A new report from The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Sony was the third-most popular publisher at E3 2019—despite the fact that the company didn't even attend the show. Sony made headlines earlier this year for announcing its intent to skip the biggest gaming conference of the year, leading to wild speculation about a barren 2019 line-up for the publisher, on top of some more evidence-based assertions that E3 simply isn't as important a show as it used to be.
It was still a good E3 2019 for Sony, though, as the company was able to piggyback off some of the conference's attendees to reveal more details about some of its exclusives coming out in early 2020. The biggest announcement, of course, was the one about Final Fantasy 7 Remake, including a playable demo for attendees that left many declaring the re-imagined spin on an iconic classic their game of the show. At a conference where Microsoft unveiled a new console and Nintendo hit it out of the park with exclusives on tab for release in the next year or so, remaining part of the discussion—and having PS4 Pros be the most common consoles chosen by developers to demo their games on—was a major win for Sony.
That's backed up in the new report, which The Hollywood Reporter published yesterday. According to Twitter engagement, Sony managed to place third on the most discussed publishers at E3 2019 despite being absent. Predictably, Nintendo and Xbox both topped the charts at one and two respectively, with Nintendo getting the edge thanks to an electric Nintendo Direct that revealed scintillating new details about Pokemon Sword & Shield will also pulling back the curtain on Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2. Sony's third place was determined by using data from the five biggest regions in engagement during the conference: the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Spain, and France.
Part of the reason that Sony thrived was because Final Fantasy 7 Remake was the most-tweeted-about game at the convention, followed closely by Cyberpunk 2077, a non-exclusive title that was demoed at Microsoft's Xbox conference but will be available on PS4 as well. Having an exclusive generate the most buzz certainly made the company's decision to skip E3 2019 look sage in retrospect, saving them millions of dollars in expenses while having third-party developers do the heavy lifting in ratcheting up excitement for the company's 2019 and beyond.
Of course, Sony also has the benefit of having some of the last truly great exclusives on the horizon for the current console generation as it begins to give way to the future. The Last of Us Part 2 will be reportedly launching in early February 2020, while Final Fantasy 7 Remake will be available the following month in March. With Ghost of Tsushima targeting 2019 still, that's three exclusives that all could be in the Game of the Year discussion for their respective release windows, making Sony a publisher to watch—even if its not holding a conference in the first place.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter