Electronic Arts Lacks Exciting Linux Strategy

With all the excitement this week about Valve confirming their Linux plans on their blog and other worthwhile developments like collaborating with Intel on their open-source Mesa driver and Valve wanting to do things for open-source, EA and their Linux efforts have once again been brought up.

Within the Phoronix Forums there's new messages about wondering about EA and Linux now that Valve has announced. While Valve's doing exciting things, all indications I've seen so far have been that what EA's plans are for (Ubuntu) Linux are rather disappointing.

They will be shipping more games in the Ubuntu Software Center in the near future, but it doesn't look like any major non-Wine AAA titles, any special Linux efforts, or anything exciting like that for Linux gamers who care about quality. The EA open-source web-site will likely remain a disappointing wreck for the foreseeable future.

The disappointing state is expressed by my EA sources. For those that don't remember when there was the initial excitement concerning EA at the Ubuntu Developer Summit, from the beginning I said it wouldn't be too good. Then came UDS-Q and there was their sad Linux game push and EA's UDS-Q talk was boring. Aside from saying it would be disappointing early on via Phoronix, I had been mentioning EA and Linux on Twitter in months prior to any announcement.

I hope my EA surfing buddy sources and I are wrong, but still unless Valve Software is able to show just how viable and lucrative the Linux gaming industry can become, EA won't be doing much in this field.

For those wanting to hear more of my Linux gaming thoughts or have any questions, on Sunday I'll be appearing live on the Linux Action Show talking about this very topic. The live broadcast should begin at 10.00 PST on 22 July and found at the Jupiter Broadcasting site.