Sony Skips Gamescom Presence for a Fifth Year in a Row

No I didn’t, Sony and Nintendo do their own thing and the high cost of showing things at these shows must be off putting as well.

Let’s remember these shows are for us the minority the geeky gamers.
Sony and Nintendo spend their money and advertising on targeting the mass general public.
Hence why they are so successful.

I hate this. It didn't always land, but I really liked when PlayStation was everywhere really trying to drum excitement. State of Plays may be more trendy and more cost effective, but they are not nearly as exciting.

MIA from Gamescom or the industry at large?

There's not really much point when Nintendo and Xbox have already shown all the games you have to show. 🤣

I didn't even know this was happening, but now I'm MAD

You could argue they don’t have to do much of late.
I think they have better profits than with the PS4 console sales, even thought they are 5 million consoles sales down in Europe against the PS4, same time line.

Sometimes it’s not about selling the most, but also about making more profit instead.

We all have ago at Sony and yes I think they definitely deserve some of the bashing they are getting.
But if say in September 2024 they pop up with a PS5 Pro and a couple of big AAA campaign games for early ish 2025. All be forgiven 🤣

Why spend a small fortune on having 'space' on the showroom floor when they don't really have a lot to show, don't need the expense when they can reach their audience directly when they choose, and it's not as if they have to 'compete' for Console sales to get people to buy a Playstation when they are the 'dominant' Premium Console in Europe.

Sony will have a 'presence' just because the majority of games will likely release on Playstation. The biggest releases (in terms of Sales) of the Holiday season, the likes of EA's FC (was Fifa) and Madden, Call of Duty, Assassins Creed, Star Wars etc etc will all release day/date on PS5 anyway.

Much easier and cheaper to release a State of Play or a show when they want, to have a captive Playstation audience and reach their audience via Social media.

The vast majority won't be at Gamescom, they'll be using Social Media to watch a stream, relying on 'press' to give any 'hands on' preview/early impressions (just like this site has done with Black Myth). Therefore, why bother if you don't 'need' to....

Sony are doing more than great without showing up to Gamescom so I don't see why that should change now, just stick with a September/October Showcase.

@Mikey856 You as in Sony. I don't work for Sony.

@RadioHedgeFund
Well they release alot of games so not the industry.
But oh wait since you dont like those games then Sony doesnt exist with games at all.

Of course they do. They have nothing to show lmao

We should stop tuning into *****/underwhelming 'state of plays' if we want Sony to be present at real and cool world events.

Right now, Sony is content with this fake presence through their channels.
It wouldn't survive if the number of viewers were pathetically low.

The last state of play felt like a show that Sony made money off of allowing commercials of gachas and mindless mobas from China.

This is the PS3 era again but I bet they will come out guns blazing for the PS6.

They'll likely do their usual annual State of Play/Showcase in September.

Well it require Sony to announce games so of course they aren't there.

@Neverwild I’m just going by E3.

So, erm…at what point does this stop being news?

@OldGamer999 “sometimes it’s not about selling the most, but also about making more profit instead.”

Yes, charging consumers more whilst producing less is definitely one route to larger profits.

I miss mid generation ps3 and launch ps4 Sony - they were at their best with their backs up against a wall and having to actively work for market share and sales. They’re more like complacent 360 era Microsoft right now and that’s not a good thing

@Neither_scene
Definitely end of ps3 and ps4 era was best for me.
Many big top end Sony studio AAA campaign games.
Ps5 started well as was my most played console out of all three. 2020-2021 and also 2021-2022.
But what a down turn for me in 2022-2023 they got demoted to third.
This year is looking like second so far.
This is play game time analysis on my memberships you get at the end of each year.

I’m hoping it is just a dry spell from top Sony studios and 2025 they will bounce back in full force. Like Xbox had for a year and a bit.

I’m glad Xbox and Nintendo are keeping me going and might give Sony a wake up call.

The thing with Sony is they do get complacent like they did with the TV market.
But then I purchased a Sony X95L 65” TV and it’s the best TV I’ve ever owned in every single area of TV watching.
And I’ve had a LG C3 and Samsung S90C which is tough competition.

So I’m hoping in game world next year Sony will come and show the rest how to make the best AAA games ever.

Expect something…..get nothing

Funny...that timeline really lines up with when a certain someone took over..... better luck next year.

When a product sells itself as a category default with nearly all the lion's share of the market....why advertise?

Too be honest. Except for Astrobot, I doubt my PS5 will get much use this year. Since I mostly game on PC and Switch, the PS5 is just a dust collector now. Maybe next year will be better, but I've been saying that to myself, for four years in a row now. I know some are very happy with the games released on the console. But I guess I'm just not interested in the type of AAA games, that Sony makes today. Their focus on third person cinematic games, like Horizon, God of War and Last of Us, are just boring to me now, compared to back in the PS3 era, when games like Uncharted felt fresh and exciting.

@EdgarTheBug Exact;y, that's how they build the excitement.

It was so sad yesterday when I got more info about upcoming RPGs coming to PS on a Nintendo Direct that directly from Sony in any other way...

@EfYI you can do whatever you want , i'll keep watching them. there is no point for them to go directly to gamescon and spend millions of dollars. i'd rather they spend that time working on the games instead of them making a demo slice for a game that was 2-3 years off.

@OldGamer999 Nintendo is very often present though.

Nah, but this the year is the year they bring back Playstation Experience and it will go down as their greatest showcase of all time...

Sony is the market leader at the moment but this kind of behavior is giving me PS3 era vibes. I love Playstation but damn I'm tired of this drip feed of nothing. I hope Xbox starts doing better just so it forces Sony to get scrappy again. Remember that old video of how to share games on PS4? Bring that back.

Gamescom never had big announcements but let people get hands on with some upcoming games. So Sony is just being MIA in both. What they are good at is complaining about rising game Dev costs and Dev time, while continuing on the same trajectory, just with less staff now.

I feel like I'm the only one who remembers how often Playstations presence at these events usually meant getting the same information repeated from previous events. If they want to keep quiet and be more cautious with announcements let them. If the market is unhappy they'll show it with their wallet eventually.

@EdgarTheBug the ps3 had more new exclusives and original IPs than the ps4 and ps5 generation, but go on

This almost constant disengagement from Sony is eventually gonna bite them in the ass. I have felt zero excitement since the start of the PS5.

@NEStalgia yeah the “doomers” are proven right more and more each day about sony being complacent because sony knows playstation will sell itself irregardless of well, anything .

I miss the old playstation, when they did these game shows. I was always excited to see either Gamescom or E3 coz I knew PlayStation would be there. I only watched playstation showcases back then. Now I watch whatever's available.

Sony already showed what they want to show at SOP and all the multiplat at SGF + Nintendo direct + Xbox showcase helped with the promotion too.

So, there's no reason to blow tons of money at Gamescom if they don't have any new stuff to show and took precious times from their devs that could be used to finish the whole project just to make a short demo for one event.

But my guess Sony still have one SOP & showcase to do and they probably gonna do it in September-November.

@CutchuSlow I know what you mean. I used to go to PAX every year. The first few years in the early 2010's they were there in full force. I remember seeing a behind closed doors demo of Last of Us. The next year Neil Druckmann was signing autographs which was great I got a couple minutes to chat with him too. But then over the past years before covid its crickets... Sony is making it really hard to be excited for Playstation.

You cant turn up to a marketing event without any merchandise.
Hence, Sony being a no show.

@nomither6 The PS4 was more hyped up and favoured then the PS3, how many sold compared to the previous? & How many did the one before it do? Have a good day kid.

See, stuff like them no-showing big gaming events year on year adds more to Sony being perceived as aloof/uncaring.

I suppose even if they did turn up, it's not like they have anything worth showing beyond the amazing looking new Astro title though. Concord's sub-Marvel humour and Fortnite-esque gameplay ain't gonna cut it.

@EdgarTheBug i’m talking about games , you’re talking about sales, what does that have to do with games, you gonna brag about which sold more controllers next since the dualshock4 had drifting issues ? you have a good day