EA Bails?

[jbp641]

I saw on TechTv that Ea said they would not release online games for xbox cause MS is running the servers. Is this true?

[faceoff508]

Yeah I think this si true.. there was a thread about this topic.. search the frist two pages!

[jbp641]

Found this on slashdothttp://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=0...thread&tid=127

[Crazy Joe]

this is the NY Times article for anyone interested:

Electronic Arts, the world's largest independent video game publisher, said yesterday that it had struck a deal to provide its games for the Sony Corporation's new online gaming effort.

Significantly, officials of Electronic Arts said that although it was also in talks with the Microsoft Corporation on joining a rival online effort, it had reservations about Microsoft's strategy. Negotiations have stalled for so long that Electronic Arts said it would almost certainly have no online games ready for Microsoft's Xbox video game platform this year.

The statement by Electronic Arts, which comes just days before Microsoft had scheduled a splashy rollout for the online version of its Xbox system, highlights the bruising negotiations going on behind the scenes among game publishers and the three major console makers. Sony, Microsoft and the Nintendo Company are all in the process of unveiling strategies to capture those who want to play video games with friends and strangers connected from remote locations through the Internet.

Each hardware maker has been eager to attract video game software publishers in the hopes that hit titles will draw large audiences. But there are strong concerns among some of the major publishers, echoing the concerns of independent software publishers in the personal computer industry.

Several people close to the negotiations said Microsoft had been trying to force software publishers to offer their online games on data-serving computers controlled by Microsoft, a move that could potentially give Microsoft access to information about customers.

"Any developer who accepts an agreement that doesn't respect their relationship with the customer is like a turkey accepting an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner," said Jeff Brown, a spokesman for Electronic Arts.

Microsoft executives said yesterday that they believed that they would be able to convince Electronic Arts that the Xbox online service would not constitute a threat to the customer base of Electronic Arts.

"We're in discussions to bring their games to the Xbox service," said David Hufford, Xbox product manager. "It took us a while to convince them to write their games for our platform and it will take some time for both companies to get together and discuss this."

The game is being played out in public and private even though the online game market has yet to be proven and has been slow to develop for desktop PC's, where it has existed in some form for more than a decade.

Indeed, a number of industry executives have said the efforts, which will be the centerpiece of this year's Electronics Entertainment Expo, the electronic game show known as E3 scheduled to start in Los Angeles next week, are more about public relations than substance.

There is a growing consensus that Sony has won the first round in the battle of the current generation of set-top video game boxes.

"The die has been cast in this generation, and we know Sony has won," said John Riccitiello, the president of Electronic Arts.

He said that Electronic Arts had decided to ally itself with Sony in part because of this and because he believed that Sony's online strategy entailed less risk for his company. Sony, like Nintendo, would let publishers run games over their own servers or independent Internet service providers.

"We understand and like Sony's business model, and we don't yet understand Microsoft's," Mr. Riccitiello said.

Electronic Arts said yesterday that it would offer an online version of its popular Madden Football game later this year for Sony's PlayStation 2, then gradually add online features to other versions of its games for the Sony console. The online version will allow players to chat with and compete against players over the Internet, as well as download statistics and team rosters.

Noting that Electronic Arts had spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build its own online infrastructure to run computer games, the chief executive of a rival game publisher said he was not surprised that Electronic Arts would butt heads with Microsoft over the ability to keep games and customer data on its own system.

The executive, Brian Farrell of THQ, said Microsoft's service could appeal to smaller publishers who cannot afford to build their own systems for authentication, billing, Web host operations and security for online games. But to work with Microsoft, he said, "we will have to be assured that Microsoft will respect who our customers are and who their customers are."

Mr. Farrell would not say which console makers THQ planned to work with aside from Sony, saying that announcements are planned for E3.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/16/te...gy/16GAME.html

[GokuX]

Oh well. U win some, U lose some.