Pachter: Sony Made a Bad Decision Skipping E3 2019 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 May 2019 / 4,461 Views
Sony in November announced it would be skipping E3 2019. It was a surprise as it would be the first time the company would be skipping the expo. Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter in an interview with GamingBolt stated that Sony was making a mistake.
"I think it’s a one-off," said Pachter. "I think they made a bad decision."
"I think they somehow internally determined that the money’s not well spent- and they’re wrong," he continued. "I don’t know what they spend on E3, but even if it’s $15 million, they get $15 million of publicity out of it. So I think they’re fools to bypass the show. And they’ll be back."
Pachter added that Sony's E3 2018 conference was not fun, despite showcasing games like Ghost of Tsushima and The Last of Us Part 2.
"They had that stupid walk-through that nobody understood, and it just wasn’t fun. And I think they probably spent a ton on that," said Pachter. "And they’re very much guys who don’t acknowledge that they did anything wrong, so they just take their ball and go home, because it didn’t work well."
He added that Sony skipping the PlayStation Experience in 2018 was due to the company now focusing on the next generation.
"Again- no games," he said. "So I think it’s all related to gearing up for the next generation console. They’ll probably announce the next-gen console in Spring of 2020, and have their own event- maybe they’ll call it PSX. Maybe there’s a PSX in December of 2019, and they announce their next-gen console then."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Now I know that Sony made a good decision.
Damn Pachter boosting sales for Sony again.
It's not going to matter much. These days a company can just info-dump somewhere and everyone knows immediately.
If Pachter says its bad, you can bet your life savings the opposite.
How did this guy become the authority on the gaming industry? lol
He predicted he wouldn't be it, and so the opposite happened :P
He is our authority because we can be sure the opposite will happen so it's always worth to hear it.
I was worried for nothing.
Best year for ps4 in 2019 confirmed!
So Sony made great decision confirmed.
it's always funny to hear something fron him
Sony celebrates PlayStation’s 25th birthday this year and this guy thinks they won’t have other events to replace their E3 showcase?
iF PaTcHeR SaYs it'S baD tHeN it's GoOD"
VGC made a bad decision on putting this article. Because now we know it was the best possible decision for Sony.
Who is this guy, anyway ?
How much coke do you reckon those nostrils have suffered over the years? I'd wager the guys snorted around the weight of Don mattick in the stuff.
Newsflash: if you agree with Pachter on this but nothing else, you're probably acting on bias.
Sony could probably release their own show during E3 and deliver a substantial blow to their viewership. I foresee this being a bigger problem for E3 than for Sony.
If they don't expect sales of games and consoles to cover the cost and profit on the E3 then they really have no reason to go.
If they won't release first party games from E3 to end of year then marketing spent on E3 won't really go anywhere.
@Azuren Sony already have their own show called the PlayStation Experience. And it is far less relevant than E3 already both in terms of announcements and viewership. And if Sony were to release their own show during E3, then basically it would be Sony piggybacking on E3's relevance as Sony knows gamers tune in specifically at this time of the year for news announcements. People who would tune in for Sony's conference would be just as likely to watch all the other E3 conferences. So it really doesn't hurt E3 at all.
Sorry hiccup, I don't watch any other show yearly. I have watched MS show once or twice this gen and not one for Nintendo. Neither any of the publishers. So if Sony isn't at E3 I will probably not watch any show, will just read the news here on VGC instead.
@Azuren What would be the point of Sony having their own show during E3? It wouldn't save them any money, unless they did a prerecorded stream like a Nintendo Direct but that isn't their style.
Still there are many ones out there. Which shows that the assumption wasn't accurate to begin with.
Also the fact that viewership is close, but not that equal shows that there is at least 200-300k that doesn't watch both Sony/MS much less all. So that is a very big percentage of people.
Right? I'm not entirely opposed to Sony going the Nintendo Direct route but once he brought up how they handled E3 2018 I couldn't NOT agree with him.
You forgot to mention their censorship of Japanese sexual content AKA trying to appease SJW's while pissing off a ton of loyal fans.
I think it's their stupidest decision of 2018 by far but it doesn't get as much attention, probably because Japanese games are more niche.
Unfortunately, these kinds of stupid mistakes appear to be a product of arrogance. They seem to often afflict the market leaders in the gaming space. You'd think these companies would learn by now.
Sorry, Japanese games with sexual content :P
@VAMatt With great power, comes great arrogance
I thought they had learned from the PS3, but now I'm not so sure lol
It's an incredible console but I definitely prefer Sony when they're not on top. Humbleness is far more appealing than arrogance.
The best example of their recent arrogance is the Fortnite crossplay fiasco. They thought they could get away with locking accounts to PSN and it took massive backlash for them to finally give in.
I don't think them skipping E3 is arrogant, but it does make me wonder what's going on with the games they focused on at E3 2018 (Last of Us 2, Death Stranding, and Ghost) and if any of them are being intentionally delayed to launch with the PS5.
Oh my gosh, I'm so surprised that you two think Sony has made tons of blunders over the past year.
Microsoft and Nintendo have also done plenty of stupid things. If we don't call them out for their BS, why would they ever change?
Fortnite wasn't fruit of arrogance (and certainly E3 isn't). It was fruit of their leading on the gen and that for their bottom-line not giving crossplay being better than giving it.
Seems more like cries from people that want Sony to help their interest in other platforms than anything else.
Essay Pro