14 DAY TRIAL // Peter Moore was present at the Morgan Stanley Technology conference, which took place in San Francisco and the talk quickly turned to one of the biggest franchises linked with EA Sports, Madden NFL, the football simulation that brings in huge amounts of revenue every year with its August launch. And it seems the videogame could earn Electronic Arts more money than ever in 2010 as Peter Moore tries to digitize the Madden player.
Moore told the audience, “you're going to see digital subscriptions, digital microtransactions; all those things that we seem to be able to drive hard against all our franchises, against the Madden consumer.”
He added that “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.” Players can expect to see the beginning of this strategy this year, with Peter Moore stating that a lot of new content will be delivered after the game is launched.
What the EA Sports man is revealing sounds pretty similar to the 10 Dollar Concept Electronic Arts has been using on Mass Effect 2, the space-based role playing game from BioWare, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the first person shooter from DICE. The idea is to drive up sales of new copies of the title by offering extra content via digital distribution, content that will cost those who picked up used copies around 10 dollars.
Of course, it's not clear what extra content could be delivered for Madden NFL 11, a sports simulation that by default comes equipped with all the content needed to simulate one season. Updated stats and extra cosmetic changes could be one way to make sure players are engaged in the game for a longer period of time.