Sony is skipping E3 2019

[Flojomojo]

https://kotaku.com/sony-pulls-out-of-e3-2019-1830474052

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo does its own thing, too. With real-time streaming and other "new media," why do we need meatspace sales conventions, anyway?

[spacecadet]

Well, that was the rationale for its cancellation in the 2000's, but then the industry decided it couldn't live without it and brought it back.

 

I think these big companies that can afford to put on their own shows that they control probably don't need E3. But I think it does help smaller companies (and I mean that in the relative sense; I just mean companies smaller than Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo). And I think the industry already learned once before that there's more to a show like E3 than just the actual news that comes out of it; there's the excitement that it generates by its event status. It makes people pay attention. If you release a trailer for an upcoming game in the middle of November, it's pretty likely that nobody's going to bother watching it because except for the really hardcore who are always watching, most people are not paying attention in general. But ironically, do it during E3 and people will pay attention despite all the extra competition, because they're paying attention to everything going on there. That's especially true if you manage to get your game on one of those "Best of E3" lists.

 

We'll see if the industry ends up repeating its mistake of the previous decade. I don't think Sony skipping E3 is necessarily a mistake, but if anyone other than Nintendo or MS follows suit and/or the big 3 don't end up putting on their own shows as a replacement, that will be a mistake.

[Tanooki]

Perhaps E3 just needs to evolve into a press conference for the big fish, and they can either opt to set up a booth or not, but primarily have it for the third parties. There are so many of them, lots, that could really benefit from some floor space, and with the huge players out of the way they'd find a better way to stand out and shine on their own product instead of being drown out by the likes of corrupt ones like EA and Activison or just the huge hardware trio too. The really big ones can easily just do press conferences and some huge Nintendo Direct style HD blowout stuff instead through youtube and they'd be just fine.