EA Play 2019 Replacing Press Conference With Livestreams

By Austin Wilson | @TheAustinPost1

Electronic Arts has announced on their website that this years EA Play will take place from June 7th-9th, and this year EA is changing things up by skipping the usual press conference.

"We're skipping the press conference this year and are replacing it with multiple live streams that will air during the first two days, bringing more of what you told us you want - more gameplay and insights from teams making the games."

EA will be bringing in content creators to stream upcoming games in their creators cave, but attendees will be able to get their hands on the controller as well during EA Play's fanfest. 

"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."

No doubt EA's decision to do away with the conference comes from the waves of complaints from both attendees and viewers online from last year, where developers promoted their upcoming games and showing very little gameplay. It seems EA took that criticism to heart and is changing how it presents its future titles.

No solid details have been provided in the announcement, but its safe to say that EA will stream its most anticipated games like Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order.

No solid details have been provided in the announcement, but its safe to say that EA will be streaming gameplay from their most anticipated games like Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order.

After Anthem's mess of a launch, EA Play 2019 is the publishers best chance to restore the faith of investors, as well as a step forward in redeeming the company's sullied image in the eyes of gaming community as a whole.

EA And Activision CEOs Make The List For The 100 Most Overpaid CEOs In America

By Austin Wilson | @TheAustinPost1

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick and Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson were placed on a list for the 100 Most Overpaid CEOs in the United States.

The nonprofit As You Sow has spent the past five years researching and reporting the most overpaid CEOs in the United States. Over the course of their five year observation, they found that CEO earnings have increased. "According the the Institutional Shareholder Service (ISS) the average pay for a CEO in the S&P 500 grew from $11.5 million in 2013 to $13.6 million in 2017."

The CEOs on the list make more than 300 times more than their ground-level employees. "The median pay ratio for the S&P 500 is 142:1, while the median pay ratio for companies on As You Sow's list of the 100 most overpaid CEOs is over twice as much, namely 300:1."

Activision CEO Robert Kotick is placed at 45, earning $28,698,375 with an excess of $12,698,375. Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson is placed at 98, earning $35,728,764 with an excess of $19,673,861.


Activision CEO Robert Kotick

The report was published shortly after both companies announced massive layoffs. Activision-Blizzard laid off 800 employees during a company-wide restructure and has hinted that more layoffs can be expected in the future, despite Kotick bragging about record earnings for 2018.

"While our financial results for 2018 were the best in our history, we didn't realize our full potential," Kotick said, "To help us reach our full potential, we have made a number of important leadership changes. These changes should enable us to achieve the many opportunities our industry affords us, especially with our powerful owned franchises, our strong commercial capabilities, our direct digital connections to hundreds of millions of players, and our extraordinarily talented employees."

The mass layoffs were heavily criticized and Game Workers United called for Kotick's removal as CEO. The call was followed by some in the gaming community pushing the hashtag #FireBobbyKotick on Twitter.


Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson

Electronic Arts terminated 50 employees from its Australia-based FireMonkeys studios, a quarter of the studios staff in an effort to change the developers focus from mobile games to live services. The layoffs hit the Australian game development industry hard. The loss made up around 5% of the entire developer industry in the country. 

"This is a devastating blow to the industry," Game Workers United Australia stated, "an extraordinarily disappointing decision which will affect the already crowded local freelancer and indie market, as well as the undergraduate student body."

With so many layoffs in the gaming industry, As You Sow's report isn't doing Activision or EA any favors. Especially to a consumer base that has been openly critical of both publishers.