Former Xbox Employee Reveals Game EA Made Them Cancel

Electronic Arts has always held a lot of sway in the video game industry, as franchises like Madden, NHL, and FIFA sell millions of copies every year; a system that doesn't have these games can struggle to compete with those that do. Since the launch of the original Xbox, Microsoft has apparently gone to great lengths to keep EA happy. In a new interview with the Kiwi Talkz podcast, former Microsoft developer Garrett Young stated that the company was working on a first-party soccer game for the original Xbox, but it was canceled to ensure the system got support from EA. 

Microsoft Does What Sega Don't

Interestingly enough, one of the biggest motivators for Microsoft to work with EA came as a result of the Sega Dreamcast. In the interview, Young talks about how Dreamcast did not get support from EA, and ended up dying a swift death. While there are a number of reasons Sega's system only lasted a few years on the market, Microsoft attributed the lack of EA games as one of the primary factors. Microsoft signed a contract with EA to ensure that Xbox saw strong support from the publisher, but Young states that one of the stipulations was "no first-party soccer game." As a result, the soccer game Young was working on was scrapped, and he moved on to other projects for the company, including Project Gotham Racing. 

At the end of the day, the deal seemed to work out well for Microsoft. The company was clearly concerned about suffering the same fate as Sega, who ended up leaving the console business to become a third-party publisher. Instead, Xbox has been going strong for more than two decades, and EA games have likely played a big part in the company's continued success. 

EA Sports Competition

It's not surprising that EA might not have wanted to support Microsoft while the company was creating competing games for the Xbox. However, the lack of competition for EA Sports titles has long been a source of frustration for gamers. In the original Xbox era, games like NHL and Madden had competition in the form of NFL Blitz and the NHL 2K series. Unfortunately, there has been far less competition in more recent years, particularly since EA has the exclusive rights to produce games based on the NFL. 

Many sports fans have argued that the lack of true competitors has led to inferior products from EA each year; since EA's developers don't have to worry about any other publishers releasing NFL or NHL games, there isn't any incentive to release games that show significant improvement from year to year. In ComicBook.com's review for Madden 24, writer Ricky Frech awarded the game a score of 2 out of 5, stating that "as the only football game on the market it is serviceable." 

Are you surprised EA required that Microsoft cancel its soccer game? Do you think EA's sports games need more competition? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!