Gaming While Drunk: EA goes Live? by Robert Keenan
It’s Sunday, and I’m enjoying my day off with a few spirited rounds of Pandora Tomorrow on Xbox LIVE and a refreshing Rum and Coke. I’ve been trying to get back into Xbox LIVE a little bit, it seems I’ll play constantly, and the not touch it again for a month or two before coming back. But the hot Merc. Vs. Spy action was just too much to pass up.
Xbox LIVE is a great service, and according to new reports MS intends to get over a million people online before the end of the year with a great new pack (instead of Mechassault as a packin game they’re going to begin to include Crimson Skies) and things are generally looking up for them. Now IGN is running a story that points to the picture getting a lot rosier.
It seems EA games are FINALLY going to be given LIVE support. For most people that means only one thing, Madden on LIVE.
EA has for some reason always kind of spurned the Xbox. They’re games appear on the PS2 with online support, and then none for the Xbox. Their games seem to look and perform a little bit better on the PS2 in spite of its technical limitations. Even the most level headed pundit put forth some tinfoil hat conspiracy theories of EA crippling their own games to get more sales for the PS2 versions. I’m not saying I believe that, but EA does clearly favor the PS2 for most of its business decisions.
They’re also one of the few companies who can do exactly as they please. Despite the efforts of the ESPN franchise (made by Working Designs, devs for the excellent 2kX series of games that originally appeared on the Dreamcast) which many consider superior EA is pretty much the only name in sports. People don’t want to play Football, they want to play Madden. They don’t care about golf, but they’re hot for the new Tiger title. These games do insane numbers at retail, and EA knows the kind of clout they have.
Them going LIVE this year is a huge boost for both of them. No longer will people choose the ESPN game when they want Madden just because they want to play online. Also, people who choose consoles by where they can play Madden against friends will have another option, and for people with Xboxes thinking about getting LIVE this may be swift kick needed to get them off the fence.
Sony always touts their huge sales numbers for their network adaptor but they lack a seroius killer app for it (Final Fantasy 11 is the closest thing to it, but it also requires the beefy investment to get both the game and the harddrive) and the more important thing is that people pay for LIVE, which means it’s a powerful tool for MS to get back into the black with the Xbox. With the new LIVE features and more on the way its getting more tempting to a greater number of people. Madden is going to be icing on what’s shaping up to be quite a cake.
-Written by
Robert Keenan
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