EA Wants To Re-Define What It Means To Be A Publisher

Moments into his keynote at Australia’s EB Games Expo three days ago, Electronic Arts’ COO Peter Moore was met with a heckler uttering a sentiment held by a vocal portion of Battlefield 3 fans:

“Origin sucks!”

As far as he’s concerned, though, after spending 35 minutes discussing EA’s future plans for digital distribution, social gaming and a rapidly-evolving marketplace, he convinced that heckler, as well as two and a half thousand attendees, the exact opposite.

“We’re only four and a half months in and already over five million people are using it on a daily basis,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald in a recent interview.

“As I said to the young man who shouted at me, I think two years from now we’ll be back down here in Australia and talking about how it really enhances and complements the gaming experience, not gets in the way of it, which I think some people do believe right now.”

Origin marks not only EA’s attempt to offer real competition to Valve’s monopoly over PC digital distribution, but EA’s move towards re-negotiating the role of the publisher in an ever-expanding marketplace.

“I think what we have done is redefine what a publisher in interactive entertainment means in the modern era,” he said, before going on to compare EA to Google, Amazon and Facebook, as the company moves from being a facilitator, financier and distributor of physical products to a “true internet-focused service organisation that provides game experiences, not just on launch day and then move onto something else, but 365 days a year.”

Games as a service is an ethos Valve has been applying to for years – to great effect, too – and something EA’s prodigal studio DICE say they’re trying to do with the Battelog. Though Valve has a clear lead in that department, Moore thinks Origin is off to a good start, given its five million daily users.

This year has also been marked by EA’s expansion in to the casual and mobile space, with the acquisiton of PopCap and Australian developer Firemint, to name a couple.

“They are already paying off. Think of the emerging economies, they are going to a mobile future, if they haven’t already done so. These are economies and markets that probably won’t even mess with the console,” he said, citing the growing interest in games in Brazil, China and India.

“And when you layer on top of that our world-class brands that we can bring to bear, whether it is the FIFAs or the Maddens or the Need for Speeds on the mobile platform, that really breaks through the generic stuff.

“Brands mean something, they resonate with people, they are instantly recognisable, and if those brands are good brands because they deliver quality then that is the deciding factor.

Sydney Morning Herald [Playing Moore games than ever]

Image: Sydney Morning Herald