14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts has had a couple of hard quarters, posting losses and even making some analysts say that the publisher might be ripe for a take over offer coming from a big media firm interested in getting involved in the videogaming business.
But the company says that the restructuring process set to make it profitable again is almost at and end and that Electronic Arts is also betting big on digital distribution for the future.
John Pleasants, who is the Chief Operations Officer at Electronic Arts, told paidContent that “We've had some successes with driving online revenue - and we're going to keep trying, because the goal is to transform from just a game publisher into a gaming services company and we're working [very hard] to do it.”
The strategy of the publisher is to offer both extra content for already released games and to deliver full games via its own services and those of Steam.
Pleasants is saying that Electronic Arts has sold about 10 million dollars worth of digital player cards for Ultimate Team, an add-on for FIFA 09 that can be downloaded from the PlayStation Network and from Xbox Live. He is also saying that, in Korea, the publisher is offering a version of the football game that is free to play and micro transaction driven. The same version is set to arrive in China.
For The Sims 3, which is currently sitting at the top of videogame charts, Electronic Arts is offering pre-paid cards for sale at some retailers that allow the player to get more in-game objects from the Sims Store, which is accessible via the game launcher. All the stuff related to The Sims 3, which we have reviewed, could be seen as a platform onto which a wide variety of content can be added via digital distribution.