EA Play Live, the in person event launched by the publisher in 2018 will not be happening for the third year in a row. Events from the past two years were cancelled due to Covid-19 but with the world returning to some form of normality it was expected to relaunch this year but that is not the case.
An EA representative gave the following the statement to IGN:
We love EA Play Live as it’s our way of connecting with our players and sharing what’s new with all of you. However, this year things aren’t lining up to show you everything on one date. We have exciting things happening at our world-class studios and this year we’ll reveal much more about these projects when the time is right for each of them. We look forward to spending time with you throughout the year!
EA Play ran in parallel with E3, another event with a very uncertain future. Although there has been no official announcement industry commentator Tom Henderson has revealed that the ESRB has sent out emails stating the event will be online only.
E3 will be an entirely digital event again this year according to the ESRB who sent out emails to developers today.
— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) March 10, 2022
The official E3 site has not been updated since last year but the event is usually announced around the start of April so we may hear more then. The event has lost a number of big names over the past few years, Sony and EA being the biggest fish. Nintendo have never really participated and even smaller publishers have started to leave E3 and host their own online shows. Geoff Keighley’s Summer Games Fest will also return this year, stealing even more games away from E3.
Sony have taken to hosting their own regular online events, most recently they and Warner Bros have cordially invited players to join them for a Hogwarts Legacy State of Play stream on Thursday 17th March to get an extended look at the game.
Source: IGN
