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.
