We are at that weird point in our insane timeline where Electronic Arts ends up looking like the good guy and Valve doesn’t.
EA announced on Twitter that its EA Play Live digital event will be rescheduled to Thursday, June 18th, in order to make way for “important conversations taking place and important voices being heard around the world right now” — an extension of the company’s previous statement of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Valve has also elected to reschedule its upcoming Steam Summer Game Festival, but according to reporting from Gamasutra, Valve did not give an express reason why, merely announcing the fact in a one-line email that reads “The Steam Game Festival has been rescheduled for Tuesday, June 16th thru June 22nd.”
We note here that Valve has not vocalized support of the protests; Gamasutra points out Valve’s history of lackadaisical moderation of hate groups and racism on Steam and even its own games: Team Fortress 2, for example, has been overrun with racist bots in recent months with no apparent moves by Valve to correct the issue. Readers will also recall that Valve seems more focused on other matters like mitigating review bombing, and as of this writing, the Steam Events search offers no articles or dev blogs regarding matters of racism and hate.
