateau after the initial burst of enthusiasm, and Microsoft is beginning to gain momentum with its various streaming services, studio acquisitions, and impressive showcase at E3 2018.

With rumors recently flying around about an upcoming Xbox streaming box called Scarlet, and then Microsoft’s cloud announcement suggesting the infrastructure will indeed feature prominently in their long-term strategy, I think it would be very wise for Sony to be first out the gates in the next generation “console war.”

The last thing Sony needs when it launches PS5 is for Microsoft to leverage its network infrastructure, attractive Game Pass program, and All Access purchase options to paint a picture of a better user experience on Xbox.

If Sony’s PS5 is a traditional console, the logical thing to do is launch quickly with a box that delivers big performance and exciting exclusive content. Backward compatibility, too, would obviously be a big boon, effectively turning the last of its first-party PS4 content into launch titles.

We’ll obviously just have to wait and see, but it does appear as though Sony wants to space itself from the rest of the industry for something specific.