EA joins Sony in skipping E3’s 2019 conference

EA has just revealed their plan to skip their E3 2019 press conference. This is the second major publisher now to pull out of the annual event with Sony announcing their departure from E3 2019 back in November of last year.

Sony and EA are both E3 regulars, taking to the mainstage to announce upcoming games, showcase gameplay, and make big reveals. With EA now pulling out alongside Sony, there will be considerably less press conference goodness for gamers to digest. Luckily they won’t be forgoing E3 altogether. They will still be at the event allowing attendees the opportunity to go hands-on with some of their upcoming titles in an event they call EA Play. EA Play is a three day event starting on June 7th that is now in its fourth year.

EA announced their plan t o skip their annual E3 press conference in a blog on their website.

“This year you’ll see less talk and more play… We’re skipping the press conference this year and are replacing it with multiple live streams that will air during the first two days of the event, bringing you more of what you’ve told us you want – more gameplay and insights from the teams making the games.”

What EA appear to be doing is something similar to how Nintendo typically handle E3. Rather than hosting a press conference at the event, they will instead host a livestream on their own terms. This makes a lot of sense, as EA have historically struggled to create an alluring E3 press conference, relying on yearly franchises that everybody expects to see rather than showstopping announcements. We have no doubt that during their livestream EA will showcase details and gameplay for their upcoming sports titles such as FIFA and Madden. They have also revealed that they will have content creators steaming live during the event.

How do you feel about these big names stepping down from the E3 press conferences? Do you expect any other big names to make a similar move?