Ranch
Emily Gera
Monday, January 13, 2020, GMT
Ranch
PlayStation will not show up at this year's E3.
Instead, the company plans to participate in international "hundreds" of consumer events, noting that E3's vision is not in line with the 2020 plan.
In other words, don't expect E3 to release PS5 this year.
"After a comprehensive evaluation, SIE decided not to participate in the 2020 E3 conference," Sony Interactive Entertainment told GamesIndustry.biz today. "We have great respect for ESA as an organization, but we don't think the 2020 E3 vision is the right place for us to focus on this year.
"We will build on the global event strategy of 2020 by participating in hundreds of consumer events around the world. Our focus is to ensure that fans feel they belong to the PlayStation series and have the right to play their favorite content. A great series of games, and with the upcoming PlayStation 5, we look forward to celebrating a year with our fans. "
This will be the second year in a row that Sony will not attend an event in Los Angeles. Last year, the company provided a similar excuse for its decision not to participate in E3 2019, noting that as the industry grew, Sony Interactive Entertainment continued to look for innovative opportunities to interact with the community.
Sony is hardly the first major publisher to somehow abandon E3. It started with EA, which announced in 2016 that it will host its own event EA Play with E3. Over the past few years, other publishers have also been reducing their participation at the show. Even so, E3 is still one of the biggest video game trade shows of the year.