Electronic Arts, which first launched in 2016, is beginning to use E3 week in early June to hold its EA Play Live event, during which the publisher will announce several of its biggest announcements of the year. This is about to expire in 2022.
EA has decided to cancel this year’s event, in favor of what appears to be holding smaller exhibitions Focus on each new and upcoming game separately. In a statement sent to IGNPublisher says:
We love EA Play Live because it’s our way of connecting with our players and sharing what’s new with all of you. However, things this year don’t show you everything on one date. We have exciting things happening in our world-class studios and this year we’ll be revealing more about these projects when the time is right for each one. We look forward to spending time with you all year long!
This move is not a surprise. Last year’s EA Play Live completely skipped E3 and dropped a few weeks later in July, and with E3 itself looking like it wasn’t the start of this year, there was little impetus for EA to stick to that traditional advertising schedule.
This… it’s supposed to be fine for most of you, I think? I can’t remember what year people got it cheery For EA ads at E3, or even EA Play Live, a lot of big publisher ads have already been released on their schedules.
It’s pretty bleak news for anyone still holding on to the love of the old E3/Summer ad season. EA Play Live was only invented because E3 was running out of steam, so for EA Play Live itself, getting rid of it says a lot about how old this old “here’s all our new stuff in one place!” The trend appears to be in 2022.