Where was Sony State of Play at E3 2021?
Sony's absence from E3 2021 stood out like a sore thumb among all the digital events. In the old days of E3, you could always count on big-time presentations from industry stalwarts such as Nintendo, Sony, Sega, and Microsoft. In recent years, the annual ESA-organized gathering of gaming industry folk in California has begun to dwindle in popularity. With most companies opting to host their own digital press conferences, the importance of E3 may have lessened, but is still the Super Bowl of video games. This makes Sonys decision to abstain from even informal participation in E3 2021 feel weird, but here we are. With Nintendo still committing to hosting its digital Nintendo Direct and Treehouse Live events and Microsoft making headlines with the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, Sonys absence from the spotlight sticks out like a sore thumb. That said, this is not a new development from Sony as the Japanese company has elected to abstain from official participation from E3 dating back to 2019. While Sony chose to stay away from the official E3 festivities, they have still soldiered on with their own State of Play digital events, such as the one last summer where the PS5 made its formal debut to the world. There is no such event occurring within the E3 season window in 2021, though there will likely be other yet-unannounced State of Play events to come this year. While Sony likely had plenty of stuff they could have shown off, it chose to lay low during this years fanfare. Some of the news that would have normally been ripe of E3 hype would be new details for Horizon Forbidden West. Instead, Sony chose to host a dedicated digital event for the game two weeks prior. The recent release of Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart came just days before E3 2021 officially kicked off. Keep an eye out here at Shacknews as we will keep you updated on any new Sony developments, especially once the company commits to a date for a new State of Play digital event. The PS5 is just now hitting its stride and PlayStation Studios likely has all the ammo it needs to keep gamers hyped for the current console generation.