“I think the most convenient way for the consumer to get 7GB worth of FIFA these days is still to buy it on a disc. That will change,” Wilson told GamesIndustry at Develop.
In his Brighton-based presentation, Wilson described Football Club, a service that will eventually replace the annual release of FIFA games. This service is based round keeping players connected across all platforms, providing them with a single online identity.
“Football Club this year is turning the FIFA you buy on a disc into a live service that changes every day and every week that you play,” he said.
“Over time, based on consumer feedback, those chunks that we deliver on that day-to-day, week-to-week basis are going to get bigger, and the releases that we do on an annual basis are going to get smaller, and ultimately you end up in a place where we are delivering a true, consumer-driven live digital service.”
Wilson also hopes that EA can continue to excel with excellent graphics and presentation.
“The things we’re doing today on PlayStation 3 we never thought we could do on the PlayStation 2 because we never thought we’d have the processing power to do them.”
“The granularity and the finesse in the game now is largely a result of increased processing power, so when I think about the future and ask, can we make a better game? I don’t know, but technology will certainly help.”
The EA executive concluded by outlining has fantasy for the future of FIFA.
“I have two big dreams: one that I think will come true, and one that I think won’t,” he said.
“The one that I think will come true is that through technology we’ll be able to put full control of the game experience in the hand of the consumer; that they govern what we build, how we build it, what they play and how they play it. I think that’s the shift, and we get much better data now than we ever did before, through online connectivity, that allows us to fine-tune the experience to their demands.
“The second dream is that what I do in my FIFA game actually affects the real world. I would love it if I played well with Chelsea on Friday night, that they play better on Sunday. I don’t think that one happens, but the first one does.”