EA Sports ditch Madden for PC - more to follow?

[pingusten]

Well, I've complained on this forum before about the lack and care put into EA's sports games for the PC, highlighted by FIFA 08 and the continuation of poorly optimized products such as Tiger Woods.

The article comes from a blog on the new Madden game from EA, which can be found at http://itsinthegame.ea.com/archive/2008/04/01/madden-20th-anniversary-and-more.aspx

" We knew that our decision to not develop this year?s Madden for the PC would be an unpopular decision in some circles. But I?ll reiterate what I said a couple of weeks ago in this space?the PC presents some very serious business challenges to us in the sports category, particularly because so many of you all are playing your favorite sports games on the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. We are committed to shipping a limited number of our games on the PC this year, but we?ve also had to cut a few of our games from the platform. We do have ideas for how to revitalize the PC for sports games and the types of games that are best suited to the platform, and we?ll continue to explore those."

"We've also had to cut the number of games from this platform" sounds very much like EA are ditching the PC as a serious market for Sports game, which could affect in the long run the Cricket series, which is a fundemental basis of this site. The general consesus coming from the article is that sales for PC sports games are low, and consoles are taking over this area. This is most probably a fact, yet the recent standard of EA's sports games on the PC has led to me boycotting them from my sales bracket.

It would be interesting to see what all of you think about this, its a pretty big announcement hidden inside of a very low key article, but hints that sports games may be eventually obselite from the PC, something that I think should really not happen.

 

[Deleted member 9102]

Edit: Chris Gayle

 

[lancashire666]

this is horrible news, madden was the best EA game on the PC by a mile and a game i love! im gutted!

 

[barmyarmy]

It certainly effects the games' modability. No-one has yet been able to edit games on PS3, Xbox360 or Wii as far as I know and certainly not to the extent that we're able to on PC.

 

[Skater]

It certainly effects the games' modability. No-one has yet been able to edit games on PS3, Xbox360 or Wii as far as I know and certainly not to the extent that we're able to on PC.

I think this is the case with EA games, but PES 2008 has lots of patches on the PS3, using a memory stick to go from the computer to the console.

 

[Kev]

Don't really see the point of dropping the games availability on PC's, afterall they are developed on PC's. Why not just drop support for lower end systems?

 

[treva]

this is horrible news, madden was the best EA game on the PC by a mile and a game i love! im gutted!

100% agree. Poor decision in my eyes. There are much worse games that have been made by EA, this being, in my opinion, the best of all of the EA games. I just hope now that they do make up for it by improving the standards of some of there other games...

 

[Yorkshire_No1]

Shocking news. Madden on the PC is awesome, in a way I understand why they have done it but it's just a shame.

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

It certainly effects the games' modability. No-one has yet been able to edit games on PS3, Xbox360 or Wii as far as I know and certainly not to the extent that we're able to on PC.

Even if you do get to edit games on 360 you get caught out because I think you have to have a modded console for it, apparently even the few edits people made for PES2008 kits you can get caught and your console can get banned just for having that.

I reckon PC gaming will catch on in a year or two properly, like we might have the same standard of games we do on 360/PS3...

 

[lancashire666]

100% agree. Poor decision in my eyes. There are much worse games that have been made by EA, this being, in my opinion, the best of all of the EA games. I just hope now that they do make up for it by improving the standards of some of there other games...

trev you really are the last of the optomist arnt you

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

Well, this is a devastating news that EA Sports thinks PC gaming is dead - RUBBISH! PC gaming has by and far the largest scope in gaming, mainly due to its versatability. It can run minnow games from the likes of Cricket 2007 to the games exceeding the consoles abilities by far, for example Crysis. Its the best platform!

I'll tell you what, one of their main reasons to stop PC games is to curb piracy. Piracy may also explain why PC games sales are low, as it doesn't exist in modern consoles.(Yet I guess). I hope someone cracks the consoles for the PC's future.

 

[Kev]

I guess one other factor is the cheapness of testing games for consoles. If it runs on one console it will run on them all. Testing for PC's must be a lot more complex, just look at all the different OS's for starters let alone differing graphics cards etc etc.

 

[pingusten]

I'll tell you what, one of their main reasons to stop PC games is to curb piracy. Piracy may also explain why PC games sales are low, as it doesn't exist in modern consoles.(Yet I guess). I hope someone cracks the consoles for the PC's future.

The 360 is highly pirateable I'm afraid. A simple search on a torrent site will bring up many different games. The PS3 is safe at the moment I think. Piracy is a problem on PC, if only devs would produce programs such as Steam, it would end it once and for all.

 

[Deleted member 9102]

Edit: Chris Gayle

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

If something you want that usually costs £40 is there for the taking for free and you're almost certain to get away with it, you would almost be a fool not to take it really.

That is the case with most PC games and software, and it's hard to stop unless you add something like Starforce or as pingusten said, use a program similar to Steam (which is a very good idea)

Not everyone has money to throw away on this game and that game though, it all mounts up and eventually becomes very expensive, games are overpriced in my opinion.

Yeah but if you don't have the money don't buy it, it's as simple as that. I also think having a programe like Steam for most games would be awesome, theres no way around Steam...

EDIT: What you said about games being overpriced, I totally disagree with that for one simple reason; think about how much it costs to make games these days, gaming is being as big as movies and is certainly costing a lot to make.