14 DAY TRIAL // EA Sports is one of the most important divisions of video game publisher Electronic Arts, creating game series like FIFA, Madden and Tiger Woods, and it seems that at some point in the future players might have the option of paying a monthly subscriptions in order to enjoy their sports simulations instead of paying every year for a physical disk.
Andrew Wilson, who is a senior vice president at EA Sports, has told Eurogamer that, “If we look at what consumers have pushed other industries for: if we look at what consumers forced the music industry to provide, if we look at what consumers have driven as a result of television and movie subscription, if you look at us – there’s absolutely a time somewhere at some point in the future where the consumers say, ‘Hey, this is how we want to interact with you: we want to give you a monthly or annual subscription and we want access to everything you make.'”
He added, “They get to drive the time and place for it, and a lot of it is technology dependent, but absolutely we can see a future where that might be the way we deliver games.”
Wilson has confirmed that the new studio, which EA Sports has created in Austin, Texas is working on prototyping the subscription concept and seeing how it could be implemented for some of the biggest franchises in video gaming.
It seems that one of the biggest obstacles at the moment is delivering all the game content FIFA or Madden NFL would need via digital means and making sure that players do not have to wait too long in order to get access to the game they are subscribed to.
At the moment EA Sports is focusing on launching Madden NFL 12 and FIFA 12, two games that are edging closer than ever to the real-world experience that the sports deliver with better A.I. and improved physics.