It's kind of crazy when you think back to all of the hoopla that Microsoft put behind getting EA Sports signed onto Xbox Live back at E3 2004. Ironically, it was Don Mattrick representing EA Sports on the stage back then, and he's now the head honcho for Microsoft's interactive entertainment division. The fact that money was spent to coerce EA into putting their wares on Xbox Live is sort of comical, as EA was already doing their thing on the PS2 with minimal fanfare.
The main sticking point was that EA wanted control over their games, which they had on the “open” Playstation platform. Microsoft's “walled garden” approach was often cited by EA executives at the time, particularly Bing Gordon, as being a roadblock to getting their games on the service. Gordon even once joked: “Didn't you say the only way we'd get The Sims on Xbox Live is if we added guns?”
Even though Gordon was just making a silly comment to annoy executives like Peter Moore and Ed Fries, EA was actually deadly serious about their concern for Microsoft's management of Xbox Live. They wanted to be able to have their servers communicate directly with gamers. They wanted to manage stats, friends lists and matchmaking, but more importantly, they wanted control over marketing directly to their users with downloadable content and third-party promotions.
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