The Black Lives Matter movement affected the schedule of gaming events in June. Companies are massively canceling and rescheduling events as a sign of support for the protests in the United States.
What happened?
In the USA, protests against police brutality have been going on for the second week. The protesters were united by the slogan “Black Lives Matter” (“Black lives matter”). The rallies began after the death of an African-American George Floyd: he was strangled by a policeman during arrest.
To date, residents of Chicago, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and other major American cities have joined the protests. The actions are also held outside the United States.
Many game publishers and media have already spoken out in support of the protesters and against racism. Some of them are rescheduling scheduled events. “Now people are not up to entertainment,” Sony explained. In addition, a number of companies do not want to shift the focus from the socio-political agenda to the entertainment one.
May 31
- Publisher Electronic Arts postponed the premiere of Madden NFL 21, which was scheduled for June 1.
June 1st
- Sony postponed the first screening of games for the PlayStation 5. Initially, the one-hour presentation was scheduled for today, June 4. The new date is unknown.
- The first presentation of the new version of Android was also canceled that day. Google postponed it indefinitely. This is the second cancellation of the Android 11 presentation. The first one was due to the coronavirus.
June 2
- IGN postponed the start of the virtual festival Summer of Gaming. Instead of tomorrow, it starts on June 8.
- CD Projekt RED postponed the presentation of Night City Wire dedicated to Cyberpunk 2077. It was supposed to take place on June 11 as part of the Summer Games Fest. Now the event will take place on June 25.
- On the same day, Activision Blizzard publisher canceled the launch of new seasons in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Warzone and mobile CoD. It is not specified when these events will take place now.
June 4
- Today it became known about the transfer of the online exhibition PC Gaming Show. PC Gamer organizer will launch the event not on June 6, but on June 13.
- The same thing happened with the online festival Future Games Show from GamesRadar+. It also starts on June 13.
- Epic Games has once again shifted the start of the third season in “Fortnite: Chapter 2”. Now it will take place only on June 17. The in-game event “Aggregate” was also postponed (until June 15).
- Publisher Paradox Interactive postponed the show Paradox Insider. It is unknown when it will take place instead of June 7.
June 5Another online exhibition has been postponed.
- Guerrilla Collective was supposed to take place tomorrow, but now it will take place from June 13 to June 15. The presentation of Baldur’s Gate 3 is expected at it.
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Support for Black Lives Matter by gaming companies is not limited to transfers. Yesterday it was reported that Humble Bundle will create a $1 million fund for black developers.
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