EA postponed the Madden NFL 21 announcement scheduled for today, focusing instead on the protests taking place across the country.

The protests stem from the death of George Floyd at the hands of police last week. Floyd, an unarmed African American man, was pinned to the ground while officers knelt around his neck and restricted his breathing. The officer, Derek Shovin, was later arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

While the majority of the protests have been peaceful, demanding an end to police brutality often directed at African Americans, some have escalated into riots. Police and National Guard responded with violence, injuring protesters, journalists, and bystanders.

"We stand with our friends, players, colleagues, and partners in the African American/Black community," a message from the Madden NFL Twitter account read." Our immediate concern is the actions we can take to promote change against the unfair treatment and systemic bias that plagues our country and our world."

The NFL's relationship with the Black Lives Matter movement is fraught; in 2016, Colin Capernick, then quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, protested by kneeling rather than standing during the national anthem, and other athletes followed suit. While many supported Capernick's position, some NFL owners spoke out against it.

EA is not the only publisher to acknowledge the ongoing protests. Bethesda was one of the companies tweeting about the matter, posting a brief message on Twitter with the hashtag Black Lives Matter and pinning it. [Such messages of solidarity are not uncommon for brands. Brands often express their support with a promise to fight injustice, but only after many individuals have already taken a big risk to stand up against it. As this apt parody proves, this has almost become a Twitter genre.

It is not clear how companies like EA, Bethesda, Sony, and Riot intend to address racism and police violence, but acknowledging that these issues are bigger than gaming rather than covering them up is a step in the right direction.