'We wanted to inject some drama': PlayStation chief explains Sony's strange E3

At this year's expo, the games giant ditched flashy promotional press conferences for elaborate film sets. PlayStation's EU boss Simon Rutter believes the approach will pay dividends

Last month's E3 video game expo was a strange one for PlayStation. Traditionally, video games' biggest companies use the annual Los Angeles conference as an opportunity to bombard attendees and fans watching online with new games. For rival consoles Xbox and PlayStation, ostentatious showcase press events are especially important and competitive: once a customer chooses between the two, they are likely to play on that console for years to come.

Microsoft showed 50 games at its Xbox press conference at E3 2018, on a big stage with lots of fancy lighting. By contrast, Sony constructed several elaborate sets on an LA film lot, each themed around a different forthcoming PlayStation 4 games: The Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man and Death Stranding. Fans already knew about all of these, but they were shown in more detail over 10 or 15 minutes of footage, alongside a smattering of smaller new announcements and some unexpected live music performances.