With the recent announcement that Sony will, for the second consecutive year, be skipping E3, many are speculating that the conference’s days - or, more aptly, years - are numbered. Once the annual arbiter of all things gaming, E3 has seemingly become less and less relevant as other expos and events have increasingly gained public interest. What’s more, with other major publishers having long since abandoned it, the ESA’s chances or returning the conference to its former glory seem unlikely.
To be fair, some believed 2019 to have been the death knell for E3, as nearly every major publisher save for Nintendo had little of interest to showcase. Rumors of a potential Project Scarlett reveal ensured that there would be at least some interest, but, with Sony opting to skip the event outright, the moment may not have been right for Microsoft. E3 2019 went out with a whimper, and a subsequent weak performance in 2020 may well spell trouble for organizers.
“After thorough evaluation, SIE has decided not to participate in E3 2020,” a Sony rep informed Gamesindustry.biz on Monday. “We have great respect for the ESA as an organization, but we do not feel the vision of E3 2020 is the right venue for what we are focused on this year.”
To paraphrase, it seems like Sony isn’t interested in pigeonholing the reveal of the long-anticipated PlayStation 5 into an hour-long presentation scheduled in between a bunch of other potentially-distracting announcements. What’s more, the longtime Microsoft competitor may have plans to unveil the new system earlier than E3’s June ninth kickoff. With Microsoft having recently officially revealed its Project Scarlett - now known as the Xbox Series X - it seems like it may be best to strike while the iron is hot rather than wait an arbitrary summer conference.
Sony isn’t the first to shy away from making an appearance at E3, either. EA opted to jump ship in 2019, instead hosting a three-hour livestream one day ahead of the event which, bewildering, focused mainly on sports titles and other releases in-the-know consumers likely didn’t care much about. Similarly, Google could easily have chosen to hold off the official reveal of Stadia until E3 rolled around, though it instead chose to unveil the service independently about a week before the show.
Beyond that, Activision has, for quite some time, simply ridden on the back on Sony, typically showing off the next Call of Duty title during the PlayStation showcase rather than putting together their own. Plus, Blizzard, Activision’s partner in crime, save all its major reveals for Blizzcon, a conference dedicated entirely to the publisher.
With Sony’s State of Play becoming more of a regular thing - a concept lifted from Nintendo’s Direct broadcasts - it could be that SIE and publishers like it will, in future, forego the major crowds and deafening buzz of E3 to cultivate their own announcements when they see fit. While there will always be publishers eager to nab the spotlight at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, it’s reign as the be-all-end-all of gaming announcements as reveals could very well be coming to an end.