EA's PlayStation 2 Support

At last month's E3 show Electronic Arts unequivocally showed their support for the PlayStation 2 with the promise of extensive development on Sony's console and several game releases for its US launch. Apparently, EA's substantial financial investment in the PlayStation 2 leaves the company little room for development on other existing platforms. In speaking with Forbes.com, company president and CEO John Riccitiello discussed this fact.

"The dollar we spend on a Dreamcast game is a dollar we don't have for our online or PlayStation strategy," commented Riccitiello. He went on to admit that EA's combined spending on PlayStation 2 development alone could surpass the development expenses of the rest of the games publishing industry combined. Staggering numbers for sure, but Sega doesn't seem too concerned about EA's decision to forego Dreamcast development, at least for the time being.

"They would never admit it, but I'm sure they regret the decision now that the numbers are out," says Sega of America president Peter Moore told Forbes.com.

In speaking with GameSpot News Heather Hawkins at Sega of America commented that Sega is primarily concerned with in-house sports game development. "With developers like Visual Concepts and Black Box producing games for the Dreamcast, there is no lack of quality sports titles on our system," she said. Hawkins went on to mention that EA and Sega still discuss the gaming industry daily, and that Sega is not overly concerned with EA developing games for the Dreamcast.

It remains to be seen however, whether EA's commitment to the PlayStation 2 will affect the company's plans to produce games on the Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo's Project Dolphin.