Sony is skipping CES 2027 — ending a 60-year streak
Sony will not attend CES 2027, ending the most unbroken exhibitor run in the show's history — every edition since the Consumer Electronics Show launched in 1967. No Sony booth, no partner showcases. The company has confirmed the absence to Bloomberg, and the decision reflects how dramatically its business has shifted away from the consumer hardware that CES was built to showcase.
The last thread snapped
Sony's exit didn't come all at once. At CES 2025, the company had no independent booth — its only presence on the floor was through its joint EV venture with Honda, which showed off the Afeela prototype. That project was formally shut down in spring 2026, removing the last reason to show up in Las Vegas.
When asked by Bloomberg why it was stepping back, Sony offered a deliberately vague statement: the company "continually and carefully" reviews its approach to events "based on the current needs and priorities" of its diversified business. Analysts read that as a polite way of saying CES no longer fits.
PlayStation, not TVs
The underlying logic is straightforward. PlayStation and Sony's Game & Network Services division now generate more than two-thirds of G&NS; revenue from software and online services alone — not hardware sales. Operating income from gaming hit a record ¥463.3 billion in FY2025, with forecasts pointing to ¥600 billion in FY2026, a roughly 30% jump. PlayStation accounts for around 36% of Sony's total group revenue.
Meanwhile, the Bravia TV business — once Sony's CES centerpiece — has been sold off to TCL, with Sony retaining a minority 49% stake. The brand that used to command the biggest screens on the show floor no longer fully owns its television line.
Sony still makes image sensors and cameras, and those remain genuinely important to its business. But sensors don't need a Las Vegas stage. The company behind Xbox paid a "fraction" of Sony's $400M ask for Physint — but layoffs are happening anyway has more in common with a media and entertainment group than with a consumer electronics manufacturer.
What comes next
Sony says it maintains its relationship with the Consumer Technology Association, which runs CES — leaving the door technically open. But with no major consumer hardware category to anchor a booth, and with its entertainment arms (PlayStation, Crunchyroll, Sony Music, Sony Pictures) operating on their own promotional cycles, there's little commercial incentive to return. Sony is also surveying game developers on other platform decisions, signaling that its focus remains firmly on the gaming ecosystem rather than the trade-show circuit.
For CES itself, losing Sony is a symbolic blow. The company was one of the show's founding pillars. Its absence underlines a broader reality: the electronics trade show format is increasingly built around categories — smart home, automotive, health tech — that no longer map cleanly onto what the biggest names in tech actually sell.
