EA, Radical Clam Up Over ESPN

Sources tell GameSpot News the following regarding EA's interest in Radical Entertainment.

Pursuing its goal to buy Radical Entertainment, Electronic Arts is after one thing and one thing only, the ESPN Digital Games license. (Come on, where do you fit Jackie Chan's Stuntmaster in the EA lineup? Right next to Theme Hospital, we suppose....) Regardless, EA wants in on ESPN and is said to have a couple of different buyout plans percolating with Radical. We haven't heard if EA is going directly to ESPN's keeper, Disney, to possibly snare the license out from Radical's hands.... We'll leave that scenario up to the lawyers. But hey, anything's possible.

Now, what about Radical's staff? Another source who's tendered tidbits of information (or should I say "information") fears for those still with the sports game developer. Radical already went through a round of layoffs earlier this year. With teams now up and running on hockey, basketball, baseball, Nascar, snowboarding, and football titles (XGames Pro Boarder is due October 20, NBA Tonight is due in late October, and National Hockey Night is due in mid-November), as the games are completed - assuming none are killed off after a purchase - additional layoffs could occur. By the way, those titles with release dates are the first Radical games to carry the ESPN Digital Games logo and will be released for the PlayStation and PC.

Bottom line? Radical brass is in meetings all day, and it's probably to figure what to do about the EA giant breathing down its neck. EA's response to our inquiries netted the following: "As a matter of policy, Electronic Arts doesn't comment on rumors or speculation."