EA SPORTS’ REINVENTION 26 MCV 11/06/10
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GOOD SPORTS: (from left to right) President Peter Moore, development chief Andrew Wilson and European marketing director Jon Rosenblatt have overseen an improvement in quality for EA Sports titles and have now switched focus onto growing digitally
perspective of being able to deliver digital experiences; it broke a lot of ground with Ultimate Team. Refreshing the experience through post-launch content will become more and more important to us.” Yet there is a question mark over whether this is really the right move for EA Sports. Gamers may be downloading extra content at an alarming rate, but is it really something your everyday sports fan is likely to do?
“I think it is always a risk when moving into a new space of getting there before your
consumer does,” continues Wilson. “The corporate graveyard is filled with companies that moved into a new field before the consumer got there, and then someone comes up
it. FIFA Online is something we tried and tested in Asia, which has been hugely successful, and now it is time to bring that into Europe.”
GOING ONLINE Of course digital doesn’t just mean the downloading of games previously bought at retail – it means MMO, social games, mobile. And in that sense EA Sports’ digital plans are extensive. Last year the label released its free-to- play browser-based version of Tiger Woods and this month it will launch
five years later with exactly the same thing and makes a gazillion dollars. “Yes there is a challenge, and for us we are not running a digital business at the detriment of what we do on discs in boxes. What we are trying to do is provide enhancement and extension to our game experiences that people are buying at retail, for those that want to do so.” Rosenblatt adds that EA Sports is not a company to take unnecessary risks: “EA is not just jumping into the deep end and hoping for the best. We take very careful steps to ensure whatever we do there is a strategic reason behind
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67 per cent of those playing Tiger Online were lapsed gamers. These are the guys we want to bring back.
Peter Moore, EA Sports President
FIFA Online for Western gamers. The job of these products is to open up EA Sports titles to the widest possible audience. But isn’t it a mistake for EA Sports to make its big tentpole licences available for free? “We worry about cannibalisation all of the time,” admits Moore. “We want to find a consumer who
doesn’t have the time to play a full game. Free is a scary word for a business. But 67 per cent of those playing Tiger Online were lapsed gamers. These are guys in their 40s who no-longer have the time and haven’t
played a Tiger Woods game for years. These are the guys we want to bring back. We don’t want price, technology or the need to be home every night to be a barrier.
”
“There are 350 million people who say they are hardcore soccer fans, and we get 15 million buying FIFA. So for me there is a 335 million addressable market for FIFA Online. I am sure there will be a little bit of cannibalisation, but the upside is worth the risk.” Along with free-to-play titles, Electronic Arts is also targeting the wider sports market through Facebook. Following the acquisition of social network specialists PlayFish in November, Moore met with the new studio and instantly greenlit the FIFA Superstars project, a title that has just
been launched a mere 180 days since development began.
“The social gaming space is in such a state of infancy that there are no brands within this space, and with FIFA Superstars we have the opportunity to take social gaming to its next level of evolution,” says PlayFish’s head of global communications Tom Sarris. “Look at iPhone. In the beginning there were no recognisable brands and now seven or eight of the Top Ten iPhone games are well-known franchises, we feel we have the same opportunity in the social network space.
MAKING A PASS
One of the more contentious moves made by EA Sports recently is the announcement of its Online Pass. The Pass allows consumers to play
EA Sports titles online, and begins with the launch of Tiger Woods 11. It is free to consumers who buy future EA Sports titles new, but for anyone that has bought one second hand, they are required to pay an extra fee - $10 in the US – to access the online functionality. It is a move that has been frowned
upon by consumers, while rival publishers have been quick to applaud the initiative. However, retail has not been so quick to condemn the Online Pass, with the likes of GameStop looking to help sell the Pass through its retail sites.
“The cost of running an online service and satisfying 5m gamers continues to rise.”
“Our core objective is not to deter
second-hand sales,” insists SVP of worldwide development Andrew Wilson. “What it is really about is recognising
the fact that more and more of the game experience exists online than ever before. And we want to continue to invest in that.” The cost of running an online service and satisfying the 5m+ gamers EA has on its servers continues to rise. FIFAline producer David Rutter adds:
“As I know how much effort and time goes into making our online games, I know why we are doing it. I know how many people who are using our online games, which doesn’t actually match the number of copies of the game we have sold. To be able to continue what we are doing will come at a cost. To ask a small amount of money from people who bought the game second-hand, I don’t think is a bad thing.”
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