Smart TVs have been a thing for a while now, though they’ve been somewhat slow at catching on within the gaming crowd. The winds may be shifting though, as EA and Comcast are close to signing a deal that would allow EA published games to be available on Comcast’s X1 television OS.
For those that don’t know, the X1 is an HTML5-based streaming paltform for TVs. It offers appers, internet, cloud services and DVR. Ya know, like a smart TV should.
According to the initial report:
“After two years of testing, Comcast and EA are close to reaching an agreement to stream video games such as FIFA and Madden into the living rooms of some of Comcast’s more-than 22 million customers across the United States, said the sources, who declined to speak publicly before a deal had been struck.”
The tentative lineup for EA games to be released if this goes through include the likes of FIFA, Madden, Monopoly, and Plants vs Zombies. Customers will be able to use tablets (that are hooked up, wirelessly, to the TV) as controllers. As the platform is inherently very approachable, Comcast has stated that it wants to focus on casual and family friendly games first, with shooters and action games added later if the project proves successful.
There are still some folds to iron out, as EA and Comcast are still negotiating, with revenue share and a release date undecided for now.
Source: Joystiq