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News Article - EA and PC Gaming

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Aster

Guest
EA CEO: PC Gaming Has Grown for 'Several Years,' Too Focused on Retail Sales
by Chris Faylor May 14, 2008 10:10am CST tags: Electronic Arts, PC Gaming


Speaking on the state of the PC gaming, EA CEO John Riccitiello has noted his belief that the market has been "growing for several years" and that it has been "categorized wrongly" by a focus on retail sales.

"One of the things we try to look at at EA is the total business represented on PC game software, and we're seeing a growth in business there. It's been growing for several years," Riccitello said during a financial conference call yesterday.

"It's just been categorized wrongly by looking simply at the box side of the equation, he added. "The fastest growing [sector] is subscription, microtransactions-based and casual games, many of which are pretty much centered on the PC."

Riccitiello comments help explain EA's latest approach to PC gaming. Several of its upcoming titles, including BattleForge and the free-to-play multiplayer shooter Battlefield Heroes, are heavily centered around microtransactions.

"The box-side [sales] of PC [software] is soft. It's been soft for some time," he noted. "Were it not for The Sims and World of Warcraft box sales, [retail would] be a pretty dismal sector."

After retail sales of PC software accounted for a mere 14% of the overall games industry in 2007, NPD analyst Anita Fraisure came to a similar conclusion. She claimed the PC market wasn't shrinking, but rather shifting towards digital distribution and game subscriptions.
link to article

Tacking here because I think the article helps explain why TSO/EAL had a sudden push to microtransactions. I think it is interesting we as a playerbase rebelled against that.
 
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SimTripps

Guest
The PC gaming industry will never die. However I can see why people prefer consoles - no unwanted software cluttering up your pc, as many of the newer games have kick-ass graphics that require TONS of memory and are vid card demanding, etc. I've tried consoles and, no matter how hard I've tried, my hands just can't seem to get the controller lol.. Hubby and kids are xBox 360 addicts and are awesome at it. Give me a mouse and keyboard anyday lol..

Also, the uploading of 3rd party files is much more difficult, if not impossible, for the consoles, as well as writing your own unique gaming config scripts. And you're limited to the number key binds on a console controller - what, A, Y, X, B, left trigger, right trigger, left bumper, right bumper, etc., and that's it? There are some online games I play where just about every keyboard key has been used for a key bind - w=walk forward, p=crouch, shiftkey=jump, etc., etc. This is impossible using a controller... Sure, console game sales will always win over pc nowadays, but as long as there's a Sim franchise and the availability of awesome 3rd-party files for uploading, the pc will always rule lol...
 
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ajdown@jp

Guest
I think it is interesting we as a playerbase rebelled against that.
I thought we more rebelled against EA breaking something that didn't need fixing, than the concept of microtransactions itself.

Second Life exists almost solely on microtransactions - from mere pennies up to sometimes hundreds or thousands of dollars - and clearly EA see for themselves a good profit opportunity. Linden Lab takes 3.5% commission on any 'game to real money' cashout transactions which, when over a million real dollars changes hands every day is no small chunk of change for, essentially, very little work.

From the start, SL has been based around, for the most part, spending some real money to get stuff in-game, whereas TSO was based around 'grinding' - gnomes, jams or whatever for many years and apart from the monthly subscription or third party sites, no other real money was needed to play. That was a huge part of its appeal. When EA ripped that part out and said that they no longer 'give away' game money but you have to spend real money instead, the vast majority of the playerbase simply refused to do so because it went completely against the culture that TSO had established for itself.

Remember how Dragon's Cove failed because making money was so much harder than regular cities? Same principle.

If EA had opened a separate city, based on a 'real cash' economy as an experiment, and left the rest of the game exactly as it was, I am convinced that we would never have recieved the 90 day notice and facing the death of something we loved.
 
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coz1969

Guest
If EA had opened a separate city, based on a 'real cash' economy as an experiment, and left the rest of the game exactly as it was, I am convinced that we would never have recieved the 90 day notice and facing the death of something we loved.

I'd have to agree with you there.... if we had been allowed to keep doing what we do best in production cities, and EA came up with a whole new game, inviting us to beta test for free... we'd certainly be looking at a brighter gaming future.

I've looked at other games that STARTED out based on microtransactions and real world economy, and many of those games are successful.... Entropia (yeah, I'd never heard of it either... but looks incredibly entertaining) SL, and a multitude of others.

Sure, eventually TSO would have had the plug pulled... but not without having a better game in it's place.
 
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aldldl

Guest
If EA had opened a separate city, based on a 'real cash' economy as an experiment, and left the rest of the game exactly as it was, I am convinced that we would never have received the 90 day notice and facing the death of something we loved.
I never thought of this aspect, I bet your atleast partly right. I believe that there was more then one thing that brought the game down, not just the ATM/Cash-out, or the city merge but more then that and all added togeather.

Note: I thought that (city merge) was a good idea in theory, more people to know and have fun with, A nation of sims instead of just the individual cities. But then I was not a player long enough to get attached to one city before the move.
 
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Milton

Guest
I thought we more rebelled against EA breaking something that didn't need fixing, than the concept of microtransactions itself.
We rebelled against microtransactions when they surveyed about it circa 2003.
 
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