EA Gets Serious

Continuing to make strides into online gaming, Electronic Arts has hired Peter Loeb, formerly a SegaSoft vice president, as the new vice president of online entertainment. While EA already has some vested interest in online gaming - it recently made a small investment in Mplayer that includes offering several of its sports games on the service later this summer - bringing Loeb onboard shows that the company is taking a serious look at this dynamic segment of the industry.

"Right now we're trying to evaluate what online gaming is going to look like. Clearly the experience Peter has gained at SegaSoft will help us to define our own online gaming strategy," said EA's Pat Becker. "We really have to figure out how to make money in this business, which is the real challenge for content providers."

In related online news, Becker assured GS News that the long awaited beta test for Ultima Online will "definitely be up by E3."

This year's Electronic Entertainment Expo begins June 19. The test will give the over 50,000 people who signed up and paid a two dollar fee the chance to experience first-hand the highly anticipated online only game before it's released this fall.