Sony Will be Skipping E3 2019

In a turn of events no one saw coming, The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and Sony Interactive Entertainment have announced that Sony will be skipping the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2019. This will be the first time in E3’s 24-year history that Sony will not have a presence at the event in the form of a conference or its usual PlayStation booth.

The official statement from the ESA explains:

As the industry evolves, Sony Interactive Entertainment continues to look for inventive opportunities to engage the community. PlayStation fans mean the world to us and we always want to innovate, think differently and experiment with new ways to delight gamers. As a result, we have decided not to participate in E3 2019. We are exploring new and familiar ways to engage our community in 2019 and can’t wait to share our plans with you.

It’s no secret that E3 has made some major changes in recent years, with EA hosting its own event before E3 and Nintendo opting for recorded conferences in favor of a live show; but Sony shaking up the event even further by being a no-show in 2019 seems to be the biggest hit to E3 thus far, especially considering major PlayStation exclusives like The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, and Death Stranding (not to mention PlayStation 5) are still on the horizon. Its physical loss will be just as great at E3, as PlayStation takes up a large chunk of space on the main show floor that could be challenging to fill.

The news also comes just two months after Sony announced it will not be holding its annual event PlayStation Experience (PSX), because “we don’t want to set expectations really high and then not deliver on that. It was a hard decision, but we have determined that this year we will not hold PlayStation Experience.”

Sony has had a great year, with the release of exclusives like God of War and Spider-Man. Now that the company seems to be lying low for the rest of the year, we will just have to wait and see what comes next.