Sony Discusses PlayStation’s Presence at E3 2020

Sony shocked the gaming world last year when they announced that they would be skipping E3 2019 for the first time and though the company had a solid reason as to why they wouldn’t be in attendance, it didn’t stop fan fears that the PlayStation team was done with E3 for good. Luckily, that’s not the case.

“If we jump from the trade show thing to the consumer show… I do think the bridge will appear,” said Sony chairman Shawn Layden in a recent interview with Game Informer. “We did PSX, we didn’t know what that was going to be like. We did it for the 25th anniversary of PlayStation, but we got lucky. If you build it, they will come. That’s the conversation we’re having in real time right now with the ESA. Just because PlayStation is not at E3 2019 doesn’t mean we won’t be there in 2020.”

After the bizarre showcase they had during E3 2018, it’s understandable that the team would want to regroup and make sure that they aren’t rushing out announcements that aren’t quite ready. It’s also a good way to not bleed out exposure to anticipated games, especially if there’s nothing new to show.

Though the reason behind the company deciding to pull out isn’t new, it is nice to see the confirmation that this doesn’t mean the end for E3 as it stands. Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo – these are staples and we couldn’t imagine a showcase without them.

Missed out on the big Sony announcement last? You can catch up with our full coverage here, as well as a note from Sony below:

“As the industry evolves, Sony Interactive Entertainment continues to look for inventive opportunities to engage the community,” the company told Game Informer in a statement. “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.”

It will be interesting to see what 2019 and 2020 brings. Sony isn’t the first big name to withdraw from the showcase, and the expo itself has been going through some pretty major changes through the year. The biggest? E3 now being open to the public. Where the expo goes from here is up in the air, though Xboss Phil Spencer continues to promise “big things ahead.”

What do you think about Sony pulling out of the E3 festivities? Join in on the conversation in the comment section below, or hit me up over on Twitter @DirtyEffinHippy.