Nvidia and EA Form an Alliance

This is ridiculous. It's like having the cable companies saying that their signal is optimized for Sony technology, and that some channels you can only get if you have a Sony TV set.

Give me a break.

 

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1020656,00.asp

 

Mine says "Shutup..... and play the damn game!"

 

Well NV sure tried to make it sound like they got the exclusive deal. Then again, EA wouldn't say what "custom work" is, so we'll have to wait and see the game before passing out the final judgement.

 

Even if its only just one game with some Nv specific effects, the fact that all future EA games will carry the "The way its meant to be played" logo on its boxes is a big bonus for Nvidia.

ATI need to start a similar campaign, imo. Improving brand recognition couldn't hurt.

 

Geez, I searched gamecopyworld.com for that patch but couldnt find it!...j/k

 

From http://spong.com/:

The deal also mentions that beginning with the next generation of Electronic Arts PC games, exclusive content will be included for nVidia cards, with “…nVidia-specific features and special effects in several upcoming EA titles such as Madden NFL Football 2004 and others for the PC platform.â€￾ Reading between the lines, this seems to indicate that you will be able to play the games using other cards, but they’ll look rubbish.

It’s also interesting to note that the game specifically mentioned, Madden 2004, is one of EA’s key titles for the coming months in the American market, indicating the level of cosiness between the two companies.

Indeed, nVidia insiders openly admit the fact that pitches are in place for a variety of titles to be nVidia exclusive. “Per-title exclusivity is the ideal situation for nVidia,â€￾ we were told.

Personally I do not like this and if this is true I will simply not get an Nvidia board and not purchase products that prioritize NVIDIA hardware over the competition. Graphics companies should be fighting to build the best hardware for the current API's, not creating their own in order to gain market share. I think NVIDIA spent too much time working with MS on the XBOX as marketing schemes of MS seemed to have rubbed off on them.

 

AGREED!

 

The folks who think this is no big deal I agree with. Look at the source of the PR--it's nVidia's, not an EA press release.

This is just a part of nVidia's ongoing PR marketing campaign. I bought my copy of UT2K3 and it came with a nVidia-paid-for advertisement that said "nVidia-the way it's meant to be played." When the game first shipped lots of people didn't understand that this was merely an advertisement--they incorrectly inferred some "special optimization" for nVidia products was coded into the game. I was very pleased to see that the game ran much better on my 9700P than it ever did on my GF4 Ti4600, and long ago replaced the nVidia ad with an ATI logo.....*chuckle*

When EA starts listing on the product boxes the "special nVidia features" their games are coded to support that aren't supported by other hardware, then you might want to take notice. But as long as these PR comments are coming from nVidia and not EA, and as long as the "special nVidia feature support" remains entirely *undocumented* you can safely ignore such PR propaganda. Because that's all it is--it's marketing speak and will have as much real significance as the nVidia logo has in in UT2K3...