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EA has announced it will not be holding its traditional E3 press conference this year but will instead focus on its community-facing events.
EA Play will take place from Friday June 7th, 2019 until June 9th, featuring a selection of live streaming events to showcase its upcoming titles where viewers will see "less talk and more play", with "an event entirely focused on the heartbeat of EA Play: our player communities and the games they love".
The event promises first hands-on with some of its biggest games, exclusive content from some of the most popular creators in the world, and it will be free for all to attend.
"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," EA’s press release said.
"Weekends are meant for play, and this year we’ve moved the EA Play fanfest to Saturday, June 8 and Sunday, June 9 where players will get hands-on with our games. We’ll also have content creators streaming live from our Creator’s Cave in the Hollywood Palladium providing gameplay content to our players viewing online. EA.com will be the home for all online EA Play content. Players can get behind-the-scenes with our games via exclusive gameplay reveals, developer talks and breaking news."
Tickets will be available from next month.
This isn’t the first big company to shake up its E3 plans. While Sony’s unprecedented announcement that it will not be attending this year’s E3 marks the company’s first absence in the expo’s 24-year history, but both Nintendo and Microsoft stepped forward on social media to reassure fans that they will have a presence at next year’s show.
Sony’s announcement follows the cancellation of last year’s PlayStation Experience, too, the fan event usually held in December. It’s thought the decision not to appear at either show could be because the hardware developer is holding back plans to announce its next-generation console.
