EA's Annual Cash Cows

The same motion-capture technology, the same full 3D transformation. Facial textures of rookies like Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson were put into the game.

Two retired NBA stars had been invited to the venue, where they held controllers onstage and played an exhibition match.

David and Paul spoke in low voices.

This American-style commercial operation model was simple and direct.

There was no need to educate players into accepting complicated systems. As long as they moved real sporting events onto the screen, then slapped on an officially licensed label, sales of several million would come as easily as reaching into a bag.

After the two flagship sports games finished their demonstrations, Larry walked to center stage.

"Besides console platforms, EA has always been committed to providing high-quality entertainment content for personal-computer users." On the screen behind Larry appeared a gang of bikers riding heavy motorcycles.

The roar of engines rang out. Road Rash.

This game, which had landed on the Sega MD platform in 1991, had once received great acclaim in the North American market for its rough gameplay that ignored traffic laws and had players beating opponents with iron chains and baseball bats at high speed.

Now, EA announced that it would remake and port the game to the PC platform.

David looked at the high-resolution-optimized images on the screen, turned to Paul, and said, "A five-year-old game, resold to PC players with HD textures swapped in. When it comes to squeezing out the leftover value of games, no one beats EA."

Paul pushed up his glasses. "The PC platform doesn't have console manufacturers choking them by the throat. Sell one copy, and the profit all goes into their own pocket. Larry dreams of breaking free from Sega and Nintendo's royalty systems. Do the math and you'll understand."

Paul