The industry rumor mill is pointing to Sony deciding to sit out E3 this year.
Sony might just be sitting out this year’s E3. Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter told VGC that he is not entirely on board with the idea of Sony being at the year’s most significant industry tradeshow. In 2019 the company decided to sit out the conference, which made sense. With no new hardware, no new significant games to announce, and nothing to say, going to the event and holding a press conference would have been pointless.
It is surprising to learn that they might not attend this year due to the release of the PlayStation 5 in the holiday season. With E3 slowly losing its luster over the years, with companies like EA deciding to hold their own EA Play event the same weekend rather than attend, Sony may be choosing to do the same thing.
The PlayStation 5 will have been revealed long before then, and Sony might try to hold their event much as EA does. A nearby Sony specific event would give them access to the same people who travel to E3. It would also give them complete control of their location, time on stage during the press conference, and how visitors interact with the product and brand without needing to sacrifice any attention to other companies.
The Entertainment Software Association has also had their issues recently, with significant data breaches, and a struggle to try to keep the event from losing too many major vendors. This could be playing into Sony deciding to seek their venue.
While Sony has always had a strong focus on reaching customers through events and conventions, E3 has been suffering a case of lost identity since they opened the event up to the public. No longer a true tradeshow, and without the focus of a pure consumer dedicated event, a definitive move needs to be made to find solid ground again.
It is also possible the Sony decide to do nothing at all that weekend, but this seems unlikely. Sony wouldn’t wish to give Microsoft a free pass for media and consumer attention during one of gaming’s busiest weeks. To that end, we expect to see Sony either hold their own event or be at E3 and ready to compete.
