EA: Thank God Microsoft Paid for Natal and Not Us

EA's CEO, John Riccitiello, has said that his company considered producing a peripheral using the same technology as Project Natal, but is pleased that Microsoft beat EA to the punch.

"We almost invested to create a platform extension like that for some of the games we're working on", Riccitiello told Kotaku. "We're very pleased, frankly, that it showed up at Microsoft, because I'd rather them pay for that. They can leverage it better, and we can build software. But I felt the market wanted that technology and I'm glad it's coming."

Riccitiello noted that EA looked at the very same camera system Microsoft is using. He also said that EA doesn't see the system as applicable to all genres, stating that EA would most likely have packed it with sports and music games.

As to where it's all leading - "My guess is that where this ends up is: motion controllers end up with half the market. And the other half still ends up with a more traditional game controller."

Riccitiello reckons that the different motion control systems used by different platform holders could create platform splits by genre. "My suspicion is that what we're going to find is that different platforms will work better or worse — will get marketed better or worse — for a particular enterprise."

He made examples of fitness working well for Natal, while duck and cover mechanics could work well for Sony's unnamed peripheral.

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