SirFozzie
12-10-2003, 07:50 AM
It's been talked about for quite some time now. Why can't Electronic Arts and Microsoft settle their differences so that gamers can benefit? There are tons of Xbox owners who would like to play EA games such as Madden NFL 2004 or the recently released The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King over Xbox Live.
Well, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel since EA and MS are still "actively talking" to one another in an effort to come to some sort of resolution. IGN recently conducted an interview with Chip Lange, the new head of the EA Sports Nation. Here's a snippet from their discussion:
IGN Sports: Yeah, but if you want the most amount of people to play online and join the Nation, doesn't that mean that you eventually have to support Xbox Live and bring your games beyond the PlayStation 2?
Chip Lange: Yes. There's an audience there that we're not currently tapping, and I think the customers are speaking out and saying "We want to play Madden on Xbox Live!" Madden outsells every other Xbox football game, and I think it's clear that the grand slam homerun is Madden playable online on all platforms. That's always been EA's model. There are some business model things and some consumer relationship issues that we're working on with Microsoft...we talk to them on a very regular basis, and everybody's hoping. I think both Microsoft and EA, if you talked to them, would say that we're hoping that we can figure out a solution so we can get there. There's certainly no bad blood there, and the good thing is, we're talking. If gamers are out there wondering what's going on, I definitely wouldn't say hope is lost. We're actively talking. We'd love to provide more gaming opportunities for our customers, that's what it's all about. So yeah, we're talking, and hopefully something can be worked out soon.
Hopefully is the keyword in that quote, so for now we must collectively keep our fingers crossed. For the full interview, head on over to IGN.
Well, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel since EA and MS are still "actively talking" to one another in an effort to come to some sort of resolution. IGN recently conducted an interview with Chip Lange, the new head of the EA Sports Nation. Here's a snippet from their discussion:
IGN Sports: Yeah, but if you want the most amount of people to play online and join the Nation, doesn't that mean that you eventually have to support Xbox Live and bring your games beyond the PlayStation 2?
Chip Lange: Yes. There's an audience there that we're not currently tapping, and I think the customers are speaking out and saying "We want to play Madden on Xbox Live!" Madden outsells every other Xbox football game, and I think it's clear that the grand slam homerun is Madden playable online on all platforms. That's always been EA's model. There are some business model things and some consumer relationship issues that we're working on with Microsoft...we talk to them on a very regular basis, and everybody's hoping. I think both Microsoft and EA, if you talked to them, would say that we're hoping that we can figure out a solution so we can get there. There's certainly no bad blood there, and the good thing is, we're talking. If gamers are out there wondering what's going on, I definitely wouldn't say hope is lost. We're actively talking. We'd love to provide more gaming opportunities for our customers, that's what it's all about. So yeah, we're talking, and hopefully something can be worked out soon.
Hopefully is the keyword in that quote, so for now we must collectively keep our fingers crossed. For the full interview, head on over to IGN.