EA and Comcast announced today their partnership, and new streaming gaming platform Xfinity Games Powered By EA.
Doesn’t quite roll of the tongue does it? For that reason, the service will be known from here on out as Xfinity. This service is coming out to, likely, counter the many other “Living room gaming systems” coming out. Xfinity has to beat out the anticipated Shield TV to take the TV set-top box crown. The platform itself works much like OnLive, in that there is no extra hardware to purchase; that is providing you have the X1 Set-top box and a tablet. Any Android or Apple tablet can be used as a controller, presumably after the installation of a compatible app.
Interestingly enough, the games available are not just EA titles. Katrina Strafford said:
“It will include 20 games, most of which, but not all, are from EA. We have relationships with publishers across the industry and it’s absolutely something we’ll explore more as we get feedback from players about what they’re liking, what games are really making sense for them in this medium and we’ll learn and go from there.”
However, EA has gone to great lengths to prove to us that this service is something separate from consoles and EA Access.
“These games are made specifically for this platform and for this service. So whereas some of the games we may bring to EA Access are console games that maybe were in development for a year or two, these are games that are made specifically for this platform and not on that kind of cycle. So I think that gives us some of that nimbleness to react to what this new audience is finding most interesting.”
So if its not console games, and its not EA Access, what is it? Well, it is a new platform for EA to develop on. It will operate almost identically to OnLive and Playstaion Now. There is no discs, and no downloads; it is all streamed through the internet. This is good for those with fast speeds, but for you unlucky people with slow speeds or data caps; you are out luck. The service does drain your data cap, so without an unlimited usage policy this is not a viable platform.
A few of the games announced for inclusion are:
- Real Racing 2
- EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer 13
- MONOPOLY
- NBA Jam on Fire Edition
- EA SPORTS PGA TOUR Golf
- Plants VS. Zombies
- Peggle Nights
- Word Whomp Underground
- World of Goo
If all this tickles your fancy, then you can sign up for the free BETA here.
