So EA is shifting away from the PC market for now
PostPosted:Fri Jul 04, 2008 7:35 pm
It seems that only two games are coming from EA sports this year, NHL and Fifa. The reason given is that EA expects that they can actually make a profit off of those games.
Why?
Why?
Now I have to agree with Peter Moore on this, in the end this is a business (one which serves us). Companies cannot be developing games for gamers who refuse to actually pay for their products. Pirating a game is theft and damaging to the industry. I personally see no reason why EA should release games for PC when all that is going to happen is that few copies will be sold, but many will be stolen. I also don't buy the argument. It's like stealing from a jewelry store, and the argument "well, I wouldn't have bought it anyway" doesn't apply... Actually the difference with jewels and games, is the games actually cost a huge amount money to license, develop, manufacture, store, market, and distribute.Peter Moore wrote:Piracy is an issue. Sorry, I know many of you disagree with me on this, but the numbers don’t lie. Companies spend millions developing content, and deserve to see a return on investment for their risk. The employees developing the game design, writing code and creating art deserve to get paid for their work. Period.
Businesses have to make hard trade offs for where to invest for the best return, thus creating capital to make even more games. They have to take expensive risks in our hits and misses industry with new intellectual property to keep the games available to gamers fresh, innovative and pushing the technical boundaries of the hardware platforms. I know this concept touches a nerve with some of you, but our industry is founded on publishers that have driven for financially-successful games and then re-invested the proceeds in development of even more content for gamers to enjoy. It’s a simple financial premise, and an obligation for publically-traded companies who answer to their shareholders. We are not making games in garages or bedrooms any more.
In order to make fundamental shifts in an ecosystem, you sometimes have to hit the reset button. That’s what we have done this year at EA SPORTS as regards some of our franchises on the PC. That does not mean that we aren’t coming back next year with new, innovative, maybe even less-expensive ways to play all of our franchises on the PC, but for right now we are assessing all of the options open to us to shift the current paradigm for our games on this platform.