The future of consoles is in an unusual place right now: Microsoft made the odd decision to announce both the Xbox One Slim and Scorpio at the same time (potentially hurting sales of the former); no one knows anything about the NX despite Nintendo claiming it's supposed to be coming in several months, and Sony has yet to unveil the Neo, even though it's rumored to be coming later this year.
Unfortunately, things aren't about to change anytime soon on Sony's end if it continues on its current path.
As you might recall, E3 2016 came and went last month, and the Neo — as promised — didn't make an appearance. One would expect that Sony would rectify this by showing off the console at another major gaming event — right?
Wrong. The next major event is Gamescom 2016 in August, and with the exhibitor list and hall plans published, it has become clear that Sony won't be making an appearance there this year.
For what it's worth, Sony's move to skip the Cologne-based event is hardly unprecedented. The company also skipped Gamescom last year, and instead, opted to show up at Paris Games Week two months later.
However, the difference between this year and last is that, while all fans had to worry about was the PlayStation VR (with which many are still not entirely on board yet) last year, this time around, a new console is on the table, and Sony has already confirmed its existence.
With that said, Sony is running out of time to make an announcement for the Neo. Remember, Sony's new console is allegedly supposed to arrive by the end of the year — if that's the case, then the time for that is slowly dwindling down. The two remaining venues where Sony could feasibly show off the Neo this year would be the Tokyo Game Show in September and Paris Games Week in October.
However, both of those times are too close to when the Neo is supposed to be released, so maybe Sony will have a dedicated event instead. It wouldn't be a weird move at all, since Sony officially unveiled the PS4 at such an event in 2013, then showed it off at E3 and released it in November that same year.
Whatever Sony's plans are, it needs to hurry up. As mentioned before, Microsoft already has two consoles on the way (with one of them hitting store shelves this year) and even Nintendo has already said it plans to release the NX in March 2017. Sony is slowly starting to fall behind, and while it might not hurt it too much in the long run thanks to the success of the PS4, it needs to at least let fans know what it's up to.
