EA Won't Have Booth at E3 2016, Briefing Scheduled for Sunday Afternoon

[UPDATE] The Entertainment Software Association, the group that organizes E3 every year, has responded to EA's announcement.

"EA's player experience underscores E3 as the global launchpad for video game news, announcements, and excitement. As always, we continue to look forward to their contributions to E3 week and can't wait to play the games ourselves," ESA senior vice president for communications Rich Taylor said in a statement to GameSpot.

The original story is below.

Breaking years of tradition, publisher Electronic Arts has announced that it will not have a booth on the E3 2016 show floor this year, and its briefing will take place Sunday afternoon instead of later in the week.

EA's new event is called EA Play. The briefing itself will take place at Club Nokia at LA Live (right next door to the Los Angeles Convention Center) on Sunday, June 12 at 1 PM PST.

Last year, Bethesda held its first-ever E3 briefing on the Sunday before E3. That event took place in the evening, so if the Fallout company decides to hold another one this year at the same time (something it hasn't yet committed to doing), it appears there won't be a conflict with EA's.

Though EA won't have its regular booth in the Los Angeles Convention Center's South Hall, the FIFA and Battlefield publisher will still host private meetings, a representative told GameSpot.

"Our players are the driving force behind everything we do," EA said in a statement announcing EA Play.

EA has rented Club Nokia for June 12-14, during which people can stop in to try out new games, take in "live events," and purchase memorabilia, among other things. A similar event will held at London's The Mermaid on June 12.

An EA representative told GameSpot that tickets will need to be reserved in advance due to limited space, but tickets will indeed be free. On the EA Play website, EA said it will share more details in the coming months regarding how people can get tickets.

EA Play events, including the briefing, will also be streamed live. GameSpot will have more details on EA Play 2016 as they're made available.

E3 2016 officially runs June 14-16.