Euro 2004 kicks Cube into touch
There will be no blockbusting Euro 2004 football action for GameCube this year, EA and Codemasters confirmed today, with the latter admitting no internal development for the machine is ongoing in any form. Ouch.
GameCube will not be the recipient of a game based on upcoming footy tournament Euro 2004, with both EA and Codemasters declining to make versions of their upcoming footy games for the console.
"We do not have any plans to release our official UEFA Euro 2004 game on the NGC system," EA UK spokesman Glen O'Connell told Eurogamer today. "We do, however, plan to release several other games on the system later this year and EA is committed to putting a range of different titles on NGC. Our commitment to that system remains strong."
Reasoning for the decision is believed to be based on the nature of the actual tournament, which only lasts up the eight weeks, although no comment from EA has clarified this as yet. Seems like the uber-publisher reckons PS2 and Xbox owners are far more likely to fork out for the short-lived update than GameCube fans.
It gets worse. For Cube owners hankering after some serious European football action this year, the outlook is bleak. Codemasters followed EA's suit today and confirmed that England International Football, the official game of the England team slated for release to coincide with Euro 2004, will not appear on GameCube at all. In fact, it came to light today that Codemasters isn't working on GameCube at all at the moment.
"While there are no GameCube editions of current titles in development, Codemasters constantly reviews the opportunity and viability of developing and publishing specific format editions of any console title planned," said Codemasters UK PR boss Richard Eddy.
Nicht so gut if you own a GameCube, ja? Don't be madly surprised if E3 proves something of a third-party wasteland for fans of the purple box.