EA to Host Fan-Focused Events Instead of Traditional E3 Booth

[Lizzy Finnegan]

EA to Host Fan-Focused Events Instead of Traditional E3 Booth

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EA will be hosting two fan-focused events during the week of E3, passing on a show floor booth.

Electronic Arts has made the decision to pass on a booth at E3 in favor of hosting two EA Play events that will be more accessible to fans. One will take place in Los Angeles at Club Nokia from June 12-14, and one will take place in London at The Mermaid Event Center on June 12. According to EA, "both events will kick off with a live press conference on June 12 (Sunday at 1pm PT) and then offer hands-on to our games, as well as other surprises."

"We are taking our commitment to put our players first further this year by creating a play experience built around them. Hosting our own event allows us to connect directly with our players and create a meaningful experience for them," a statement provided to The Escapist reads. "In Los Angeles, our players will have access to the games on Monday. We will open up the event to the industry on Tuesday, allowing those who are in town for E3 to see our games and join the experience.

"We'll unveil more in the months ahead about the games, the event, and how to get tickets but anyone interested in being there can register to get more information at our site: www.ea.com/Play2016 [http://www.ea.com/Play2016]."

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/EA/status/692376546204635136]


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[MiskWisk]

See, now what EA has just said were all words in the English language and combined them together in a way that was grammatically correct. However, I would like to see the dictionary they use so I can make sure they mean the same thing because I guarantee this will be an astounding flop. At least from a certain point of view (i.e. everyone who is not an EA marketing director).

Ok, cutting the snark now. This would be great if this was coming from literally anyone else but EA. They've made far too many mistakes that are clearly attempts to wring out as much cash from the fans of popular IPs as possible for me to trust them. Maybe they really are changing the way they do business but in the mean time I'm just going to stick to focusing on companies I would trust to run a lemonade stall without getting themselves lynched.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

"Lol!" Said somebody who probably wasn't real. "Player first" i see they still remember that mystical meaningless phrase. Unless EA are the "players" playing all their unsuspecting customers. Isn't EA3 E3 a press only event? With the only mortals allowed being carelessly rich rabid fans and gleeful prize winners of harsh elimination competitions, so that any squishy humans finally within the E-walls are so starstruck and overwhelmed by prestige and sweaty nerd glands that everything they observe will automatically be brain-filed as "awwwwesome" or whatever? Or EA3 could just pay a few easily excitable "gamerz" to gush over their new wares. Hell, they needn't even pay anybody with the number of blindly loyal fans willing to sign anything to see their next new marketing scheme.

Disclaimer: Not cynical...A "realist."

Disclaimer 2: Not in love with "quotation marks."

 

[GrumpyPirate]

Its almost starting to get entertaining how many ways they tried over the years to convince everyone they arent that bad, just to be found trying to hide an box of old diapers behind their back the next time something starts smelling a bit funny.

Heres a idea! How about just stopping the whole "megalomaniac-evil-cliche-corporation" thing instead and try to take some very simple and basic lessons from the few good actors left on the market that you havent bought out and assimilated?

 

[gigastar]

See, now what EA has just said were all words in the English language and combined them together in a way that was grammatically correct. However, I would like to see the dictionary they use so I can make sure they mean the seem thing because I guarantee this will be an astounding flop. At least from a certain point of view (i.e. everyone who is not an EA marketing director).

It couldnt possibly be worse than lowering a car from the stage cieling, could it? (Was that even EA?)

Wait, nobody has gone and hired high-profile pornstars to act as booth babes yet.

 

[MeatMachine]

EA is like your recovering crack-addicted older brother who shows up at your doorstep every few months declaring, "naw man, I've been clean for over two months!", but steals your wallet and disappears the morning after you grudgingly let him in.

I'm sure EA means it this time, though.

 

[Weaver]

I was thinking this was a good idea until I saw there are tickets, which presumably are paid.

We are taking our commitment to put our players first further this year by creating a play experience built around them.

Unless you don't live in LA or London, then fuck you.

 

[RandV80]

I love how after creating the marketing term "EA Play" they're now crafting the corresponding announcement(s) to awkwardly use the term "players" when referring to their audience. It's such an obvious marketing exec decision to stay on point or hammer home the current buzz word.

 

[thewatergamer]

*snicker* Uh huh, because the last dozen times EA has made such promises they totally followed through! There is no way they are going to go completely "corporate-free" at E3 this year, E3 can be summed up as an advertising campaign by all the major publishers, talk to me about putting "Players first" when you stop all of your scummy practices for a year or two and actually make some really great games during that time

 

[9tailedflame]

Oh hey, another on-paper decent idea that EA is inevitably going to screw up in another baffling display of greed and contempt for their customers. I'm almost excited to see how much of a shit-show this ends up being.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

My guess is it's a big sham to get more people on social media to spew out praise for upcoming games without anyone, the posters or their followers, taking into account they played demos tailored to make the games look really good. Maybe it will be a tiny step in the right direction, letting the public in before the media's opinions can affect the everyman's, or it could be worse, with EA bribing both the public and journalists with swag to subliminally sway their opinions. It's popcorn time either way. (I'd even welcome other pubs trying this out, if only to see if it will blow up in certain companies' faces while others somehow get it right.)

Really if EA or any other publisher wants to connect with their customer base better, they should follow Nintendo's demo events at various retailers and Directs. (They are just about the best business moves Ninty has done since the Wii, except for maybe crack in figurine form Amiibos.) It will probably be harder for EA since they likely has less fans that follow them as closely as Nintendo's fans do and EA doesn't currently have well known, charismatic presenters for their own video, but they could build up the program's reputation.

Though, I doubt current EA leadership wants to bother with all of that. They know they'll sell fucktons of games even if these "mini-E3" conventions fail.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

EA does something, Escapist readers slam them. It's the circle of life, and it moves us all.

I'm not saying this will work out. But it gets ridiculous when a company creates a whole new method of getting information out beyond a booth at E3 (granted "experience" may be going too far), and the reaction is to sneer and say "Rah, EA sucks and can't do anything good ever!"

 

[GundamSentinel]

EA does something, Escapist readers slam them. It's the circle of life, and it moves us all.

I'm not saying this will work out. But it gets ridiculous when a company creates a whole new method of getting information out beyond a booth at E3 (granted "experience" may be going too far), and the reaction is to sneer and say "Rah, EA sucks and can't do anything good ever!"

Well, when was the last time they actually did something truly beneficial for the games industry? While I don't really agree with EA being named worst company in America, it's absolutely not without reason that they did get voted as such twice.

Trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback. I'd say every sneer is deserved until they have proven they got their act together again. And that might take a loooooong time.

 

[Lightknight]

Basically someone at EA said, "You know, E3 is great but we're competing for attention with everyone else, let's just host our own mini-conference early so that we get all the early media attention and fans to ourselves without us just being immediately rolled over by the next conference". Then, anyone in the company who had half a brain suddenly realized that that's probably the best idea they've ever had because it is fucking brilliant. Who knows, it might even be a little cheaper for them to do it this way while also having a better effect on marketing reach.

While I may wish EA would undergo a forced takeover from a company that understands making customers happy (though I do feel they have been getting slightly better lately with other studios taking the mantel of chief asshat), I still think this was an incredibly savvy business move.

On the other hand, this would basically be the equivalent of them starting up Origin now against Steam. Even when Origin started up they were already a couple years too late. E3 has literally everything and they're stepping outside of it? Well, at least they're able to leech off of E3 directly by being in the same town at the same time with one day overlapping their conference. I am also concerned that the other big studios will start to do the same thing and end up seriously watering down E3 but I only consume the news generated rather than ever attending. But if I were a big studio like Sony or Microsoft I don't think I'd let EA get away with having two days of unchallenged media attention. This may lead to a drastic change in how these conferences are attended.

 

[FoolKiller]

All this says to me is they think they're better than everyone else. If they were generally interested in their fans, they would still have a booth at E3 AND this.

This coupled with their EA Access bullshit where they once again want money for something that is done better elsewhere. Playstation didn't even allow it because they thought it was not good bang for your buck. I did the free trial. It isn't. 6 months in and only a trial for the current year of sports games. All the sports that are accessible are 15. The servers may still be up but they're ghost towns. Also, if their mentality is truly player first, why do I have to pay to try the demos. Why aren't they free? Last gen I could download all sorts of demos and play to see if I wanted to buy.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

EA does something, Escapist readers slam them. It's the circle of life, and it moves us all.

I'm not saying this will work out. But it gets ridiculous when a company creates a whole new method of getting information out beyond a booth at E3 (granted "experience" may be going too far), and the reaction is to sneer and say "Rah, EA sucks and can't do anything good ever!"

Well, when was the last time they actually did something truly beneficial for the games industry? While I don't really agree with EA being named worst company in America, it's absolutely not without reason that they did get voted as such twice.

Trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback. I'd say every sneer is deserved until they have proven they got their act together again. And that might take a loooooong time.

The last time they did anything truly beneficial for the games industry? Well, that would probably be when they set up a refund system on Origin, before Steam did, as well as starting up the On The House and Game Time programs on Origin, the later of which gives away a free game to anyone with Origin (what game it is changes on an uncertain schedule) and the Game Time program allows players 48 hours of access to certain games for free, to see if they'll like the game before buying it.

That aside, I'm not saying EA is great, or even all that good. They've made plenty of missteps, and I understand people being cautious about what they say or do. But I feel that it is getting to the point where EA could give away free games, and people would still complain about it. Which happens ALL THE TIME, because certain people on the site honestly feel that the cost of having Origin on their computers is too high for the free games.

That is where my comment came from. I phrased it badly, and seemed to target anyone saying anything negative about it at all, or not being super-excited. That wasn't my intention. My comment was more pointed towards the people who said EA had to be lying about this, because they are the worst company making video games that doesn't know how to make any good video games, but is still somehow successful.

All this says to me is they think they're better than everyone else. If they were generally interested in their fans, they would still have a booth at E3 AND this.

This coupled with their EA Access bullshit where they once again want money for something that is done better elsewhere. Playstation didn't even allow it because they thought it was not good bang for your buck. I did the free trial. It isn't. 6 months in and only a trial for the current year of sports games. All the sports that are accessible are 15. The servers may still be up but they're ghost towns. Also, if their mentality is truly player first, why do I have to pay to try the demos. Why aren't they free? Last gen I could download all sorts of demos and play to see if I wanted to buy.

Just to let you know, they do have other ways to get demos besides EA Access. Game Time allows you access to a (granted, small) selection of games to trial for 48 hours, and they have a few other demos in the demo section. And has EA been going for six months? I ask, because Origin has only been letting me know about it for a month if that.

I'm not saying EA Access is actually good, mind you. I haven't tried it yet, and locking demos behind a paywall is definitely not good. But there are free demos of various sorts on Origin.