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EA vs. Xbox Live
bigman2003 writes "In a big move earlier this year, EA started to offer games with Xbox Live support. One of the big concessions Microsoft made was to let outside companies run their own servers on Xbox Live. Today EA is having problems, partially brought on by their new title, Burnout 3." Tycho has commentary on the issue as well.
the 1.0 syndrome. Is it really that surprising that is this not only EA's first XBox live title, but its also Microsoft's first third party vendor hosted service on XBox live. Typically if you haven't built proceedures and gotchas beforehand, things get forgotten, screwed up, etc...
Mind you, it could be said that this was ultimately the result of bad QA.
Bye!
Aren't all games played in real time? Unless it's something turn-based, which are pretty rare cases these days.
EA has had online matchmaking services for years now on the pc with the majority, if not all, of their sports lines, so it looks to me like they've got as much experience with online games as any other developer. They certainly have enough experience to be able to ballpark a usage level that they expect.
Their problem isn't that they're some ignorant startup who doesn't know any better, their problem is that they've made these mistakes before and haven't changed a thing.
no surprise re: network play, NFS:Underground wasn't exactly the pinnacle of network gaming. The PS2 networking was plagued with cheating.
It's a shame because Project Gotham 2 really set the standard for how online driving should be approached; with games suitable for both the HPB and the LPB, the world ladder system is fabulous.
Burnout 3 does kick every other driving title in the nuts when it comes to adrenaline fuelled racing. We were determined to finish it before it was released like we did the other two titles but the deadline beat us. BO2 was too easy imho but EA hve really done the business with 3. NFS:U2 will be another stormer as it uses the same engine. Can't wait.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
"Chalk this up to growing pains with 3rd-party matchmaking over XBox Live!, but it never would've come about had EA swallowed their pride and used the proven system already in place."
Yes, and turned over the care of their customers to one of their competitors. That's why EA was wary of Xbox Live; basically, any company that uses Xbox live is giving the competition some levage over them.
This is akin to the consumer long distance companies, in a way. For example, AT&T and MCI, in order to offer local service for consumer, must negotiate with Verizon (here in the east, at least) in order to lease lines to do so. Not a problem in itself, except that Verizon ALSO offers local service.
If MS was simply a service provider, there would not be issues with using Xbox Live. However, MS is ALSO a games maker, like EA. There's an inherent conflict of interest. Yes, we can all pretend that MS will not abuse that ability, but we all know how that goes.
Whether EA does a better or worse job is NOT up to MS to decide. And yes, it does cut both ways: EA game performance on Xbox live can impact MS as well (or, rather, the perception of the service).
However, Microsoft is selling primarily one product and that's the XBox itself. they know it'll sell nbetter with more and better games and they know that pissing of large publishers (or even small ones) isn't the way to go. They won't start abusing their power before they're in a position to do so, which means PS2-style market domination (which won't be this generation). Microsoft is still in the "make friends" phase, the "screw them over" phase comes much later.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.