PlayStation fans can watch Sony’s E3 2017 press conference in theaters

By Brad Jones Published May 30, 2017

playstation e3 2017 theaters experience — Image used with permission by copyright holder

E3 2017 is less than two weeks away and, like always, the event is sure to deliver big news and major reveals. Sony’s PlayStation press conference is set for June 12, and the company has announced that it will once again stream the address to theaters around the U.S. and further afield.

More than 85 theaters across the U.S., Canada, and Latin America will host screenings of Sony’s E3 press conference, upholding a tradition that’s been in place since E3 2015. What’s more, there’s exclusive swag to be had for gamers who show up to watch the live-stream among other PlayStation fans.

Everyone who attends the PlayStation Experience 2017 in theaters will be given an exclusive poster, as well as card No. 76 from the official PlayStation collectible card series. Redemption codes will also be handed out, granting a digital gift basket of downloadable content from the PlayStation Store.

Best of all, tickets to the event are completely free, making the goodies on offer seem like an even better deal. Tickets are limited, so anyone planning on attending this year’s edition of the PlayStation Experience should book their seat sooner rather than later.

A full list of the theaters taking part in the event can be found on the PlayStation Blog. Most states in the U.S. are represented, with Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec all playing host to screenings further north. Details on Brazilian screenings are set to be made available soon.

Sony is certainly going all out to make sure that as many PlayStation fans as possible are watching its E3 press conference. With the PlayStation 4 Pro now available, it seems that the focus will be on software rather than hardware, so we can perhaps expect the likes of The Last of Us Part 2, Spider-Man, and Death Stranding to get the spotlight.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…

Gaming

The future of E3 is in question again as ESA reportedly seeks a 2025 reinvention

The future of the once popular video game industry expo E3 is once again in question as the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) ended its partnership with ReedPop, the company that was helping it revitalize the event.

ReedPop is the company that runs events like PAX, EGX, and C2E2, and the ESA had brought them on board to help reimagine the in-person experience at E3. This was supposed to start with E3 2023, but it ended up being canceled a couple of months before it was supposed to take place. Clearly, the ReedPop and ESA partnership wasn't working well, so both companies have decided to move on. ESA CEO and president Stanley Pierre-Louis provided the following statement on the matter to GamesIndustry.biz.
"We appreciate ReedPop’s partnership over the past 14 months and support their ongoing efforts to bring industry and fans together through their various events. While the reach of E3 remains unmatched in our industry, we are continuing to explore how we can evolve it to best serve the video game industry and are evaluating every aspect of the event, from format to location. We are committed to our role as a convenor for the industry and look forward to sharing news about E3 in the coming months."
This seems to confirm a claim from the Los Angeles City Tourism Commission from earlier in the year that plans for E3 2024 and E3 2025 at the Los Angeles Convention Center had been canceled. That said, Pierre-Louis' statement and the GamesIndustry.biz report indicate that E3 2024 and E3 2025 aren't canceled outright.
GamesIndustry.biz notes that it's still possible for the event to take place in 2024 -- just not at the Los Angeles Convention Center -- and claims that the ESA is "working on a complete reinvention of the E3 show for 2025." We'll just have to wait and see if those plans actually come to fruition, though, as E3 has struggled to return to its former glory since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Sony’s cloud handheld, the PlayStation Portal, will only stream certain games

Astro's Playroom booting up on the PlayStation Portal.

Sony has unveiled the price for its upcoming cloud gaming handheld, as well as an official name for the device: PlayStation Portal. However, one significant caveat to its functionality might sour people's interest in the handheld: It only supports PS4 and PS5 native games that the owner purchased.
PlayStation VR2 games can't be streamed to PlayStation Portal, which does make sense. More bafflingly, though, is the fact that the PlayStation Blog post states that "games that are streamed through PlayStation Plus Premium’s cloud streaming are not supported." That means you shouldn't pick up PlayStation Portal expecting to stream some PS3 and PS4 games available through PlayStation Plus Premium to the device. That's certainly an odd omission when it's currently PlayStation's most notable cloud gaming effort.
Although Microsoft is more closely associated with cloud gaming, Sony beat it to releasing a dedicated cloud gaming device. PlayStation Portal was first teased as Project Q during May's PlayStation showcase, but now, a PlayStation Blog post more clearly explains what we can actually expect from the handheld. Most importantly, we learned that PlayStation Portal will cost $200, which puts it underneath the cost of a Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S, and other cloud gaming devices like the Logitech G Cloud Handheld.
As for what you're getting for that price tag, it's essentially a decent screen attached to two halves of a DualSense controller. The controllers on each side share all the functionality of the DualSense, including things like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. In-between is an 8-inch LCD screen that streams games over Wi-Fi at up to a 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second. All in all, that's fairly solid for a cloud gaming handheld that is this cheap.
Sony confirmed that the PlayStation Portal will have a 3.5mm audio jack, but also used the same blog post to unveil two new wireless audio options. There's the Pulse Elite wireless headset that features a retractable boom mic and a charging hanger and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds that offer similar audio quality in earbud form.
None of these products are available for preorder or have a specific release date just yet, but they are all expected to launch before the end of the year.

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ESA denies E3 2024 and 2025 have been canceled, despite LA tourism board’s claims

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For over 20 years, the ESA held an event called E3 each June, where companies from around the video game industry would come together and show off their upcoming games. It got canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the ESA took 2022 off after a rough digital-only show in 2021. The expo was set to return in 2023, but was canceled in March after Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft, and other game companies pulled out of the event. E3's future was put into question after that, and now it looks like it might not be coming back for the foreseeable future.