XBox Live and.....EA

[Tezcatlipoca]

Couple of days old.......and not confirmed in any way yet by M$ & EA (in fact they have denied anything has finally been agreed)

http://xbox.ign.com/articles/508/508...html?fromint=1

Douglass C. Perry @ IGN

April 23, 2004 - After years of discussions, Electronic Arts and Microsoft are putting the final touches on a partnership enabling four of EA's sports titles, and possibly three non-sports games, to go online with Xbox Live this fall, IGN learned today. The Redwood City, Ca.-based publisher 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.


"They're psyched," a former EA employee, who asked not to be identified, told IGN. "EA is going to bring its games to Live this year. It's finally happening."

Madden NFL 2005, NCAA College Football, NASCAR Thunder 2005, and NBA Live comprise the sports package for Xbox Live this fall. The non-sports games are less concrete, but as IGN has learned from several sources close to the company, Battlefield: Modern Combat, EA's new GoldenEye game, and perhaps Burnout 3 are first in line for Xbox online compatibility.

(BIG SNIP)

So...EA games on XBL at last...perhaps.

Sod the EA Sports games, but BF on XBL could be good.

If they have agreed on this, I wonder how it's going to work, wrt to EA's previous demands for doing XBL games?

[grindkid25]

yeah such games as FIFA, sims, maybe 007 games, and maybe even medal of honours!.....theres RTCW........but ive always prefered the MOH series.........there could of been need for speed.....but PGR2 is much better really

[Neil]

According to US reports, upcoming titles from EA labelled definites for Xbox Live support are NBA Live, Madden NFL 2005, NASCAR Thunder 2005 and NCAA College Football, all due Autumn/Christmas.

Xbox Live support in GoldenEye 2, Burnout 3 and an un-announced Battlefield title (could be Battlefield: 1942, could be Modern Combat) is also speculated.

An official announcement from Microsoft and EA is expected soon. Industry insiders currently point heavily to both companies revealing all as part of Microsoft's pre-E3 Xbox press conference next month.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=103688

[Neil]

W00t!

http://www.xbox.com/en-us/e32004/ea/...el3=eaxboxlive

http://www.easports.com/e3/2004/xboxlive.jsp

The first game to include Xbox Live capability will be NCAA® Football 2005, scheduled for release in July. Madden NFL 2005, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 2005, NASCAR® 2005: Chase For The Cup, NBA LIVE 2005, NHL® 2005, and NCAA® March Madnessââ€Ã …¾Ã‚¢ 2005 will follow. EA GAMES titles on Xbox Live include GoldenEye: Rogue Agentââ€Æ¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢, Need for Speedââ€Æ¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ Underground 2, Battlefield: Modern Combatââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢, Burnoutââ€Ã …¾Ã‚¢ 3 and TimeSplitters Future Perfectââ€Ã …¾Ã‚¢.

Did I mention that 'Battlefield: Modern Combat' is coming to XBOX Live.....

OH

MY

GOD

*Rushes off to change pants!*

[fluds]

http://www.theregister.com/2004/05/11/xbox_live_ea/

So if this report is true, how will the security work on third party servers and I have a suspision that EA will charge a monthly fee for access to thier servers to play thier games. Does not sound so good now, if what I think is going to happen happens. Or am I just being synical

Its Official EA have signed on the dotted line ! BBC News Xbox & EA

[Ricky G]

Tiger Woods 2005 online? BRING IT ON!!!! The only reason I bought Links was for the online part. Other than that its a pretty poor game in comparison to TW.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by NEONKNIGHT

Its Official EA have signed on the dotted line ! BBC News Xbox & EA

I know it's official, I already posted 2 official links above.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Originally Posted by Neil

Did I mention that 'Battlefield: Modern Combat' is coming to XBOX Live.....

At last!

I don't care about the sport games, & GoldenEye & Timesplitters will probably be poor, but BF....

Originally Posted by fluds

http://www.theregister.com/2004/05/11/xbox_live_ea/

So if this report is true, how will the security work on third party servers and I have a suspision that EA will charge a monthly fee for access to thier servers to play thier games. Does not sound so good now, if what I think is going to happen happens. Or am I just being synical

I doubt you're being cynical.

EA's main sticking points about XBL were that they wanted control & they wanted to be able to charge. If M$ & EA have finally agreed a deal for EA games to be on XBL, then I wouldn't be surprised if you do have to pay extra to EA, on top of the XBL sub to M$.

Another thing EA apparently had wanted to be able to do was to "switch off" XBL access for their sport games each time a newer updated version was released (e.g. so that when the 2k5 games came out, the 2k4 games would no longer work on XBL & people would have to buy the "new & updated" one)...I wonder if M$ have agreed to that...

[Tezcatlipoca]

http://xbox.ign.com/articles/513/513...html?fromint=1

Originally Posted by Douglass C. Perry @ IGN

When asked about the conflicts, namely finances, server control, and data, [M$' Robbie] Bach said that really, in the end, the biggest differences really came down to hosting. "And you know what we learned? Gamers don't care which server the games are housed on. That was an original issue, and we worked it out."

[EA's] Cameron Ferroni elaborated: "The Microsoft servers are complicated, but essentially they are interwoven with the EA servers, so that after two major things are taken care of -- authentication and security, which takes placer in Microsoft servers -- gamers will play on EA servers afterward. The process is complicated."

(snip)


Microsoft and EA, however, mentioned the possibility of EA experimenting with addition charges on Xbox Live. EA's Chip Lang explained. "This is all new for us, so there will be a learning process. We will experiment with different strategies for charging, starting this fall in these EA games. NCAA and Madden will have some sort of charge fee, but honestly, we're going to see how people react, and what works and what doesn't. Maybe gamers can download exclusive skins or extra characters or special things they couldn't get in the game proper -- dedicated and exclusive content. We'll see."

[Neil]

Also worth bearing mind is that M$ won't be updating their range of sports titles........

That must have been part of the deal-EA saying to MS that they will support XBOX Live on the basis that M$ stopped their (superior IMHO) range of Sports titles.

[Brainbug71]

Personally i think the hole deal sucks,
We're told it'll make things better for us the user but i dont think the games they're offering are that great.

Just another way to screw you for more money, in the short term with direct charges for access and in the long term by having to buy the new games as they come out, like it or not.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Originally Posted by Neil

Also worth bearing mind is that M$ won't be updating their range of sports titles........

That must have been part of the deal-EA saying to MS that they will support XBOX Live on the basis that M$ stopped their (superior IMHO) range of Sports titles.

Yeah, quite possible.

M$ say otherwise though:

(from the earlier IGN link)

When asked why Microsoft dropped its sports titles, Bach replied, "We didn't drop our sports lineup because of EA. We didn't bring them out for a different reason, they weren't very good."

Hmm. "Weren't very good"? Top Spin & some of the other XSN games were actually very good.
Maybe they weren't *all* excellent, but they were no certainly worse than the usual crap EA-Sports releases.

Originally Posted by Neil

I know it's official, I already posted 2 official links above.

So we can safely say that's Official then ! LOL