Confirmed: Sony will not be at E3 2020

It has now been confirmed that Sony will indeed be skipping E3 2020 in favour of attending “hundreds of consumer events” instead.

A Sony Interactive Entertainment spokesperson issued the following statement to GamesIndustry.biz:

“After thorough evaluation SIE has decided not to participate in E3 2020. We have great respect for the ESA as an organisation, but we do not feel the vision of E3 2020 is the right venue for what we are focused on this year.”

“We will build upon our global events strategy in 2020 by participating in hundreds of consumer events across the globe. Our focus is on making sure fans feel part of the PlayStation family and have access to play their favorite content. We have a fantastic line up of titles coming to PlayStation 4, and with the upcoming launch of PlayStation 5, we are truly looking forward to a year of celebration with our fans.”

On the bright side, Sony seems to have big plans for 2020, which means that PlayStation fans are in for a treat. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of the PlayStation 5 soon enough.

Original story continues below:

It seems likely that Sony won’t be making an appearance at E3 2020, making it the second year in a row that the PlayStation 5 producer has opted to skip the convention.

An article from VGC reports that VGC’s own sources believe that Sony is skipping E3, with Xbox’s events team reportedly “working under the assumption” that there’ll be no PlayStation presence at E3 at all and, as such, “upping its plans accordingly.”

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter also told VGC that he’s sceptical about Sony’s return, saying the following:

“As far as I know, they don’t plan to attend. 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.”

The good news is that Sony passing on E3 2020 could potentially result in two big things: a potentially earlier reveal of the PlayStation 5 and Microsoft going all out for a full unveiling of the Xbox Series X.

If VGC is correct and Xbox’s events team are truly planning their E3 presentation based on the lack of Sony, Microsoft could potentially opt to show off the Xbox Series X by pulling out all the stops.

As both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are set to release around the same time, it makes sense that Microsoft would really want to ramp up their marketing prior to launch.

Sony has yet to officially comment on whether it’ll be at E3 or not. The schedule for E3 should start to emerge sometime in the next few months, meaning that it shouldn’t be too long until the company speaks out publicly.

E3 2020 runs from Tuesday the 9th of June, 2020, until Thursday the 11th of June 2020.

In related PlayStation 5 news, a devkit and controller prototype were recently spotted in the wild thanks to a cleaner who decided it was a good idea to share the photos on a public forum.

The prototype controller retains most of the features of the traditional DUALSHOCK, but with a larger touchpad that may or may not now be a miniature touchscreen.