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Delayed reveals explain PlayStation's shorter E3 showcase

Shuhei Yoshida reveals key announcements have been held back until later in the year

There's been speculation throughout the week, but now Sony has confirmed it: the platform holder decided not to show select upcoming games at E3 2017.

The PlayStation press conference was noticeably shorter than in past years - a full hour shorter, in fact - which surprised and confused much of the industry, particularly given the expectations of a line-up that would distract from Microsoft's Xbox One X reveal.

While there were plenty of impressive games on display, including six new titles for PSVR, most had been previously announced and left some attendees disappointed.

In an interview with JagatPlay, spotted by GameSpot, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida explained that the shorter-than-usual showcase was partly down to the company's decision to delay certain reveals.

"There are things we have held; [things] we chose not to show during this E3," he said. "Of course, there will be some more news coming out from our teams later this year."

This almost certainly translates to "at PlayStation Experience", which takes place this December. Sony has been increasingly using the consumer-focused event to make its biggest announcements, with the 2016 iteration seeing the debuts of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, The Last of Us: Part II and Knack 2.

Even so, the platform holder's strategy has been somewhat confusing this year. Opting to focus the main showcase on blockbuster games, Sony relegated announcements such as the PlayLink range - an innovative and highly promising mass market range of PS4 games that use smartphones as controllers - to the pre- and post-show livestreams.

You can check out the full recap of what Sony showed off during its E3 2017 showcase here. We discussed PlayStation's performance in our roundtable on the best and worst of E3, as well as why the platform holder faces surprise competition from Nintendo.

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James Batchelor avatar
James Batchelor: James is Editor-in-Chief at GamesIndustry.biz, and has been a B2B journalist since 2006. He is author of The Best Non-Violent Video Games
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