EA gunning for more digital distribution

[mindcycle]

EA knows the best thing to do right now is to take advantage of digital distribution. In fact it recently made $25 million in microtransactions alone and they can see their digital distribution business increasing by 60% percent year over year, something that?s evidenced by Warhammer?s 300,000 subscribers. EA thinks the PC is becoming the biggest system in the world and will take advantage of the opportunities PC gaming promises. Though it is not reflected in NPD numbers microtransactions are a big part of EA?s plan.

http://www.thatvideogameblog.c...-digital-distribution/

CFO Eric Brown noted that digital game distribution alone nearly doubled in revenue year-over-year to $80 million.

"This is a big year for us," said Brown. "The online part of our business is growing as much as 60% year over year."

"In terms of distribution, the way we look at a lot what's happening in the future is, we've got probably a billion PCs out there in the world," he continued. "Very rapidly the PC is becoming the largest gaming platform in the world, just not in a packaged-good product."

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/58497


It's probably going to take a huge amount of microtransactions to equal the sales of their rinse and repeat sports titles on the consoles. Lets just hope they offer DD through something other than the EAStore..

 

[mindcycle]

..delete

 

[TheVrolok]

Wasn't the industry just crying about what an awful platform the PC was (mostly due to piracy, yes) and a number of devs were planning on pulling out entirely?

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: TheVrolok
Wasn't the industry just crying about what an awful platform the PC was (mostly due to piracy, yes) and a number of devs were planning on pulling out entirely?

yeah, that confused me as well

 

[mindcycle]

Originally posted by: TheVrolok
Wasn't the industry just crying about what an awful platform the PC was (mostly due to piracy, yes) and a number of devs were planning on pulling out entirely?

Microtransactions (aka: milking extra money out of your customers) is apparently the solution. Honestly, if it drives more devs back to the PC platform I don't really have a huge problem with it. You won't see me buying horse armor anytime soon though..

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: mindcycle

Originally posted by: TheVrolok
Wasn't the industry just crying about what an awful platform the PC was (mostly due to piracy, yes) and a number of devs were planning on pulling out entirely?

Microtransactions (aka: milking extra money out of your customers) is apparently the solution. Honestly, if it drives more devs back to the PC platform I don't really have a huge problem with it. You won't see me buying horse armor anytime soon though..

But it's only $1.99... shiny horse armor!

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: mindcycle

Originally posted by: TheVrolok
Wasn't the industry just crying about what an awful platform the PC was (mostly due to piracy, yes) and a number of devs were planning on pulling out entirely?

Microtransactions (aka: milking extra money out of your customers) is apparently the solution. Honestly, if it drives more devs back to the PC platform I don't really have a huge problem with it. You won't see me buying horse armor anytime soon though..

I knew that a long time ago.
As devs and publishers complain about the cost of production, I knew damn well they were going to give up tangible media for game distribution.
Online is perfect for big, greedy corporations.
Charge the same amount of money, or maybe 5 bucks less.
Dont let people sell or give away their unwanted games, prompting more sales than are actually required.
Cancel game access on a whim, for example if someone publically bad-mouths you.
Punish legit players for pirates' activities while simultaniously ensuring they have no effective recourse.

Oh yeah, EA will be all over this.

I knew it would happen. They fucked up the game industry by charging too damn much for the console titles, got fat and lazy and used to doing very little work for a huge profit, lost their huge profits and are now scrambling like mad to stay afloat. Now they have to suck up to the millions of players they snubbed over the years.

I say we punish them, hard.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: shortylickens

Originally posted by: mindcycle

Originally posted by: TheVrolok
Wasn't the industry just crying about what an awful platform the PC was (mostly due to piracy, yes) and a number of devs were planning on pulling out entirely?

Microtransactions (aka: milking extra money out of your customers) is apparently the solution. Honestly, if it drives more devs back to the PC platform I don't really have a huge problem with it. You won't see me buying horse armor anytime soon though..

I knew that a long time ago.
As devs and publishers complain about the cost of production, I knew damn well they were going to give up tangible media for game distribution.
Online is perfect for big, greedy corporations.
Charge the same amount of money, or maybe 5 bucks less.
Dont let people sell or give away their unwanted games, prompting more sales than are actually required.
Cancel game access on a whim, for example if someone publically bad-mouths you.
Punish legit players for pirates' activities while simultaniously ensuring they have no effective recourse.

Oh yeah, EA will be all over this.

I knew it would happen. They fucked up the game industry by charging too damn much for the console titles, got fat and lazy and used to doing very little work for a huge profit, lost their huge profits and are now scrambling like mad to stay afloat. Now they have to suck up to the millions of players they snubbed over the years.

I say we punish them, hard.

won't happen. people will still gobble up their shit even though they bitch and moan about it all the time

 

[Sylvanas]

I think if EA gave me anymore reason to hate them I'd explode.

 

[Red Irish]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: shortylickens

Originally posted by: mindcycle

Originally posted by: TheVrolok
Wasn't the industry just crying about what an awful platform the PC was (mostly due to piracy, yes) and a number of devs were planning on pulling out entirely?

Microtransactions (aka: milking extra money out of your customers) is apparently the solution. Honestly, if it drives more devs back to the PC platform I don't really have a huge problem with it. You won't see me buying horse armor anytime soon though..

I knew that a long time ago.
As devs and publishers complain about the cost of production, I knew damn well they were going to give up tangible media for game distribution.
Online is perfect for big, greedy corporations.
Charge the same amount of money, or maybe 5 bucks less.
Dont let people sell or give away their unwanted games, prompting more sales than are actually required.
Cancel game access on a whim, for example if someone publically bad-mouths you.
Punish legit players for pirates' activities while simultaniously ensuring they have no effective recourse.

Oh yeah, EA will be all over this.

I knew it would happen. They fucked up the game industry by charging too damn much for the console titles, got fat and lazy and used to doing very little work for a huge profit, lost their huge profits and are now scrambling like mad to stay afloat. Now they have to suck up to the millions of players they snubbed over the years.

I say we punish them, hard.

won't happen. people will still gobble up their shit even though they bitch and moan about it all the time

That's the biggest problem when attempting to "punish" a company for its policies: children like shiny new toys and its hard to maintain a united front.

 

[PingSpike]

Every EA story I've read can pretty much be summed up to this:

EA: "We're going to shit right into your mouth! And you probably won't even have the good sense to close your lips!"

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: Red Irish

That's the biggest problem when attempting to "punish" a company for its policies: children like shiny new toys and its hard to maintain a united front.

Yes, we love our games after all, even if the publishers of said games don't so much as give us gamers a reach around for the most part.

On a side note, I do feel very blessed that DRM is probably the biggest problem I have to deal with in my personal life right now. Family life is good, my boys are thriving, the house is in good shape, there's food in the fridge, and there's money in the bank for emergencies. Overall, life is good!

 

[coloumb]

Originally posted by: TheVrolok

Originally posted by: mindcycle

Originally posted by: TheVrolok
Wasn't the industry just crying about what an awful platform the PC was (mostly due to piracy, yes) and a number of devs were planning on pulling out entirely?

Microtransactions (aka: milking extra money out of your customers) is apparently the solution. Honestly, if it drives more devs back to the PC platform I don't really have a huge problem with it. You won't see me buying horse armor anytime soon though..

But it's only $1.99... shiny horse armor!

lol. Only if it was available in fallout 3

 

[emilyek]

God I hate what marketing and big publishing has done to gaming.

And this kind of nickel-and-dime DD future crap, where PC becomes the platform for consoletardation(because it's an even more popular platform), is horrible.

It's why piracy isn't a sin; the only real shame is that we can't pirate enough to send them and their damn infinite greed business model into chapter 11.

 

[zerogear]

Originally posted by: emilyek
God I hate what marketing and big publishing has done to gaming.

And this kind of nickel-and-dime DD future crap, where PC becomes the platform for consoletardation(because it's an even more popular platform), is horrible.

It's why piracy isn't a sin; the only real shame is that we can't pirate enough to send them and their damn infinite greed business model into chapter 11.

LOL.. I agree with the first part, but not so much the 2nd.

 

[Edge1]

I thought the PC has always been the largest gaming platform in the world...

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: TheVrolok
Wasn't the industry just crying about what an awful platform the PC was (mostly due to piracy, yes) and a number of devs were planning on pulling out entirely?

Maybe they finally figured out what a successful DRM system Steam is?

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: emilyek
God I hate what marketing and big publishing has done to gaming.

And this kind of nickel-and-dime DD future crap, where PC becomes the platform for consoletardation(because it's an even more popular platform), is horrible.

It's why piracy isn't a sin; the only real shame is that we can't pirate enough to send them and their damn infinite greed business model into chapter 11.

No one's forcing you to buy or pirate their shit. They're video games, not the only available matching kidney you need for transplant.

And most of their stuff is crap anyway. I'd say I was boycotting it, but I can't boycott something that I wasn't even going to buy in the first place.