News > EA Hardware Platform? "Never Say Never"
July 13, 2007
EA's new executive vice president and general manager of North American publishing, Frank Gibeau has made some comments about EA's future in the hardware market. When Gamasutra asked him if his company would ever jump onboard as a partner for a new hardware platform, like EA once did with the ill-fated 3DO, he had this to say:
“I worked on (the 3DO),” began Gibeau, “and I’d never say never. I was a product manager on some of the titles, like Shockwave, and Road Rash, so I was part of that team, building the games, so I’m really familiar with what happened.
And I think the challenge that we had with 3DO was platform positioning. It was the Swiss Army knife of hardware, and we weren’t really sure what it was supposed to do. And I think when we look at our business, what’s vitally important to us is the entertainment and customer connection.So if there were things like peripherals, sure. We’ve got Boogie coming out with a microphone, and there’s Rock Band. When you look at a fully nailed platform – it’s possible, I wouldn’t say it’s in our top 5 priorities right now, but never say never. We’ll look at any way of presenting what we want to do.”
Well, that doesn't really sound like a "yes," but it certainly isn't a "no." As for seeing anything like this happen in the near future, I'm not holding my breath.
*Eddie R Inzauto - Senior Editor, GameWad.com
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