LynxFX
03-11-2003, 01:22 PM
Ed Fries interview at IGN. (http://xbox.ign.com/articles/388/388754p1.html)
IGN: Is the relationship between Microsft and Electronic Arts going to change anytime soon so that we might see some of their sports franchises on Xbox Live?
EF: We have a great relationship offline and we have a relationship that is under discussion as far as online goes. We continue to talk to them about that and obviously we'd love to have them on Xbox Live. What we won't do is compromise what Xbox Live is all about. There are some basic tenets of Live that every game supports voice, that you can find your friends wherever they are, you can invite them and you have one name that works anywhere. These are things that we're not going to compromise for any publisher no matter how big they are. So we need to find the right way to work together with them where we don't make sacrifices to the Live experience.
IGN: Is EA stuck on one of those issues in particular?
EF: The challenge that they have is that they've invested hundreds of millions of dollars in building this online side of EA. So far that's been a real business struggle for them. The great thing about Live for basically every other publisher in the world is that they can put their game online and not have to worry about hosting servers, doing billing around the world or this incredible infrastructure that we had to build. EA's in this awkward position where they've built their infrastructure and they want to be able to justify that investment, but you don't need any of that for Xbox Live. It puts them in a funny situation.
Now that is the biggest case of "I don't want to play with your ball" playground crap I've ever heard. I bet EA was expecting their online servers to be huge so they didn't even give Live a second look. Now that it is starting to fail (Sims Online for one) they are getting desperate to use their servers for something. I'm glad MS hasn't backed down or caved to EA and let them do whatever they want. One thing I would hate to see is Live turn into some service that is akin to the PS2 online network.
There is more stuff in the interview about E3 and future games. Mostly they just say "wait for E3". But they did say a Rare game is coming this year. :D
IGN: Is the relationship between Microsft and Electronic Arts going to change anytime soon so that we might see some of their sports franchises on Xbox Live?
EF: We have a great relationship offline and we have a relationship that is under discussion as far as online goes. We continue to talk to them about that and obviously we'd love to have them on Xbox Live. What we won't do is compromise what Xbox Live is all about. There are some basic tenets of Live that every game supports voice, that you can find your friends wherever they are, you can invite them and you have one name that works anywhere. These are things that we're not going to compromise for any publisher no matter how big they are. So we need to find the right way to work together with them where we don't make sacrifices to the Live experience.
IGN: Is EA stuck on one of those issues in particular?
EF: The challenge that they have is that they've invested hundreds of millions of dollars in building this online side of EA. So far that's been a real business struggle for them. The great thing about Live for basically every other publisher in the world is that they can put their game online and not have to worry about hosting servers, doing billing around the world or this incredible infrastructure that we had to build. EA's in this awkward position where they've built their infrastructure and they want to be able to justify that investment, but you don't need any of that for Xbox Live. It puts them in a funny situation.
Now that is the biggest case of "I don't want to play with your ball" playground crap I've ever heard. I bet EA was expecting their online servers to be huge so they didn't even give Live a second look. Now that it is starting to fail (Sims Online for one) they are getting desperate to use their servers for something. I'm glad MS hasn't backed down or caved to EA and let them do whatever they want. One thing I would hate to see is Live turn into some service that is akin to the PS2 online network.
There is more stuff in the interview about E3 and future games. Mostly they just say "wait for E3". But they did say a Rare game is coming this year. :D