Sony to Skip CES 2027, Ending 60-Year Run

Sony will not attend CES in 2027, marking its first absence since the show began in 1967. The company says it's focusing on entertainment, IP, and creator tech.

Did you know Sony has been a fixture at CES since the very first show in 1967? Well, that streak is about to end. Sony is officially skipping CES 2027, according to a report from GamesIndustry.biz. That means for the first time in the show's history, the PlayStation maker won't have a presence on the floor.

A Sony spokesperson told Bloomberg that the decision comes from a shift in priorities. The company says it's now focused on "entertainment, intellectual property, and technology geared to support creators." They also added, "We continuously and strategically evaluate our approach to events and communications based on the needs and priorities of our diverse business." In other words, don't expect a big booth from Sony at CES anymore.

If you're a longtime PlayStation fan, you know CES has been the stage for some legendary moments. Back in 1991, Sony announced the SNES PlayStation at the show—the project that essentially birthed the PlayStation brand. (Fun fact: Nintendo announced the very next day that it was pulling out of that partnership.) More recently, in 2020, Jim Ryan took the stage to unveil the PS5 logo, and in 2022, Sony used CES to announce the PSVR2 and Horizon: Call of the Mountain. Those were huge headlines for gamers.

But times change. Sony has been slowly stepping back from big industry events. The company hasn't attended Gamescom—the world's largest gaming convention—since 2019, while Xbox and Nintendo have remained regulars. Instead, Sony has leaned into its own digital showcases, like PlayStation State of Play and PlayStation Showcase, which regularly pull in millions of viewers. It's pretty clear that when new PlayStation hardware gets revealed, it'll likely happen during one of those streams rather than on a convention stage.

This year, Sony only appeared at CES as part of its joint venture with Honda, not as a standalone gaming presence. So the writing was kind of on the wall. For you, the player, this probably doesn't change much—you'll still get your big PlayStation announcements, just through a different channel. But it does mark the end of an era for one of tech's biggest stages.

What do you think about Sony skipping CES? Will you miss the old-school convention reveals, or are you happy with the State of Play format? Let us know in the comments.