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Sony could skip E3 again in 2020

E3

In 2019, the relevance of E3 slipped quite a bit. Many developers and major publishers opted to skip the Summer convention, instead opting to host their own livestreams and other events to promote their games. Some developer also opted to skip the tradeshow out of having no games in a state ready to show, but let’s focus on the former reasoning for now. Of the major companies to skip E3 last year, Sony was one of the more shocking ones.

And it appears that the trend could continue this year. Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter told VGC that he is not so sure that Sony will show up at E3 2020 either. The move made some sense then, with no new hardware, no new significant games to announce, and nothing that they couldn’t say without a major conference, the decision was made to axe the Sony showing.

Sony explained last year that they had instead focused on internal circulation of news and releases, focusing on shareholders and retail partners at Sony-specific events throughout 2019. This was done because many retailers and investors like to plan ahead, making plans for various deals and purchases earlier in the year. And with E3 taking place in the mid-Summer, there’s not a bug chance to plan ahead for future releases.

The E3 event itself has been suffering recently. The loss of vendors and relevant showings is a big part of the problem, but issues run deep. The opening of the event to the public caused E3 to take a hit in terms of it’s place as a tradeshow. And without the true consumer-facing feel of a normal public convention or fan event, the ESA has been forced to inhabit a weird middle ground. The Entertainment Software Association has also had their issues recently, with significant data breaches, trust is certainly waning, and relevance along with it.

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Going back to Sony, it would be strange for them not to show at all this year. The impending launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X in later 2020 threatens to reignite the console war once again. So the odds of them pushing for a smaller event, possibly a livestream running the same weekend as E3 is up in the air. It is also possible that Sony elects to hold no events that weekend, instead announcing the PS5 sometime sooner or later to avoid the cluttered news cycle.

We’re still waiting on news about the backwards compatibility of the new console. The recent reveal that the PS5 could focus more on exclusives to push games away from the PS4 a little quicker is also interesting, and gamers will want to hear more.

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