EA and Sega appear to be gearing up for head to head competition

I don\'t know if you guys saw this or not so I will post it.
From http://www.consolewire.com

Following EA President John Riccitiello\'s less than flattering comments about Sega going into 3rd party game development, Sega Europe answered back and responded to Gaming Age concerning EA\'s opinion of the company:

"Anybody remember Electronic Arts? Their staunch refusal to create anything at all for the DC has irked many and it seems the licence and sequel-obsessed publisher feels just a touch threatened by Sega\'s impending entry into direct competition with them. EA President John Riccitiello was reported to have said: \'They\'re starting from scratch... It\'s not quite as though this is GM saying we\'ll make BMWs, but it\'s the same kind of proposition. They may look like BMWs, but I doubt if they\'ll drive like BMWs.\'"

"Quite how having 40 years of electronic entertainment experience amounts to \'starting from scratch\' escapes us, but at least it shows how the notorious arrogance of EA (predominantly based as it is around the continued and baffling success of lukewarm sports titles, bolstered by bland celebrity endorsements and endless streams of identikit follow-ups) was something the DC was probably better without anyway."

OUCH !!  It\'s a good thing these console wars aren\'t based on rebuttals or it would be sony stopping the production of the ps2 !!
To me it sounds like ea is really nervous about some of their franchises, madden in particular, getting some real competition. Lets face it madden and ssx (not a true sports franchise game) were awesome and nhl 2001 was pretty good. Everything else ea has put out so far has been utter and complete garbage imo. (especially the racing games)
Oh well, even though i love my ps2, I still want to cheer for the underdog. Thing is, even though not a single sega sports game has been announced EA may already be the underdog. With the power of the ps2 fueling their sports franchises the 2k series may end up ruling supreme on its one time rival\'s system.