PlayStation is skipping E3 2019

PlayStation is officially skipping E3 2019, according to an announcement from Sony. This marks the first time in the 24-year history of E3 that the gaming giant won’t attend the show, via Variety.

In a statement released to Game Informer, Sony confirmed that it will be skipping the annual conference, commenting, “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. 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.”

The news marks the second major PlayStation event that Sony has canceled in recent months. The company also isn’t running its annual PlayStation Experience event in the beginning of December where it also tends to showcase upcoming games. According to Shawn Layden, the chairman of worldwide studios for Sony Interactive Entertainment, the issue is that the company just wouldn’t have enough new material to justify the event. “We don’t want to set expectations really high and then not deliver on it. It was a hard decision,” Layden said.

In October, Sony president and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida confirmed plans for a successor to the PlayStation 4, leading to speculation that Sony may be winding down its efforts with the PS4 in order to begin ramping up for an announcement and release of a new device — perhaps the PlayStation 5 — in either 2019 or 2020.

Sony isn’t the first major company to skip E3; Nintendo famously didn’t attend the conference in 2013 in favor of online press conferences, which it still does today (although the company has had a booth in recent years).