EA Close To Finally Announcing Xbox Live Support? 21
Thanks to IGN Xbox for its article discussing allegedly concrete plans for Electronic Arts to support Xbox Live later this year. According to the as yet unconfirmed article, EA "will announce its strategy at the annual Electronic Entertainment Exposition this May, but it may reveal plans earlier to investors this April 29, during its upcoming fiscal announcement." We previously reported on speculation that EA Sports titles would finally become Xbox online-playable, and IGN say that "Madden NFL 2005, NCAA College Football, NASCAR Thunder 2005, and NBA Live comprise the sports package for Xbox Live this fall." The non-sports titles seem a little more unclear, but it's claimed: "Battlefield: Modern Combat, EA's new GoldenEye game, and perhaps Burnout 3 are first in line for Xbox online compatibility."
Hot damn (Score:1)
I love you Kalinga (Score:3, Interesting)
MMKalinga
Re:I love you Kalinga (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I love you Kalinga (Score:5, Informative)
They probably had quite a bit of back-end restructuring to do to get this implemented. I don't see them needing 24 hours of downtime JUST to add more statistic/teamplay features. The MSN messenger "plugin" hasn't even gone online yet.
I will say this though, many people swear by the NBA Live and Madden franchises. To them, anything else is do-do. I'm not much of a sports gamer, but I see this as only a good thing for both companies and all I can say is "It's about time."
Additionally, with MS taking a year off with their NBA and NFL titles, it looks like SOMEBODY is going to have free reign on XBox Live as far as Basket/Foootball is concerned next year. Looks like a concession to lure EA onto their network if I ever saw one.
Re:I love you Kalinga (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I love you Kalinga (Score:2)
All is fair in love and war? As long as the Xbox continues to be the (OTHER) underdog in the console war, they need to employ every trick they can to win over developers. This is no Nintendo, Sony, or Sega don't forget. No first-party games, no pre-established support, and no fanboyism (or they have anti-fanboyism). Other than superior hardware (which will be nulled in the next generation) and enough money to buy a small island and pay
Re:I love you Kalinga (Score:2)
Never thought you'd see a company that could make MS cry uncle, did ya.
Re:I love you Kalinga (Score:4, Insightful)
How is this crying uncle? This is Microsoft making a sound tactical decision, and flipping off Sony in the process.
EA (Score:1)
Re:EA (Score:5, Interesting)
But if their online system on the PS2 really is less than it should be, then I think getting connected with XBox Live will be a plus for them (and us) too. I know, I'll be getting NASCAR 2005 if I can play it on Live. I wonder if developer headaches with supporting their own online system may have helped drive them to settle their differences with Microsoft, and all of the money they were leaving on the table. In fact, it is likely that they had already saturated the available market with the online PS2 offerings, so going to XBox Live was the only way to further grow the market. Money talks very loudly!
Sweet... (Score:3, Interesting)
Hopefully, this means that the next NFS title will support online play on the XBox as well as on the PC/PS2. :)
Now we just need to add support for online play on the GC and make it support crossplatform gaming (for all of them and not just the PS2/PC).
Seriously, have a game that plays on all platforms that lets you play against players on any of the other platforms (or all of them at once) and maybe people can finally settle the whole "my console/system is better than yours" thing.
Re:Sweet... (Score:1)
Re:Sweet... (Score:2)
Don't forget Need for Speed: Underground for PS2 and PC...
I figure that if they can do it with a PS2 and a PC, they should be able to do it with an XBox and a PC... I'm not a programmer so I really don't know how hard it would be, but I figure that if they can get the game to run on each of the consoles plus the PC, they'd just need the server to handle stats/position data. Each copy of the game can do the rest locally like it does when playing in single player mode.
Then again, I probably just don't know
Re:Sweet... (Score:2)
I guess that would be a problem, but I'm sure they could figure out ways around that... maybe in the next generation of hardware?
right (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:right (Score:2)
What you mean like Sony did with Sega and is trying to do with Nintendo? Look at it this way...
because they know that cooperation with Sony means Sony puts other consoles right out of the running and gains leverage they will use against developers in the future