E3 attendees are typically greeted by a big, shiny Electronic Arts booth station as they walk into South Hall’s doors. Not this year. Instead, EA is opting for their own personal event, EA Play, at two different locations. From June 12 to June 14, 2016, at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, the company will be holding their own press events detailing their plans for the year, and possibly beyond.
Another one-day event will be held on June 12 at the Mermaid Event Center in London. For those who can’t make either event in person, Electronic Arts will also be streaming much of the press event online, complete with behind-the-scenes content and exclusive giveaways for web attendees. Either way, the conference will begin on Sunday, June 12 at 1:00 p.m. PT, or 9:00 p.m. GMT.
Wonder who’ll step in to fill up all that space. Sony is a likely candidate in order to show off their VR tech.
EA’s decision to bow out of E3 is similar to Nintendo’s opting for web-based news releases such as Nintendo Direct. It may be that more companies will follow suit and host their own public events rather than compete with all the other developers and publishers vying for gamers’ attention. That’s not to say that E3 will soon become a thing of the past, only that fans may start to see far less glitz and glamour there than usual.
As a last note, Electronic Arts will have a presence at E3 doing private meetings, but this will be the extent of the com[any’s attendance this year. Perhaps EA is seeking to make a change or addition that requires its own event, and next year they’ll be back in full force. Stay tuned to find out, and don’t forget to sign up for EA Play’s newsletter on their website.
Matt Eschbach is a PC, Mac and Android indie game developer and fiction writer. His works have won multiple monetary awards from various contests. Graduating college in 2012 with a major in Game Design, Matt spends his time making stuff up and then building it. His favorite hobby… is sleeping.
