LOS ANGELES (AP) – The flags outside the Electronic Entertainment Expo are flying at half-staff in tribute to the victims of the shooting attack at an Orlando gay club that left 50 dead. However, it will seemingly be business as usual inside the video game industry’s annual trade show this week.
The weeklong event kicked off Sunday with flashy presentations featuring footage of upcoming games – many of which depict unrelenting gun violence -from publishers Electronic Arts and Bethesda Softworks.
EA, which has a studio in Orlando, did not directly address the shootings Sunday afternoon while hyping such games as the World War I-set military shooter “Battlefield 1” and the robot-filled sci-fi shoot-’em-up “Titanfall 2.”
Chris Plante and T.C. Sottek of the technology site The Verge wrote after EA’s presentation that “witnessing a sales pitch for the fun in gun violence felt strange, to say the least.”
The developers on stage at Bethesda’s presentation Sunday evening sported rainbow ribbons in support of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community as they showed off games like the multiplayer shooter “Quake Champions” and the stylish assassin tale “Dishonored 2.”