Mark Jacobs: Of course EA knows about launching MMOs

By Patrick Garratt

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Following a comment yesterday from WAR creative director Paul Barnett regarding EA knowing “nothing about launching MMOs in Europe,” Mythic boss Mark Jacobs has clarified the situation by calling Barnett “sarcastic” and “irreverent.”

“Well first you’ve got to understand that Paul is Paul,” Jacobs told Eurogamer. “He’s very sarcastic. He tries to be very funny – he usually is. He can be a bit irreverent. And so you need to look at anything he said in the interview from that perspective.

“Second, in terms of GOA: we had done a deal with GOA before EA bought us. So the idea that we went with GOA because supposedly EA doesn’t know anything about doing online games is just not true. There was no EA in the picture. So that was one part of it.

“What Paul said about EA not knowing anything about launching MMOs: you know, Paul likes to exaggerate – of course EA knows things about launching MMOs. EA is responsible, certainly, for one of the most important MMOs of all time, and that was Ultima [Online]. And that had people in Europe playing, people in Japan playing – it was really the first MMO to have any success in Japan. And it was the first one to break 100,000 subs.”

Loads more through there. WAR launches tomorrow. Order or Destruction? The million dollar question.

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