I go back and forth on this. On one hand, as the industry leader, you’re supposed to lead by example. You’re supposed to be the company that directs where the console market is going. Sony not showing up did the opposite of that. However, there is the old adage of giving your opponent enough rope to hang himself with, and I believe Sony did that very well with regard to Microsoft.
For starters, the industry in general looks VERY lean between now and Holiday 2020. It has been posited that Sony doesn’t have a lot to show, but I’d say that’s the entire industry in general. Out of this show, the only NEW IP I got psyched over was Elden Ring, and it wasn’t even playable. Beyond that most everything I was excited for were remakes and rereleases, mostly on Switch. It was a disastrous show when it came to content and new announcements, not even an echo of shows from years past.
Further, what did Microsoft gain from the Scarlett reveal? Nothing substantive was said about it really, and nothing was shown, either. Also, some of what was shown was disappointing (Battletoads) and the Microsoft employee reel looked like a collection of freaks just short of the cantina scene from Star Wars. So we essentially have to wait until next year to see anything substantive about price or seeing the system in action, the controller, etc. It wasn’t a miss for Microsoft, it was just... premature. And I say that as one who WANTED this generation to be over Fall 2019 as history has always dictated with the typical 5 year cycle.
But nope, both companies elected to go an extra year before release and there really isn’t much in the pipes and I suspect this is going to be a difficult year for people expecting the steady stream of content we’ve become accustomed to.
So while, yes, Microsoft showing up definitely is important (because I guess somebody had to, right?), the old axiom about it being better to remain quiet to avoid sounding dumb than opening your mouth and removing all doubt applies to Sony. I’m convinced they don’t have much to show and you’d have had a few games punctuated by stupid shit like people playing instruments to pass the time.
If you want my honest take, Nintendo had the best showing and that was mostly done by announcing a bunch of old games. But that says more about this show, than it does about Nintendo.