Further complicating the travel plans of E3 attendees, Electronic Arts (EA) has decided to skip out on the showroom floor and the big stage. Instead, EA will host its own E3 event, "EA Play," this June.
EA is actually hosting two E3 events, one in Los Angeles and the other in London. The pair of events will be held the Sunday before E3, with the Los Angeles gathering set for June 12 to 14 and the London get together planned for June 12.
"Our players are the driving force behind everything we do," said EA. "So this summer, we're opening up our world to you with unique new live events in Los Angeles and London."
EA will showcase new games, of course, and will bring demo too. While it's likely there will be some games not far enough for a playable demo, EA said that fans will "get to go hands-on."
EA will also host one or more competitions during EA Play. Although it's safe to guess something from EA Sports will sit at the center at one of the competitions, EA isn't quite ready to talk about the competitive portion of EA Play beyond confirming that it'll have one.
For those who can't attend either of the pair of fan-focused events, EA said that it'll livecast everything. EA's employees won't be the only ones broadcasting from the event, according to Chris Bruzzo, chief marketing officer for EA.
"We will be broadcasting from the event over the three days of the event on EA channels, but we're going to have spaces where content creators can walk up and stream right to their own channels," Bruzzo said.
EA isn't skipping E3 entirely, as the company intends to meet behind closed doors to discuss business, and EA is still a part of the Entertainment Software Association. It's just that EA, a company that was consistently ranked as the world's worst until a few years ago, is putting its focus back on the fans.
"We're taking our commitment to putting players first really seriously at EA and we felt this was our year to do something different," said EA Spokesperson Sandy Goldberg.
