A surprise move with the PlayStation 5 mere months away from release.

In late 2018, Sony announced that they would not participate in E3 2019. Today, history repeats itself as Sony has once again announced that they will not be participating in E3 2020. For the second year in a row, Sony and their PlayStation lineup will be a no-show at, what used to be, one of the largest industry events of the year.

Sony has been present at every previous E3 up until 2019. They have used the show to unveil the details of their upcoming consoles starting with the original PlayStation in 1995.

In speaking with GI.biz, Sony says that they do not feel that "the vision for the event is right for what it has planned for this year." Instead of E3, Sony says that they will instead "attend 'hundreds' of consumer events to showcase upcoming games for PS4 and PS5."

As we have noted a number of times before, more and more studios seem to be ditching E3 in favor of their own events. EA has been holding their own shows alongside E3 for the past few years now. Nintendo hasn't had a traditional showing at E3 for years now, instead opting for online streams such as Nintendo Treehouse and Nintendo Direct. Really, the only companies that seem to have stuck with the more "traditional" E3 press conferences have been Microsoft, Bethesda, Square Enix, and Ubisoft.

I have to imagine that as time goes on, even they will make the move to hosting their own live events, or even just going with scheduled livestreams. ESA, the group that runs E3, has struggled to appease all parties involved with the annual event. Some groups would rather the show stay focused on the industry while others would rather have it be more for the fans.

It also probably doesn't help matters that the ESA has repeatedly come under fire for its support of controversial political issues such as SOPA, PIPA, and even loot boxes. More recently, the ESA leaked the personal information of over 2,000 journalists and industry members.