While E3 2019 still remains the biggest event of the year for the gaming industry to make new announcements, the expo has certainly seen big changes in the past few years. Nintendo has not made a big keynote presentation there for several years now, and the expo only recently started selling tickets to public attendees. Perhaps the biggest shakeup came last year with the announcement that Sony would be sitting out E3 2019. Now, Sony head Shawn Layden has provided more details behind PlayStation’s planned absence during this year’s E3 activities.

Shawn Layden, the head of Sony’s 13 game development studios, recently spoke with CNET about Sony’s vision for 2019 and beyond. On the topic of E3, Shawn gave a quick history of Sony’s origins at E3, and how it primarily let them present their games to retailers and the press. Now, with retailers preferring to make holiday season purchasing decisions earlier in the year and journalists being able to cover stories year round online, E3 seems less relevant to Sony. Also, given their newer schedule of stretching out the periods between releases of their biggest titles, this year proved to be less necessary. As he states:

With our decision to do fewer games — bigger games — over longer periods of time, we got to a point where June of 2019 was not a time for us to have a new thing to say. And we feel like if we ring the bell and people show up here in force, people have expectation ‘Oh, they’re going to tell us something.’”

Layden also believes that E3 will probably have to shift more towards catering to fans if it wishes to stay relevant. The interviewer suggested that E3 function more as a comic convention in the future, to which Layden agreed. Time will tell if E3 manages to stay afloat without Sony’s presence. At least now Parappa the Rapper fans hoping for a new game announcement know they can safely sit E3 2019 out.

What do you guys think about these comments from Sony head Shawn Layden? Let us know in the comments below! Be sure to stay tuned for the latest Sony news, such as the ten new titles added to PlayStation Now this month, here on Don’t Feed the Gamers! Follow us on Twitter to see our updates the minute they go live!