Sony to Skip CES 2027 as Focus Moves to Entertainment

Sony will skip CES 2027.

Neither Sony nor its affiliates plan to exhibit products at the January event, Engadget reported. The decision was first reported by Nikkei.

Sony said it is placing greater emphasis on entertainment, including games, anime, films and music, along with its intellectual property and technology supporting creators. In simple terms, that puts content and creator tools ahead of the hardware categories that defined its CES presence for decades.

The absence will not be abrupt. Sony did not have its own booth at CES 2026. A prototype of the Afeela electric vehicle developed by Sony with Honda was on the show floor at that event.

Sony Honda Mobility scrapped the Afeela EV project a couple of months after CES 2026, with Sony and Honda saying they would review the direction of their joint venture. As background, the Afeela A1 electric vehicle had opened for reservations at CES 2025 with a starting price of $89,900, according to Reuters.

Sony also handed control of its Bravia TV business to China's TCL. With the TV operation transferred and the vehicle program halted, the company has fewer flagship hardware lines that fit a CES booth.

The withdrawal ends a 60-year presence at CES, according to Chosun Biz.

The broader context here is the changing use of a general hardware showcase for a company whose value now sits in software platforms, rights catalogs and production pipelines. CES still works well for component suppliers, display makers, PC makers and automotive Tier 1s, the large suppliers that sell directly to carmakers, which need buyer meetings and press cycles tied to model years. It works less well for a seller of interactive entertainment and online services, where distribution is digital and release timing is continuous.

In my view, the relevant question for tech professionals is not whether CES is declining, but how it is splitting by audience. A show floor built around display panels, chip demos, reference designs, the basic working designs others can build on, and vehicles rewards exhibitors with a physical product to touch and a spec sheet to compare. For businesses built on owned stories and characters, the leverage has shifted to closed developer conferences, direct showcases for fans and licensing markets.

Looking at what this means for vendors and partners, the practical effects are narrow. Press coverage will lose a familiar anchor tenant. Supply chain meetings tied to Bravia will likely migrate to TCL or to private sessions. Creator technology, game engines, virtual production tools and audio pipelines do not require a January booth to reach professional buyers. They require stable software tools, strict limits on delay, rights clearance and integration support.

There is a longer arc worth keeping in mind. Companies periodically outgrow the venues that made them visible. That is usually a sign of portfolio change rather than retreat. If Sony executes on entertainment and creator infrastructure, its absence from one hall will matter less than whether its tools lower production cost and friction for working creators.