EA COO Peter Moore believes that the games industry is currently in a difficult transition between different business models. Moore thinks that future console games will be free to play, but they will all feature microtransactions like those found on iOS and Android.
“I think, ultimately, those microtransactions will be in every game, but the game itself or the access to the game will be free.”
“The great majority will never pay us a penny which is perfectly fine with us, but they add to the eco-system and the people who do pay money—the whales as they are affectionately referred to—to use a Las Vegas term, love it because to be number one of a game that like 55 million people playing is a big deal.”
I don’t know any console games that follow that model… Ghost Recon Online will, I think, but it’s made for PC.
Its coming to WiiU after, so it could be the first?
what is this PC, so consoles are like PC’s now?,, download game then use real money to buy perks, guns, armors and special care packages? WTF
TF2 and my profile pic say NO
Thats great because ppl can test the game out in small batches before dishing out 70+ dollars
ur a foolish person to think this is good… Ur paying money for individual weapons and level ups… Gaming is going to become about who has the most money, not the most skill. This is bad. Really bad..
i was thinking along the lines of play per chapter. or for an expansion or level packs. the games your talking dont exist because theres a thing called matchmaking
Precisely. We can get our New Mario for free, but we need to pay 50p to activate the mushroom we just picked up, or the new Zelda only allows us the much more powerful but optional Light Arrows if we pay for them or something.
Nintendo wouldn’t do that, and don’t buy the games that do. Look at Mario galaxy and mario galaxy 2. It was originally called Mario galaxy More because it was just more levels. i would pay 5 or 10 bucks for more mario galaxy levels. Same with wii fit plus and wii sports resort same game just more so why buy a whole new game when you can just pay per content.
They can already do that, it is called a demo. Personally I hate these types of games and won’t even touch them. This is just another reason why EA was voted worst company in America this year by Consumerist readers.
some people play halfway through a game then get bored
wow who gives a fuck what some gay magazine says EA is not the worst company just look at the big food and drug and military companies that you support everyday
“Who gives a fuck what some gay magazine says” ? Someone ask the kindergarten kid to get off this thing.
A lot of people care about what the magazine said – sorry if it doesn’t match exactly with your political views.
I personally am not real excited about this. My tablet and smartphone games on the freemium model end up being play obsessively for 15 days, then quit. I don’t think this will impact Nintendo too much, though. Doesn’t seem like their cup of tea.
its not a political view dumbass its common sense. food and drug companies are evil and if your cumb enough to belive otherwise u deserve to get sick from them
Sorry I’m too cumb to not understand why you take issue with people here, on a Nintendo site, who agree that EA has shown to be a rotten company.
Here’s some common sense – I don’t know what your idea of politics is, but it’s not as narrow as just Repubs and Dems or lawmakers. Politics is everywhere. It’s in small and large systems of government, sports, and *gasp* even an oranization like the FDA and its ties to the government.
People have, whether they want to define it this way or not, different political and idealogical views. I’m not saying that I believe the FDA is completely free of guilt. Hard-pressed to find many organizations that are, especially ones involving regulation. Maybe you’re vested in and angry at the FDA for things. Great? A lot of people are angry at a lot of things, and a lot of things need to change. No issue with that.
My issue was never with the FDA not being evil or good (again, maybe have a teacher help you comprehend the sentences). My issue was with:
1- You using “gay” as a prejorative term
2- The fact that people here, who God forbid follow the gaming industry and have some vested interest in what goes on there, should be called out for citing EA as an evil organization. If you believe the community as a whole honestly thinks it’s the absolutely most corrupt and that no other organization (i.e. FDA) has no problem, then maybe I’d believe it’s more than just a little troll. Maybe in that magazine’s area would it have some place, but it’s here.
Keep using “gay,” and keep typing like a kid and throwing out tangents. Keep acting like you’re the only one who’s aware of anything that ever goes on, and keep ignoring where you are with what you say. Keep trolling – you’ll need the gratification more than us who have the “common sense” to understand the difference between what a feature column about EA is and what politics are.
Maybe I’m just impatient today.. it’d just be nice to see less kids on here and more commentary about games.. and gaming politics.
But alas, I’m feeding the troll on a post that’s outdated and old. I’ll let the troll alone.
that’s what demos are for
thats great huh, you have to use real money to buy mushrooms.
Not happening… basically, what he is saying is that people can have the game for free and pay for DLCs. But one can just play the game without downloading any content, which is more likely to happen. Game companies will crash if this happens: think of how much money they invest to make a game (about U$400,000 for a PROJECT, I hear), the cost for physical media, or to make them available for download. How many people are involved in the process of making a game! If you don’t pay for the game, only some DLCs, you’re more likely to go bankrupt. Let’s not forget that EA also said they would give Nintendo full support on the Wii U, and right after the E3 said the Xbox Smartglass makes the Gamepad irrelevant.
Sorry, EA, but I’m not buying you anymore!
The company it self has Nintendo’s back but one guy in the company is an idiot and thinks smartglass will be a sucess
the smartass will be a wait of time
i know
EA…
Out of interest, I just scrolled through Wikipedias GCN and Wii games list, sorted Publishers to view EA offerings and realised that there wasn’t a single game which I had brought. So, with that, I have zero interest in EA and what they say or do.
I’m VERY much NOT interested in this idea at all. I’m just the kinda guy who will not buy DLC. When I drop 50/60/70 dollars on a videogame I expect that to be the only transaction needed to get a full gaming experience. I’ve been purchasing my own games since 98 in the N64 days. call me traditional. Even if the game is free to play its going to be really not fun just running around trying to play a shooter with just a pistol or having to drive only a Prius in Need for speed or having to buy new chapters of n RPG because only the first 3 are free. This is a terrible idea.
They can try, I won’t buy. They meant free to rape consumers.
I love how you are all saying this will “never happen” or “never work” Like you know better than the COO of EA games.
This can and will work, Think about Facebook games, if you could make a Facebook game that was just plain awesome, better graphics, better interface, the whole shebang. And then, to upgrade your weapons (for example) you either had to do a myriad of things OR you could BUY them (micro transaction) There would be Millions of people doing so (51 million as stated by the COO) 51 million times even a dime for ONE weapon is 5.1 million dollars! This could work, no problem.
I just don’t find it appealing and convenient. It’s like having a demo of the game and we have to continually invest $ to TRY to piece the puzzles together. I could see it working for certain genre/types of games, but not games like Mario or God of War, etc. If they did offer full free games, many would not spend extra and it’ll be a waste of time and money for developers.
nope… not at all…
Hawken, planet side 2, warface, dust 514. All AAA F2P games and all push the envelope.
Because I mean really, if you are a shooter fan, you won’t have to pay a cent to enjoy one for 2 years now.
Notice one thing about them all… they are MMOs, meaning it makes more sense for them to be Free-2-Play but a game that has Soloplayer elements really doesn’t need to be free-2-play unless its an indie game that just wants to be noticed
This is like cloud gaming, its going to destroy gaming because it means developers aren’t getting any money from the price of the game which usually go for £30 – £50, I can see this happening for MMOs but not Solo titles like Halo, Mario, or even Metal Gear.
Sorry EA, but you dun goof’d
EA is being kinda strange now
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This will be really bad if it happens. Some people’s internet connections are not good enought to support this or digital only download games. Some people don’t have credit cards to buy things online, that includes a lot of youger and even some older gamers. I don’t.
Also I always prefer to have a physical copy of my media in my hands. Leave luck to heaven.
It would actually be good for Rated M games, little kids annoyed the shit out of me the few times I played CoD.
That is… the best point I’ve ever heard regarding DLC play. Lol seriously the best point so far. Never thought of that.
No, most F2P games fail by offering people who pay with advantages over those who don’t. Tf2 is the only game that I know of that gets F2P right, since you can get every item without paying, it just takes longer and is random.
Basically, there are a lot of people turned off by the idea of having to pay for better items, and that alone can make people quit the game if it’s a competitive multiplayer game.
this guy said..You would pay to be the #1 out 55 million..what a retard
Hell no.
I would actively fight against this business model. I would rather shell out a one-time fee of $60 for a game with DLC costing me more as an option, over running the risk of a game becoming pay to play.
Someone needs to smack this fool upside the head.
I dont think Nintendo will do that, at all, they just release games with as much content as they can.
But for multiplayer titles, be it co-op or competative, its a possible. Free to play is good for multiplayers because they have a long life span, and you need that time to actually see if you like it. I wasnt a fan of battlefield at first but after a few weeks it grew on me.
I hope Nintendo do a Playstation Plus style service (whether or not itll be a pay service, i dont know, could connect with stuff like Club Nintendo), so we can get early access and hour long demos for single player games ect
no thanks ea
EA is the new Zynga. Are sustainable business practices really so hard to adopt? Freemium is a gold rush. If consumers are dumb enough to buy into this like EA expects them to, then they deserve to have their money leeched out of them.
Get off my lawn.
who the hell thinks this is a good idea?
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Death to EA. hurry please.
*flails arms around in a panic*
NOPENOPENOPENOPE
You guys don’t get it. This is EA we’re talking about. They’ll sell games for free and charge $60 for DLC.