Paris Games Week is upon us, and publishers are taking this opportunity to get games into the hands of holiday shoppers—especially since 307,000 visitors attended the expo last year.

As with Gamescom 2016, large publishers like Sony and Microsoft have abandoned the press conference in favor of hands-on fan events with the hope of enticing influencers. Fans are encouraged to interact with the developers themselves, a privilege usually reserved for journalists at events like E3.

Bethesda, for example, is hosting a book signing by Sébastien Mitton, artistic director for Dishonored 2 and Microsoft is hosting a Gears of War 4 cosplay competition. YouTube Gaming also has a large presence at the show, hosting interviews and talks with gaming influencers in a casual, lounge-like setting.

ESports is a major focus at Paris Games Week with the Electronic Sports World Cup. The global competition features the best players across Just Dance 17, CS: GO, Clash Royale and FIFA 17. 

Sony is hosting 40 playable PS4 and PSVR games over 300 terminals and in a theater at the PlayStation booth. This is great news for those who missed out on the sold-out PSVR launch, as they can try the units for themselves and demo games like Batman: Arkham VR and Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Sony’s booth features a number of games available now like Destiny: Rise of Iron, NBA 2K17 and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, as well as upcoming titles like Horizon Zero Dawn, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Resident Evil 7 biohazard.

Microsoft, fresh off the heels of its Xbox One S launch, is celebrating 15 years of the gaming brand. The major publisher arrived with a more modest showing of just 15 games over 100 stations—the main attraction being its on its AAA titles in Gears of War 4, FIFA 17, Battlefield 1 and Forza Horizon 3. 

Fans can also get their hands on upcoming games like Dead Rising 4 and Halo Wars 2 ahead of the February launch. At the ID @ Xbox booth, fans are encouraged to try eight indie titles like Cuphead and Raiders of the Broken Planet to help promote Microsoft’s developer partnerships.

September hardware sales across all platforms dropped 10 percent over the same month last year, so a bit of hype might have been just what the doctor (Mario) ordered.

Surprisingly, though, Nintendo is sitting out Paris Games Week this year despite the recent announcement of its new console. With the Switch releasing in the spring rather than before the holidays like PSVR and Xbox One S, Nintendo doesn’t seem too concerned.

“Nintendo has a quite appropriate reputation of doing its own thing,” Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aimé told [a]listdaily, “so whatever Microsoft and Sony decide to do, that’s for them to manage.”

Featured image source: Yahoo!