Sony decided to drop a bombshell today and announce that the company will not be attending E3 2019. This is the first time in the show's nearly 25-year history that Sony will be absent.
"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."
Aside from the event itself, Sony also confirmed that it would not be holding a press conference of any kind. When asked whether the company would go the route of EA and hold a separate event offsite before E3 kicks off, PlayStation senior vice president of communications Jennifer Clark stated, "We will not activate or hold a press conference around E3."
It remains to be seen if Sony will revive the PlayStation Experience, its annual fan event, which was canceled this year as well. "We are looking at events as a whole and how we can speak more to our fans and continue to wow them. The timing of PSX and E3 didn't allow for that," Clark replied. "But lots of exciting things to come, and we hope to share shortly. Some of our biggest games will have key milestones next year so we will work hard to blow those up."
