E3 may be off, but the timing still works for EA Play

EA has announced that its EA Play Live event for this year will be held on Thursday June 11th. That’s a few days later than we expected but an insignificant change considering everything that’s going on – such as E3 being cancelled.

EA Play has long been a satellite event to the long-running show, usually occurring on the weekend before the main event kicks off. EA has dropped it back to the Thursday following, but given that it could have held the digital event at any time of its choosing, that’s a pretty small change.

It goes to show, that even without E3 this year, the change came later enough that major publishers still have their marketing strategy for the year based around a big showing in early June. So why mess with that.

As to what EA will show at the event, that’s far less certain. Yes, of course there will be FIFA 21, or Madden if you prefer. But beyond that, it’s all a bit of a mystery. A new Star Wars title of some sort will likely be teased, and a new Battlefield game as well, but these will probably be early outings, with neither game rumoured to be coming this year.

It seems unlikely that EA will go into November with an empty slate though, so something must be filling that gap. Answers on a postcard to the usual address please.

EA’s event looks likely to be around the same time as a rumoured PS5 showing in early June, which goes to show that Sony too is happy with E3’s timing, if not the event itself, having pulled out well before any pandemic came along.

Before all of that we’ll see Xbox’s next-gen gameplay reveal on May 7th. While the end of May usually sees Activision’s Call of Duty reveal. Nintendo has reportedly cancelled its June Nintendo Direct, while the plans of other major publishers, such as Square Enix, remain a mystery.