George Floyd, an African-American man, resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota died during an arrest when a police officer, Derek Chauvin, kept his knee on the right side of Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. The death of George has sparked Black Life Matters protests across the USA, with support from various celebrities and companies like Netflix, Amazon, Beyonce, Micheal Jordan, and many more.
The effects of protests are visible everywhere, even among gamers. EA Sports, one of the biggest sports game developers, recently announced delay of their upcoming Madden NFL 21 reveal trailer. In a tweet from official Madden NFL account EA announced the delay of the reveal.
In the Tweet, EA said:
“Tomorrow, we had committed to celebrating Madden NFL 21 with you, but we’re not going to do that now.
We stand with our African American / Black community of friends, players, colleagues, and partners. Our immediate attention is on actions we can take to drive change against the unjust treatment and systemic bias that is plaguing the nation and our world.
We’ll find another time to talk football with you. Because this is bigger than a game,
bigger than sports, and needs all of us to stand together and commit to change.”
It’s only logical for EA to delay the reveal right now as the tensions are very high among the citizens and since Madden NFL has biggest market in the US, revealing the game right now wouldn’t be feasible. Plus NFL as a sport have many African-American players and is loved by the community, it would feel unjust not to stand for the cause. Be it a gaming company or any individual, everyone should stand against racial unjust as every human life matters and no human race is above humanity.
