EA Watch: BF2 vs. GF4

I had to comment on this.

Battlefield 2 versus Geforce 4! Winner: EA’s Battlefield 2. Loser: You!

You may be thinking to yourself, “Wait a second. I don’t own a Geforce 4 video card. I can run it just fine.” This will still affect you and here’s why.

Judging by Valve’s hardware survey, EA just alienated roughly 20% of PC Gamers with Battlefield 2.

One of two things will happen, as a result.

Either EA will stop acting like the evil empire they are, and stop pulling this crap with future releases, or they will continue to exercise their right to require all nVidia Geforce 4 owners to upgrade. (It should be noted that slower cards like ATi’s Radeon 8500 can run BF2 just fine.)

If EA decides to continue this practice, one of two things will happen.

Either the PC game industry will pick up because more people are spending more money on hardware for their new software, or sales in the PC game industry will plummet as consumers choose NOT to spend money on the hardware, and thus decide NOT to buy the latest software.

If the PC game industry busts (as more and more indicators [pdf] are showing), YOU ALL LOSE. Whether you have a Geforce 4, Geforce 7800, or ATi Explodeon 1 Billion, you will have fewer choices and less innovation as small-time, independent developers flock to consoles because it’s cheaper to develop for, and big-time developers flock to consoles because they can sell x% more copies developing for a platform that stays more or less static.

Way to go, EA. Now everyone loses… again.