EA Completes Its Surrender With XBLA Site
Back when Microsoft launched Xbox Live for the original Xbox, Electronic Arts spurned it, keeping their Xbox titles offline only and giving their PlayStation 2 titles online play. In March of 2003, much-smaller EIDOS followed suit, announcing their titles would also only be playable online on the PS2. In May of 2003 EA revealed that their coveted sports titles for the year wouldn’t be playable on Xbox Live, even though Microsoft stated that talks were ongoing to bring EA aboard.
EA hasn’t shied away from online play with Xbox Live for a while now, and they have completed their surrender to the Microsoft online machine by launching their own green-themed website dedicated to what looks like their first titles to hit the Xbox Live Arcade. That’s Boom Boom Rocket and the unreleased Wing Commander-themed game.
Researching my own posts back in 2003 about these movers and shakers in the gaming space revealed a rather prescient quote from EIDOS:
“We’re not supporting Xbox Live for the time being because we don’t feel comfortable with Microsoft’s business model — they own the consumer,” said Eidos Chief Executive Mike McGarvey in an interview on March 6. The company is developing games for Sony’s PlayStation 2 online system, because “Sony is more of a partner,” he said.
Funny how nobody worries about being owned by the console manufacturer anymore. In fact, they often beg for it. Until they get price-gouged on add-ons.
Links:
The EA Xbox Live Arcade Site.
EA sports online only for the PS2 (farbot.com).
Xbox, PS2: Eidos will not support Xbox Live either (farbot.com).
Seen on EvilAvatar.
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