EA Wants an “Open, Standard Platform”
By Chris on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 12:09 PM PST In Electronic Arts, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Games Industry, Hardware, Microsoft, Microsoft, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Portable, Sony, Sony, Sony
EA’s Gerhard Florin says that EA – and developers in general – are tired of the extra work that comes along with having five different platforms which are incompatible with one another. He also says it makes life harder on the consumer.
“We want an open, standard platform which is much easier than having five which are not compatible,” said EA’s head of international publishing.
EA currently develops games for 14 platforms (too bad one of them isn’t the Dreamcast, maybe it would have done well in that case), which span home consoles, handhelds, and PCs. Florin said, “We’re platform agnostic and we definitely don’t want to have one platform which is a walled garden.”
He suggested that in the future, web and set-top boxes will be become more important, and that server-based games will be streamed to those boxes or PCs. “You don’t need an Xbox 360, PS3 or Wii – the consumer won’t even realise the platform it is being played on.”
Some think this is a brilliant idea. Others, like Denis Dyack, believe that a single system is the way to go. And there are those who believe this concept is insanity and that it’ll never work. Which side of the argument do you fall on?
via BBC News
Obviously a game maker like EA would want this because they just want to churn out the same stuff year after year on as many consoles as they can with as little effort as possible.
That would of course mean zero hardware innovation and progression. With different hardware formats they have push the boundaries to try and attract you. The makers need to try and out do each other with their in house software and hardware even selling equipment at a loss meaning you get far more for your money. Normalising platforms would mean all that would stop and the world would turn to shit.
@Norbit
I’m certain they didn’t mean they don’t want progression, I think they just mean that if all brands used the same format it’d be easier.
Screw EA, I want my Wii low powered and my PS3 overpowered. Variety is the spice of life. While it is a neat idea, I think it’s better the way it is.
..and people in hell want ice water.
For some reason i don’t like EA… they make a few good games every now and again, but they are like the Borg, assimilating every small development house they can and leaving nothing but mediocre drones who just churn out nothing but lame stuff nobody wants.
I fail to understand why, when this topic comes up, everyone immediately screams “innovation would stop!”
Seems to me there is plenty of innovation in the PC world (e.g. USB 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, Firewire, graphics advancements, hyperthreading, dual core CPUs) and that is a standard platform. In fact, I would daresay that advancements in the PC world are more frequent than in the gaming world (imagine if new PC advancements came out every 4-7 years like game consoles).
Imagine if you bought a Dell last time and bought a Gateway this time and had to swap out all your software?
I think a unified platform would force the companies to compete on features and quality. Imagine if, after your third RRoD experience with the Microsoft Wii60Station you could just say “to heck with them” and buy the Sony or Nintendo version?
Linux!
Oh god no not Linux.
never say that again. ever.
You freakin’ retarded jeb-end perpy.