Peter Moore, the President of EA Sports, gave a speech at the Morgan Stanley Technology conference in San Francisco recently, explaining that the company would be focusing on downloadable content.
From the IGN article where I found this info:
Moore stated that every iteration of Madden typically sells around six million units. The company is looking at ways to generate more revenue from that install base every year.
“What you should be looking for from me is ‘How do I get an extra $4 or $5 dollars?’, which is high margin digital revenue from that install base rather than continue to sell more packaged goods,” he said.
Are you kidding me? So, the massive amounts of money you are almost guaranteed every year from a devoted fan base is not enough? Not only do you want to sell a $60 game that’s barely been updated from last years version due to your short 1 year development cycle, but you want us to spend $5 more on some half-assed add on content?
Maybe I’m being too harsh. Hopefully this is completely new content, and you won’t make us pay for something we’re used to getting included with the game. Oh wait, it’s EA we’re talking about. They’ll probably charge $1 for roster updates and alternative jerseys. Let’s pray they don’t charge $5 to be able to change the look of your created character whenever you want, like SCEA did with White Knight Chronicles.
But that’s not what made me mad. It was this:
“It keeps the disc in the drive longer, it stalls trading the game in, it allows me to be able to take further advantage of that consumer over a longer period of time,” he said.
Okay, okay, I know that video games are made to make money. But it’s the frankness that really makes me mad. He actually said “take further advantage of that customer”. Unbelievable. It’s this attitude that drives people in droves to the Used Game Market.
I was planning on buying this years version since I haven’t purchasesd a Madden in about 5 years, but if it’s chopped up and gutted for the purpose of reselling me DLC, I’ll definitely pass. If they’re going to take a completely different angle and do something awesome with this business plan, then maybe there’s hope. Given EA’s past, please excuse me if I don’t believe it until I see it.
Also, NFL, please stop selling your exclusive rights to EA so that 2K sports can take another stab at it. Pretty please? Remember that year 2K football was $20 on the first day it was released? Now that was really unbelievable.
