14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts is being more welcoming to third party developers through its EA Games label, in an effort to deliver a more varied array of gaming experience to its customers while finding new ways of delivering content to the market, says one of the company executives.
Frank Gibeau, who is the leader of the EA Games label, has told Develop that, “Looking ahead into the next three years, we’re going to change a lot of ideas in regards to content delivery mechanisms.” “We’re going to try out new price-points, and we’re going to try free-to-play models within my group – things like we did with Battlefield 1943, which was a $10 XBLA game that did extremely well. So we’re going to focus more on content delivery models.”
His statement can be linked with those of Electronic Arts Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello, who has recently said that his company aims to diversify its business and get as much as 40% of its revenue from digitally distributed products.
Gibeau has also focused on the importance of adapting to the needs of the developers EA Games is working with, saying “there just are not that many producers or creative directors that know how to make big hits. We have to create an organisation and a culture that is, frankly, engaging for them. They are talent and we need to give them reasons to come to us.”
EA Games currently works with developers like: Epic Games, Crytek, Valve, Insomniac and Respawn, the new developer studio of the duo which created the Modern Warfare brand.
The free-to-play model is expected to become more important over the coming years, with companies interested in bringing in as many players as possible and then monetizing a small percentage of them in order to support the game.
The model seems to have worked very well for The Lord of the Rings Online lately.