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Are Payoffs Bad for the Industry and is Microsoft Paying Off EA Sports?
>> From loot-ninja.com:
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I was watching Sunday Night Football on NBC this past weekend and saw no less than 6 commercials for Madden 08. Each commercial showed users with the official Microsoft Wireless Headset and Xbox 360 controllers jumping up and down playing the next-gen football title. At the end of every commercial there was the Xbox 360 logo and a few seconds showing the price drop for the 360. Now, there would be nothing wrong with this had the game been an Xbox 360 exclusive. But it's Madden, the most widely sold and well known multi-platform video game in the industry.
Now why would EA Sports be so inclined to give Microsoft such preferential treatment in these commercials? The answer is simple: money. Microsoft is most likely throwing money at EA to fund their development and boost sales of games for their console. And are the commercials the only things they're paying for? This is only speculation, but the Xbox 360 is the only platform for EA Sports titles to run at 60fps. Is this coincidence or a correlation between the two events? I would personally lean towards correlating the payoffs. EA has blamed the lack of time with PS3 hardware for having Sony's version of the game run at 30fps. I think we can effectively call shenanigans here, as many third party developers have games running at 1080p and 60fps on the PS3 (i.e. Activision with Call of Duty 4). Either EA Sports has a shoddy development team (which can be argued), or there's something else going on here.
So what happens with all of these payoffs and buyouts? Ultimately, the gamers are ones who suffer. Look at what happens when a license becomes exclusive (i.e. NFL or MLB)... the development flattens out as there's no competition in that field. And that's just what will happen as payoffs and buyouts continue. Competition will dry up and money will force developers' hands. The old adage of speak with your wallet is really the only way to let these companies know that something need to change. Sadly, I have feeling that just won't work and the payoffs and buyouts will only become more frequent. We'll see what happens over the next few years.
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Full Story: loot-ninja.com
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