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Gaming Analyst Says Sony's Making A Mistake Skipping E3 2019
Michael Pachter, a gaming industry analyst for Wedbush Securities and a veteran of the business, believes that Sony is making a mistake in skipping E3 2019. Pachter is most famous for his occasionally outlandish predictions, which often become targeted by fans who could be negatively affected by those educated guesses - even though Pachter's track record is quite good in the first place.
Sony's decision to not have a show at E3 2019 made headlines immediately, and with good reason. Sony is one of the "big three" of the show, alongside Nintendo and Microsoft, and the tradition of having these three companies attending E3 while showcasing their upcoming products has been a long-standing one that spans decades and several generations of both consoles and gamers. Fans were also surprised that Sony has committed to skipping E3 2019 more than half a year before the show is scheduled to begin, as it seems like a hasty decision on the surface. For its part, Sony has said that it wants to "innovate, think differently and experiment with new ways to delight gamers," and that E3 2019 didn't fit in with those plans. Given that the company is currently at the center of a few different rumors regarding the PlayStation 5, it's possible the company might also want to skip E3 2019 because it doesn't want fans to have expectations of new information regarding the next-generation console.
To Pachter, whatever the reason, Sony skipping E3 2019 is a mistake. The analyst went on record in an interview with GamingBolt, speculating why he believes Sony might be skipping E3 but also why he feels the reasons are irrelevant:
"It is because of the timing of new games. They just don't have a lot of new things to announce in June. I think it's a mistake to skip the show. They will probably be without a big booth. It was a surprise to me."
Again, it's worth emphasizing that Pachter genuinely has a pretty good history when it comes to making video game-related predictions, so his belief that Sony skipping E3 2019 will end up being a mistake for the company is worth considering. E3 2019 remains an industry staple even though it has pivoted closer to a public fan expo in recent years, eschewing the exclusivity that used to be a major factor for gaming news sites and other insiders. To Pachter's point regarding a lack of new content, Sony also cancelled its own PlayStation Experience event due to the same reason earlier this year.
That being said, however, it's also possible that Pachter is simply viewing E3 as something it isn't. E3 has definitely become less important over the past few years thanks to Twitch streaming, with several major developers choosing to host their own presentations thanks to the platform and its ability to reduce overall production costs. Sony still has plenty of exclusives it could base a show around, including Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, and The Last of Us: Part 2 - even with a mediocre showing of newer games, fans would likely be excited to see more about those titles. That the company is instead skipping E3 2019 altogether could be the start of a trend rather than a one-off decision, and should be worth monitoring as we get closer to the event proper.
