EA: PC Sports Games Will Return Next Year, Reinvented by 'Meaningful' Online Connectivity

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During an investor conference call today, EA Sports president Peter Moore offered new details on the studio's attempts to reinvigorate its PC sports title offerings.

"We are retooling these titles [on the PC] to take advantage of the online connectivity in a bigger and more meaningful way," Moore said today, noting that EA's usual sports offerings--Madden, NCAA Football, NBA Live, etc.--will reappear on PC in 2009.

He also said the company is toying with subscription programs to reward players, but offered no further details on either subjects.

EA Sports had previously announced that several EA Sports franchises would not appear on PC this year, citing "serious business challenges" and a need to reinvigorate sports offerings on the platform.

Speaking on EA Sports' overall performance, the company further revealed that pre-orders numbers for EA Tiburon's NCAA Football 09 and Madden NFL 09 are down compared last year's iterations, though sell-through of NCAA Football have matched up to last year's figures.

Both Moore and EA CEO John Riccitiello stressed that the company is not concerned as sales have remained consistent.

From The Chatty
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    July 29, 2008 3:52 PM

    Best Played on EA-Built Systems.

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      July 29, 2008 4:57 PM

      we can laugh about that all we want (I admit it does sound ridiculous), but it's about time people who would love to be pc gamers but aren't hardware savvy like many of us can purchase a legit gaming pc for $500-700 (which can easily be built with parts just from Newegg), guaranteed to run every current game very well.

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        July 29, 2008 5:23 PM

        Not to ignite a flame war or anything here, but I should note that with the HD 3850, 9600GSO, and 9600GT going for between $70 and $100, $500 will net you a PC that can exceed the graphical capabilities of a 360 or PS3, and then there's always the fact that PC games are cheaper and have longer lifetimes (mods, more free content/DLC, more frequent patches, longer-lived online communities, etc...).

        And as far as peripherals go, EA has already said that it's exploring the possibility of making special controllers for its games; besides, the PC is rather control-agnostic anyway (a 360 gamepad- wired or wireless- PS3 Sixaxis or Dualshock 3, or even a Wiimote and Nunchuk can rather easily be hooked-up to a PC [points Wiimote at screen, waves it around a bit, watches mouse dance around the screen]). Granted, they're going to need decent m/k controls as a base (particularly if they go with a free-to-play model), but they don't need to cripple their games b/c of the m/k or design their games around them.

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          July 29, 2008 6:07 PM

          I agree with you 100%, but you can't deny that the average pc gamer (read: sims and wow crowd these days) has no clue how cpu, gpu, memory, os, ect all interact with each other to provide gaming performance and the damn oem's don't give a shit as they keep pushing retarded IGPs that shrink the user base. If a gaming company like EA started offering cheap, properly built gaming PCs it would help the industry.

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            July 29, 2008 6:19 PM

            I hit post too early. Sure people like you and I can build monster gaming machines for relatively very little money, especially if you sell the part you are upgrading (my E8400@4.0ghz 8800gt 4gb ddr2-1000 pc cost me less than $400 in the end). But most people wouldn't even know where to begin so they call up dell and order some overpriced garbage with integrated video, have no clue how to install drivers or even how to access the NVCP or CCC, don't even know what a resolution is let alone how to change it. These people try to play a game and it runs like shit, they get demoralized, the developer gets tired of dealing with their shit, and the downward spiral continues. Now imagine if these same people could walk into Gamespot to buy Battlefield 3 and try it on an EA build efficient gaming rig that they could also buy there guaranteed to run the game to their satisfaction. With the industry moving toward digital distribution I see a huge opportunity for Gamestop, Gamecrazy and the like to start selling cheap but still profitable gaming PCs.

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            July 29, 2008 6:42 PM

            I totally agree that PC software vendors taking a more active role in providing and informing consumers about gaming PC hardware is a good thing. But really the best thing that can be done is simply for PC gamers, hardware enthusiasts, and etc... "people in the know" to just provide a helping hand to those who aren't as well informed and to help them get the best bang for their buck in a way that's convenient for them. That, and what EA is presently doing (as well as potentially AMD Game! and nVidia's inevitable counter), will hopefully sound the deathknell of needlessly, exorbitantly expensive gaming PC's.

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