PlayStation won’t be attending Gamescom, but we can guess why

Sony’s bowing out for 2022

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Gamescom is back in Germany in two months but if you’re hoping to see any big PlayStation reveals, we’ve got bad news.

Despite being its first in-person show since the Covid-19 pandemic began,Sonyhas announced it won’t be attendingGamescom 2022this August. That’s according to German publicationGames Wirtschaft, who confirmed the company’s non-attendance. As such, don’t expect any major reveals forPlayStation VR 2orGod of War Ragnarok.

Gamescom’s organizers have claimed 250 companies are appearing this year and while we don’t have the full list yet, Sony’s not alone in this non-attendance. ActivisionBlizzard, Take-Two Interactive, and Nintendo have all previously confirmed they won’t be appearing. However, we can expect to see THQ Nordic, Koch Media, and Bandai Namco.

Gamescom 2022 takes place between August 24-28 in Cologne, but this isn’t an entirely in-person event. Similar to last year, proceedings kick off on August 23 with the Gamescom Opening Night Live showcase, hosted bySummer Game Festcreator Geoff Keighley. So we may still see updates onModern Warfare 2,Marvel’s Spider-man 2, and, who knows (probably not, though)GTA 6.

No show? No problem

Sony backing out of Gamescom 2022 shouldn’t be entirely surprising to PlayStation fans. The publisher’s been marching at its own pace since exitingE3 2019and since then, it’s focused on its own online presentations, likeState of Playand last year’sPlayStation Showcase.

Usually, big announcements are reserved for such presentations. Take themost recent State of Play showcase, for example, which mainly focused on third-party publishers. Alongside the firstPlayStation VR2 gameplay,Resident Evil 4 Remake was confirmed, and we got our first real look atStreet Fighter 6, and a fresh trailer forFinal Fantasy 16.

There are exceptions, of course. Capping off Summer Game Fest two weeks ago, Sony finally confirmed thatThe Last of Us is getting remadefor PC andPS5, so there is flexibility to approach. Usually though, when it comes to big events, Sony’s doing just fine on its own.

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Henry is a freelance writer based in Bournemouth, United Kingdom. When he’s not wandering in VR or burning through his RPG backlog, he’s probably planning his next D&D session.

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