Peter Moore has said disc-based releases for EA Sports titles just aren’t performing, they’ve ”got to find” the right business model.
The boss wants the games to remain an ”important part” of the EA portfolio for PC gamers, online seems the only option for ”innovative ways” to bring the content alive.
On PC ”we’ve got to find the right business model for us going forward,” Moore tells Edge.
”We really want to keep sports an important part of the portfolio that’s available to PC gamers, but the business model right now, shipping a physical disc for the PC, simply isn’t working for us,” he continued.
”And along the context of making the right choices with our resources and making sure that we’re delivering a return on investment for valuable employee time, I’ve got to find innovative ways to bring our content to life on the PC and online is the way that that’s going to happen.”
The EA Sports big chief also reveals they have MMO on the brain and would love to develop a massively multiplayer sports title. ”There’s a couple of people trying it on PC with, I guess, mixed results, I don’t know, it’s difficult to figure it out. We’re constantly looking at what would be a compelling experience.”
”Some of the challenges quite frankly are licensing approvals. Do you want it to be all sugary and nobody does anything wrong or gets into player disputes, and no player gets in trouble at a nightclub at night?”
”If you want it to be that way I might get licence approval, but if you want it to be a bit more realistic then I might have a challenge getting licence approval,” Moore comments.
”So I have to fight that fine line of making sure our partners feel comfortable with that content versus types of game experiences they don’t feel comfortable with.”
What? EA doesn’t have the stomach for a good old fashioned after-game riot mode for FIFA Online?
No longer on EA Sports’ Christmas card list…
