EA and Nintendo announce Cube plan

Microsoft will continue to bombard games journalists with marketing statistics until the sun goes down on humanity, but even if God Himself announced that he was using Xbox Live, we're pretty sure it wouldn't match up to the news of EA's critical, newfound allegiance to Nintendo.

(All right, it's not that big, but we're effing bored of hearing how 98 per cent of deer-owning kipper salesmen who once went to Skegness and married a Tory politician recommend Xbox Live, and play for 62 and a half minutes every day.)

Announced just this afternoon, the EA/Nintendo alliance will see the mighty twosome collaborating on a whole host of games across both Cube and GBA, with various opportunities for interconnectivity, and technical input from Shigeru Miyamoto.

There will be a total of 20 or so Cube titles from EA's various shopfronts (BIG, Sports, Games, etc) over the next 12 months, and the first three (FIFA 2004, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 and Madden NFL 2004) will be available on both Cube and GBA simultaneously with link-up options. In the case of the footy and golf titles, we're certainly excited.

The thing to remember is that whilst EA's relationship with PS2 is mutually beneficial, support from Electronic Arts means a lot more to Nintendo and Microsoft than support from Nintendo and Microsoft does to EA, so the news that the world's biggest publisher is siding with Kyoto will have analysts scribbling furiously. We've learnt from past experience that EA's undying support is a virtual kingmaker, and that their resistance is a nail in the coffin - as Dreamcast owners will bitterly note.

Given EA's reportedly tempestuous relationship with Microsoft, one could view this latest move as something of a "rebound thing".