EA Wants To Re-Define What It Means To Be A Publisher
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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 |
I wouldn’t say that Origin is absolutely bad, but rather suffering from the same things that any new service suffers from. I personally love Steam, so why should I start using a new service when all of my PC games are tied to one service? One service that does things just about perfectly for my needs at that.
Having gone through Origin, I think it suffers from lack of games, as well as the fact it is just too flashy. When I open it, I feel overwhelmed by their design choices (and not in a good way). I feel it needs to be toned down a bit and EA needs to put out more deals at better prices.
If they can do this, then they will easily gain more users, even better, allow people to tie-in many of their Steam games into Origin, that way it doesn’t feel like I have Origin installed for just 2 or 3 games. Of course EA is doing what anyone would do, “we have 5 million users.” But are they ACTIVE users? I have Origin running all the time, but I do not actively use it at all, so am I counted in with that 5 million?
To finalize my comment, I think EA should re-evaluate their situation with BF3 on Steam. I think they should at least do it as a good will gesture, and add it to Steam and bring Crysis 2 back. Then release a statement telling people this is the last straw, no more EA games will be released on Steam (granted, this will never happen, but one can wish, right?). Anyways, those are my two cents, take it or leave it (I could use the extra money).
I’ve always liked the brands that EA produces (well, some of them), but I find it really annoying to hear people toting things like 5 million daily users.
A) You mean less than half the amount of people who play World of Warcraft play all your games combined?
B) They are FORCED to use Origin. It isn’t like they have a choice.
I really wish EA would just shut up and let their games do the talking.
I don’t mind that EA is using Origin as their sole digital distributor-it’s their game, they don’t have to use a competitors service-what I have a problem with is their making Origin, and an internet connection, a requirement. Once I’ve paid for a game I don’t want a set of conditions that I have to meet to be able to play it. And Steam does it too; it’s infuriating. I can’t play the ME games I paid for because I have yet to hook up my internet to every room in my house? (My current problem if that wasn’t obvious enough) It’s the kind of thing that makes me want to pirate games, which is funny considering that it’s done as an anti-piracy tactic.
That said, I think I liked EA more when all it did was publish games and move on, not this, “true internet-focused service organisation that provides game experiences… but 365 days a year,” bull. To me that reads as “We want to interfere with your gaming as much as possible.” To say that there will come a day that we don’t think it interferes with the “game experience” is wishful thinking at best.