Sony Computer Entertainment Interactive will not participate in E3 2019 next June, Variety reports. This would mark the first time in E3’s 24 year history that the company will have no part in it.
In a separate statement to Game Informer, Sony confirmed they will also not hold their own event in tandem to E3.
SIEW chairment Shawn Layden said the decision came down to a lack of games to show, in particular once the upcoming Days Gone and Dreams ship next year. “Now that we have ‘Spider-Man’ out the door,” he said, “we’re looking down in 2019 to games like ‘Dreams’ and ‘Days Gone’ but we wouldn’t have enough to bring people altogether in some location in North America to have that event.”
A similar stance is also why Sony will not host their own PlayStation Experience event this December, a fan event that had been running since 2014 until last year. Sony says their looking to evolve how they present their material to fans in 2019 and beyond.
“As the industry evolves, Sony Interactive Entertainment continues to look for inventive opportunities to engage the community. PlayStation fans mean the world to us and we always want to innovate, think differently and experiment with new ways to delight gamers.”
With no E3 conference or presence next year, it further fuels speculation about a successor machine coming soon, as a PlayStation 5 is rumored to launch in 2020.
