After shockingly opting to skip out on E3 in 2019, many have wondered whether or not Sony PlayStation would decide to return to the annual Los Angeles-based convention this year in 2020. While Sony hasn’t officially made clear its plans for the event just yet, according to some that might be in the know, a return doesn’t sound too hopeful.
In a new report from VGC, it was said that some sources close to Sony continue to doubt that the PlayStation brand will return this June to E3. Despite attending every single E3 convention in history prior to 2019, 2020 may once again prove that last year wasn’t an anomaly. That said, plans don’t seem to be set in stone just yet meaning that Sony could still definitely show up.
According to Michael Pachter, a video game industry analyst at Wedbush Securities, what he has heard so far indicates that Sony will once again be watching from the sidelines. “As far as I know, they don’t plan to attend,” Pachter told VGC. “I think that’s a huge mistake, as their ‘focus on the consumer’ is not inconsistent with their attendance at the premier industry trade show. I hope they change their minds, but am sceptical.”
Last year, when still serving as the chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios, Shawn Layden said that one of the primary reasons why Sony bowed out is that E3 stopped being as important on the annual calendar. “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,” Layden explained at the time. While Layden didn’t say that Sony would opt to continue skipping E3 well into the future, he seemed to make clear that the ESA needed to somehow change what the show does and how it operates.
Still, if Sony doesn’t end up attending E3 2020, the company is no stranger to holding its own events. In the past, Sony has held separate events for both the reveals of the PS4 and the PS4 Pro. They also used to hold an annual convention known as PlayStation Experience, until opting to skip out in both 2018 and 2019. In all likelihood, Sony will probably opt to formally reveal the PS5 via a separate event in the early part of this year, much as they’ve done in the past. And even if they do decide to miss E3 2020, they could always bring back PlayStation Experience later in the year if they decide that there’s more they want to say to their fans.
The bottom line is that Sony is perhaps the most secretive console manufacturer in the video game industry right now. While we know what the company’s broad plans are for the year, we have yet to learn specifics about when and where they want to dive into more detail on these plans. We’ll surely hear more about these plans in the coming weeks and months, but the only thing we’ve recently gleaned is what the logo for the PS5 will look like.
For now, the only thing we can definitely bet on with Sony is that The Last of Us Part II is out this May, Ghost of Tsushima is dropping on PS4 in the summer, and the PlayStation 5 will be out this holiday season.
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