Electronic Arts has announced that it will not host its annual EA Play Live event this year.
Since 2016, the company has hosted live events separate from E3. That year, the company stopped traditional press conferences in favor of show-style announcements.
In an interview with IGN, an EA spokesperson said that it won’t be holding an event in 2022, but will make announcements for each game “in due course.”
“We love EA Play Live because it’s our way of connecting with players and sharing new things with everyone,” the statement read. “However, this year things are not lined up to show you everything on one date. Exciting things are happening in our world-class studios and this year we will reveal more about these projects at each opportune time. Information them. We look forward to spending time with you throughout the year.”
The first EA Play event in 2016 saw the unveiling of Titanfall 2 multiplayer, Mass Effect Andromeda was revealed, Battlefield 1’s operating mode was revealed, the company showed off additional content for Star Wars Battlefront, and concept art from Visceral was Cancelled Star Wars games are shown and, of course, details of the annual Madden and FIFA games are shared. EA also announced its EA Originals program for small indie developers, with the first game under that label being Fe from Zoink Games.
Fast forward to 2021, and the EA Play Live event airs in July instead of June. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, many companies opted for purely digital events that year. Ahead of the main stream throughout July, EA held four separate broadcasts, including EA Sports, discussions on Apex Legends and Battlefield 2042, discussions on the role indie games play in the industry, and Madden NFL 22 All-Access .
This year, E3 2022 will go live again due to Covid concerns. Last year, a number of developers and companies held virtual demos before and after the main event, which included presentations from Devolver Digital, Microsoft and Bethesda, and Square Enix. Ubisoft Forward, PC Gaming Show, Future Games Show and Nintendo Treehouse Live also took place during the main show.
