PlayStation Experience Won’t Be Happening This Year

PlayStation Experience, Sony’s annual fan festival/game convention, is taking a year off.

During the latest episode of the PlayStation Blogcast, SIE Worldwide Studios Chairman Shawn Layden revealed that Sony made the “hard decision” to pass on PlayStation Experience in 2018. Layden’s explanation for not holding the event is as follows:

The reasons behind that really are…we have a lot of progress that we’re making on our games, and we’re seeing that coming out. Now that we have Spider-Man out the door, we’re looking down in 2019 to games like Dreams and Days Gone, but we wouldn’t have enough to bring people all together in some location in North America to have that event. We don’t want to set the expectations really high and not deliver on it.

Layden also explained that PlayStation is working on a variety of ways to increase its communication with fans, including through the PlayStation Blog and social media channels.

Sony’s decision to hold off on PlayStation Experience isn’t a huge surprise. Fans began to speculate that the event might not happen this year after August came and went with no announcement. PlayStation Experience 2017, which took place in Anaheim, California, was announced on August 16th last year. The event is typically held in December.

As Layden alluded to, a 2018 iteration of PlayStation Experience would likely be a disappointment for fans, as it seems like Sony wouldn’t have much to announce. The PS4 is reaching the end of its life, and Sony is probably knee-deep in development on games for its successor. This year’s E3 didn’t see any blockbuster first party game reveals, with the company instead showcasing Marvel’s Spider-Man, The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, and Death Stranding, which could be the last major exclusive titles for the system.