14 DAY TRIAL // The coming unified cross platform log-in system that publisher Electronic Arts is developing is designed to allow the company to better manage the identities of gamers and respond to their needs and reactions.
Rajat Taneja, the chief technology officer at Electronic Arts, tells VentureBeat that, “Our strategic vision at EA is to create a single backend system so that we can truly embrace the secular trends in our industry that are creating massive growth for games.”
The executive says that the entire back-end infrastructure at Electronic Arts has been rebuild in the last few months from the ground up in order to better reflect the realities of modern gaming, which is taking place on home consoles but also on the PC and on mobile devices.
The main aim is to have experiences that can be started on one device and then continued on any other platform, with Plants vs. Zombies being one of the titles that will first be considered for the process.
Taneja adds, “All of our games will enable types of experiences that are congruent and consistent on the PC, consoles, smartphones, and tablets.”
Presumably, the new architecture will be first introduced on the PC via Origin and Facebook and on current-gen home consoles.
It will also be a part of the expanded social architecture of the PlayStation 4, which Sony has recently announced, and of that of the soon-to-be-revealed Xbox 720 from Microsoft.
Reportedly, the unified identity concept is linked to the newly announced push for more microtransactions in Electronic Arts titles.
If the company can keep track of how players are engaging with its video games, then it can create customized packages for each gamer.
The reaction to the microtransaction initiative has been largely negative and players will likely be even less willing to accept an unified identity, especially if it’s related to real-world information about them.