Typically every major publisher and console manufacturer is trying their best to impress consumers and businesses alike with their slate of games at E3. For years now a big part of that attempt was the E3 press conference. A bombastic, loud, and colorful show that revealed why EA, or Ubisoft, or Konami, or Sony, or Microsoft were the best and you should spend your money with them. Only Nintendo was the black sheep in recent years choosing to skip the press conference, release a Nintendo direct instead, and show off their wares on the show floor. EA must have liked this idea too, because they are now skipping the press conference and scaling back their E3 presence.
Instead of a press conference or a huge E3 booth, EA will have an event called EA Play. Play will run from June 12th-14th at the Club Nokia in LA and June 12th in London, literally in the few days leading up to E3. There will still be a press conference, on Sunday this time, and EA will still be taking private meetings and appointments during the show. But it won’t be at any traditional booth.
E3 won’t be the same without a behemoth publisher like EA on the floor. Nintendo still has a booth presence, and what is essentially a press conference, but it’s fascinating to see how publishers view their role at E3. EA must assume they’ll get more press and more headlines announcing and showing off games before the actual convention. It worked for Bethesda last year but they also named dropped games like Doom and Fallout 4. Giving up a press conference time slot isn’t as big of a deal as giving up booth space. That stuff is clamored over and usually handed out by senoirity and veteran status. It’s why Konami stuck around for so long even though they’re only showing off soccer games. Looks like E3 may be waning again.
