EA pulls out of E3 2016, plans fan events in LA and London instead

Electronic Arts won't have a booth on the showfloor at E3 2016, but the publisher is still going to have a Los Angeles presence this June. EA Play, a fan-oriented event open to the public, will be held June 12-14 at Club Nokia - just down the street from the Los Angeles Convention Center, and E3 proper. This will be the first year EA has skipped E3 for more than a decade.

EA will still hold a press conference, but instead of sharing the pre-E3 Monday with Microsoft, Sony, and Ubisoft as it had in years past, the company's presentation will take place on Sunday, June 12 - much like Bethesda held its conference on the Sunday before E3 last year. EA will also host a special one-night event on Sunday, June 12, at The Mermaid conference and events center in London.

This is just preliminary analysis, but it seems like a smart move on EA's part. The event is just down the street, and the publisher is still taking appointments from press who will be in town for E3 anyway. However, it won't have to shell out the money for the floorspace to accommodate their historically massive booth, they can open the doors to hype-generating fans, and the development teams can theoretically get away with using older builds for demo purposes. That last point is particularly poignant, as it would hopefully leading to less crunch for them, and an overall better final product.

Sam is a former News Editor here at GamesRadar+. His expert words have appeared on many of the web's well-known gaming sites, including Joystiq, Penny Arcade, Destructoid, and G4 Media, among others. Sam has a serious soft spot for MOBAs, MMOs, and emo music. Forever a farm boy, forever a '90s kid.