Last year, in an announcement that shocked the gaming community, to some extent, Sony dropped out of E3 2019, stating, back then, that it would make some big statements about its future plans before the E3 event of this year. However, we didn’t receive a decent explanation of why Sony decided to move out of E3 2019 until now when PlayStation’s Shawn Layden came out to give more details.
“When we decided to take video games out of CES, back in 1995 during the PlayStation 1 era, E3 served two constituencies – retailers and journalists (…) There was a huge educational component (…) And there was no internet to speak of. So a trade show at that time of year for this nascent industry was exactly what we needed to do,” said Shawn Layden.
“So the trade show became a trade show without a lot of trade activity. The world has changed, but E3 hasn’t necessarily changed with it,” he continued.
Here’s Why Sony Dropped Out Of E3 2019, According to Shawn Layden
“Now we have an event in February called Destination PlayStation, where we bring all retailers and third-party partners to come to hear the story for the year. They’re making purchasing discussions in February. June, now, is just too late to have a Christmas holiday discussion with retailers. So retail has really dropped off. And journalists now, with the internet and the fact that 24/7 there is game news, it’s lost its impact around that,” Layden added.
On the other hand, “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 in 2019. We are exploring new and familiar ways to engage our community in 2019 and can’t wait to share our plans with you,” said Sony’s representatives for Variety last year when the company announced that it will not participate at E3 2019.
In conclusion, Sony dropped out of E3 2019 because the most significant game fair of the year is not anymore suitable for Sony’s plans. So, the Japanese company decided to come up with their own trade shows, focused on PlayStation, mostly.
