EA TO ENTER THE GAMING HARDWARE Market!!! - With PCs!?!!?

Looks like EA is going to start competing with Nintendo's, Sony's, and MS's big guns, but its not the way most people expect!!! :P

At Electronic Arts' Comic-Con booth today, an EA rep mentioned that the company plans to market pre-built PCs in conjunction with the release of Crytek's upcoming PC-exclusive shooter Crysis Warhead. The idea seems to be to try and circumvent some of the intimidation that exists for gamers who are either new to high-end PC gaming, or have been out of the scene for some time, and reassure them that it is not prohibitively expensive to acquire a machine that can tame something like Crysis and its followup.

Apparently, the rigs will come in various configurations, which will correspond to Crysis Warhead's levels of graphical detail, with a likely price range being $600-$800 (I doubt EA will want to market a machine that meets only the game's minimum spec), and they will probably be named accordingly–the Crysis Warhead Performance PC, and so on.

I like the idea of Electronic Arts looking for ways to make the PC platform more approachable, and this idea is sound–buy this PC that says Crysis on it; it's designed to run Crysis, and you know that if it plays Crysis it'll play anything else on the market. I was also impressed that EA had no less than three PC exclusives–Crysis Warhead, BattleForge, and Warhammer Online, and other games on display like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space are in development for PC as well–in its booth at Comic-Con, a mainstream show if there ever was one.

As the rep also mentioned to me, EA's own internal analysis indicates the PC market is growing–publishers just have to learn how to capitalize on it.

So, looks like EA is becoming one of PC gaming's poster childs. :P

Interesting.

well if it runs crysis warhead at 30fps on high then i will buy it.VendettaRed07

Rumor has it, there are several models. Each corresponds to a specific graphics setting.

[QUOTE="VendettaRed07"]well if it runs crysis warhead at 30fps on high then i will buy it.dgsag

Rumor has it, there are several models. Each corresponds to a specific graphics setting.

cool as long as its around 1000$ give or take i will get it, ive been looking to get a gaming pc for a while now, im kinda sick of not being able to play any games on my mac, and that bootcamp thing is just too messy (plus what games would i be able to run if i did do it? lol)

I'm curious as to who is putting the hardware in these because it sounds like they're actually going to be competing with AMD/ATI who came up with the idea last year and will be packaging gamecentric PCs by Christmastime.Newsboy

NVIDIA and Intel? They were huge partners in the Crysis project.

[QUOTE="Newsboy"]I'm curious as to who is putting the hardware in these because it sounds like they're actually going to be competing with AMD/ATI who came up with the idea last year and will be packaging gamecentric PCs by Christmastime.dgsag

NVIDIA and Intel? They were huge partners in the Crysis project.

That's nice I still don't want to wait a year for gears2 and I still don't like RPG's and RTS's, but I love me some Crysis..........

Worth buying, or building my own rig?

That's nice I still don't want to wait a year for gears2 and I still don't like RPG's and RTS's, but I love me some Crysis..........

Worth buying, or building my own rig?

CB4McGusto

well considering PC's can play Many franchises and have even some of the best racers out i think it would be more worthwhile having a PC instead of Gears 2 or a 360 IMO..

IF you have the knowledge and courage enough to build your own go for it...otherwise wait till these PC's come out from EA then get one of them...if it can play Warhead it can play any other PC game

EA is really making a turn-around effort to publish original games and internally develope new IPs. I'm actually not looking at them as the lowest common denominator now for publishing (or at least getting there).GIJames248

Yeah. Riccitiello sincerely wants to establish EA as a brand that can be held in the highest regard.

He wants to get to a point where people see "EA" on the box and know that it would be worth a purchase. And he realizes that the only way to truly do that is to let your talent make the games they want to make.

Dead Space and Mirror's Edge are both perfect examples of that. Both are risky from the publishing standpoint. Dead Space is an ultra mature horror game. Making one of those isn't even remotely guaranteed to pay off sales wise... And Mirror's Edge... Well just one look at it and you can see how that is a risk. Specifically when DICE could be spending their time working on more Battlefield games, which are proven million sellers, and in the case of BF2, 2 million sellers.

EA is changing. Changing for the better. And their lineup was the best at E3 bar none.

I'm not quite sure I understand them. Are they selling prebuilt gaming PC?

If so, that's a pretty good idea

EA is changing. Changing for the better. And their lineup was the best at E3 bar none.horrowhip

The only thing i really don't like is their monolopy on the NFL licence, but i don't play those game any way

cool i guess. its probibly going to be way to pricey

EA is an evil corparation

nice one EA!

i knew the pc industry was growing at a sluggish pace but this new innovative decision should give it the push it needs to take off into the mainstream gaming scene.

PC is after all the most versatile platform.

thats a good idea from EA. they could use HTPC cases so people can easily put these PCs to their living rooms.SamiRDuran

Your still probably better off building your own, but this will hopefully get more casuals into high-end PC gaming.

it sounds like a good idea but i can totally see them churning out overpriced PC's like apple or rubbish like dell...

hell it wouldnt be EA if they didnt.

Very, very interesting.

Considering EA has so many PC titles published or developed under then, it would make sense to sell various computers with pre installed titles.

It does open a pandoras box of issues... but damn its interesting.

Nice. If one of the models that can run Crysis on high at at least 30fps is 800 or below, I may consider purchasing one. I'm in dire need of a new computer, but it will be a while before I can afford one.TreyoftheDead

Get yourself some hardware specs, head down to a computer store that is well priced, and have them assemble it for you.

Thus is anything happens you have a face to speak to, and you know you are getting your best value for money, not to mention gaming.

They want to cut their dev costs. If you buy an "EA" PC, you can be pretty sure EA wrote and tested its games for that "EA" PC model. Seems like a good idea to me.

The current state of PC is degenerating into a farce, there are 100s of different "PC"s with cobbled together components, and thousands of combos, thats why devs and hence users have such a nightmare.

Hm... I guess that's pretty neat... I haven't really played many PC games because of requirements, but I really want to get into it. I may either buy one of those or have a friend help me build one...

EA has the marketing and advertising muscle to really make this fly, it'll be interesting to see where this goes, the only real competition would be Alienware when it comes to pre-built gaming PCs.