Why Sony’s No Show At San Diego Comic Con Despite A Large Presence From Nintendo And Microsoft

While covering San Diego Comic Con 2015 it was obvious that more and more gaming companies were taking advantage of the huge event and that gaming was a larger presence at the show than ever before. Nintendo had their gaming lounge at a nearby hotel, Square Enix had an offsite local, Bandai Namco had a presence, as did a few others.

Nintendo, Microsoft, and Activision had a presence in the convention hall as well as off site, and we saw a couple of locales promoting Dark Souls III at the convention center and in the free area by Petco Park.

Activision went all out as they had a Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 panel, Zombie Escape arena, and a demo station for Black Ops 3, which indicated their growing presence at the event.

Nintendo had their lounge to show off current Wii U and Nintendo 3DS game and a smaller locale in the convention center, but it was Microsoft who went all out. Not only did they have their usual space on the floor where Halo 5: Guardians was being shown, but they took over a large ballroom at the Manchester Grand Hyatt to host a massive gaming lounge that featured playtime with many of their pending titles as well as a Laser Tag arena, t-shirt station, photo areas, and so much more. It was honestly much bigger and more expansive then I had expected after seeing the lounges from previous years.

What was missing was Sony. Yes, the PS4 was being used to demo games pretty much anyplace not named Microsoft or Nintendo, but Sony did not have a booth, lounge, or station at the show. Prior to the launch of the Playstation 4, they did have a booth opposite Microsoft, but since then, they have been absent from this massive Pop Culture event.

I thought it odd that they were not there when Nintendo and Microsoft were, until my wife summed it up for me. Nintendo and Microsoft have to be there as they need all the exposure. Sony is doing very well from a sales stand point, and riding high from another successful E3, they are looking ahead to Gamescom and PAX Prime where they may be showing off their goods, and hopefully will have another showcase like they did in Las Vegas sometime soon.

Sony had a sponsorship at Nerdist HQ but this is not the same as having your own dedicated areas in the convention center as well as your own dedicated areas offsite like Nintendo and Microsoft.

While some may see this as arrogant, others would call it smart business as Sony does not feel the need to be at a huge event just because their competition is there as they are confident in their product and the ability for it to sell without the need to incur the lavish costs associated with presenting at a show the size and scope of Comic Con.

With sales upwards of 25 million units it is hard to second guess Sony on this as they have shown an uncanny ability to keep the PS4 selling, but with their competition becoming bolder and bolder in terms of the size and scope of their marketing efforts at events like this, Sony may want to consider making a trip to San Diego in the future.