Electronic Arts Is Targeting the Wii

A Game Developers Conference is a great opportunity for a game publisher to offer details on upcoming projects and get some quick feedback by assessing the reaction of the audience, which is mostly made up of industry professionals and insiders. That's exactly what Electronic Arts has done in Paris when talking about its new All Play initiative, which aims to bring EA games to more players enjoying high accessibility.

David McCarthy, vice president at Electronic Arts and executive producer on the new All Play concept, said that the traditional gamer demographic, the male 18 to 34 years old player with hardcore tendencies, was not growing, so EA is seeking to expand its reach to new and different groups, mainly women and older game players.

He described how the company had already taken a first step, albeit a flawed one, with the release of Family Play, an initiative to implement more family friendly controls. He said that was "a pretty risky proposition for us. It really was a departure in how we allow of facilitate players to control actions in game". It ultimately failed to bring in results, but EA has been looking at how Nintendo, with its Wii and its motion tracking capabilities, has been simplifying controls.

Another venture into more family friendly territory was EA Playground, from EA Sports, and McCarthy said that the template was good but the execution on the final product suffered.

Now, All Play is set to help EA reach new consumers and attract them to its games. The company wants to make All Play games playful from a visual point of view, while offering interesting and easy to understand gameplay mechanics. Most of the games under the All Play concept will make their way to the Nintendo Wii due to the control scheme and the audience of the consoles.

The decision to attract more varied audiences is also reflected in the staff policy. EA's frontman stated that "if you're a female game designer with a little experience, you are absolute gold right now. We don't have enough female developers, and we need more of them". So, girls, give Electronic Arts a sign if you can design games.