Feature: EA vs. Activision: Genre by genre Subscribe to this RSS feed
Racing, Music and RPGs
RACING:
Project Gotham Racing 4
EA: EA has a long-respected trio of racing series in Burnout, Need for Speed and NASCAR. However, none of these franchises have managed to reach critical acclaim on the next-gen platforms. But they are long standing franchises with real potential.
ACTIVISION: Recently acquired Bizarre studios, the company responsible for Project Gotham Racing 4. Though Project Gotham is a franchise owned by Microsoft, Bizarre has the ability to make future racing games of greater value.
Edge: Activision. At this point the advantage goes to Activision because of the success of the new-gen PGR iterations when compared to EA's racing franchises. But if Bizzare's next racer isn't a hit then Activision will find itself up-stream without a paddle. We'll see this battle continued when EA's Need for Speed Prostreet drops on November 14.
MUSIC:
EA: EA is distributing Rock Band, which is being developed by Harmonix and is owned by MTV. It seems that Rock Band is, essentially, Guitar Hero just with added drums and lead vocals. Actually, it's not. The titles have entirely different song sets and the two developer's respective ability to accurately map each song's tablature shows. Harmonix's experience with the genre gives EA a fairly obvious advantage.
ACTIVISION: Owns Red Octane, the studio that published Guitar Hero I & II and is also publishing Guitar Hero III. The downside to this deal is that Harmonix developed Guitar Hero I & II while Neversoft is developing Guitar Hero III. Does the change in developer make a difference? You bet.
Edge: EA. This boils down to the ultimate deathmatch between two estranged twins separated at birth. It's a very close match but the winner is EA because of their affiliation with Rock Band. Guitar Hero III will be fun, but the superiority of Rock Band cannot be denied, and we're pretty sure the sales of each game will reflect this.
RPG:
Mass Effect
EA:Between Mythic and Bioware, EA has all its RPG bases covered. Mythic has a pretty strong foothold in the MMORPG sector with Dark Age of Camelot and the upcoming Warhammer Online. Bioware brings a more traditional RPG flavor to the mix, having developed hits like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Baldur's Gate. With the next installments of Mass Effect in EA's hands, the company has the potential to become one of the biggest RPG publishers in the US, if not the world. Look out, Square-Enix!
ACTIVISION: Raven Software, one of Activision's developers, has had great results developing Marvel licences for action-RPGs. While each release has been well-received, we'd love to see the company move out of that realm and into more original IPs.
Edge: EA. Due in no small part to acquiring one of the most prolific RPG developers in the US, EA has become one of the world's most powerful RPG producers. Internet, you may begin weeping.
