Peter Moore: "EA Big Will Go Away"

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There's a wee bit of irony in this news, which we're sure our readers will appreciate.

According to OXM UK, Peter Moore - former Xbox boss and now head of the EA Sports division - has revealed that their EA Big label will eventually "go away." It has been around since the original SSX on the PS2, but evidently, the label simply doesn't gel with EA's "long-term plans," and at some point soon, they'll abandon EA Big. This move may come as a surprise, considering the titles under this label - NBA Street, FIFA Street, etc. - have sold relatively well, but it's just not fitting into EA's business model. As Moore said-

"EA Big will go away. It will eventually disappear and it's actually had a longer shelf life in Europe than it has over here. Big as a label is a little restricted. It's action sports, it's extreme sports - you think of SSX and the Street games. We needed a broader platform to go forward."

Well, the irony here is pretty obvious. While their primary sports games that fall under the general EA Sports labels have been lagging lately, the EA Big titles have been quite good. We're not saying that NBA Street sold as many as NBA Live, of course, but some of those Street titles were certainly better in quality than the Live titles. So it seems like EA is getting rid of their "fun" label and focusing more on the simulated efforts...and we can't decide if that's good or bad for gamers.

6/14/2008 Ben Dutka

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