Sony recently told the public the controversial news that it will not attend the next E3. The decision made the brand's fans and customers suspicious. At the time, it was announced that the company would find new ways to engage the community and would soon consider a new way to present its products.
Now Shawn Layden, head of Worldwide Studios, came forward to provide more details about Sony's departure from the world's most famous games event.
According to Layden, the original purpose E3 had at its inception — market planning for retailers and magazine covers for journalists — no longer fits modern times, since nothing is as it was in the 1990s. June is too late to discuss holiday releases; retailers need closer contact with companies, while journalists publish game news on the internet 24 hours a day and do not need an event to make their work easier.
In Layden's words: "Thus, the fair became something with little commercial activity. The world changed, but E3 did not necessarily change with it."
Apparently, the expectations generated by E3 were also not positive for Sony's management, since everyone expected major announcements on that date, which would often not be the ideal time for a product to be revealed.
When analyzing E3's other presentations, Layden said that other major publishers such as Activision and EA had already significantly reduced their participation in the fair in recent years, just as Sony's 2018 "show" was already very different from previous ones, focusing on only four games.
Layden also said that Sony still does not know exactly how it will deal directly with the public in the future, or how it will do so.
