EA Boss Recognizes The Economic Trends Of Infinite Goods
from the don't-hear-that-every-day dept
At this point, we're so used to execs from big entertainment firms denying the existence of the inevitable trends impacting their industry, that it's truly a surprise when someone appears to clearly understand what's happening. Slashdot points us to the shocking news that EA's CEO knows that the business model for his industry is changing, and that the current one is becoming obsolete:"In the next five years, we're all going to have to deal with this. In China, they're giving games away for free. People who benefit from the current model will need to embrace a new revenue model, or wait for others to disrupt."Can you imagine hearing the same thing from the head of a movie studio or record label? It's nice to finally see a CEO who recognizes the economics at hand -- even if it means his former cash cow will be obsolete and his company will need to embrace entirely new business models.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: business model, economics, free, infinite goods, video games
Companies: ea
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
* heaven forbid we just have content/roster updates via internet, then someone wouldn't have to pay up to $80 for the same graphics but updated text year after year!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
they do not ask you to pay to save
Even the games themselves if you don't buy em from EA you can get them from sites such as Direct2Drive where it is stored permanently, cd key and all. I love free things but I pay for my games on direct2drive because its a wonderful resource in that fashion. They even use a fileplanet dedicated stream to download, so the downloads max out your connection.
Additionally, as long as you have your cd key, you can always get the pirated copy and put in your legit key. Thats the whole point of fair use right there, ala backups.
I agree with #2 a lot though. EA is known to make wonderful statements of cognition and follow up with more statements of "eventually" followed by 0 action.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Other revenue streams
1. In game advertisement.
2. Don't sell the game to the players. Like Prince who sold a CD to a newspaper which gave it to their subscribers. Buy a Subaru and get Bioshock for free?
3. Including a player's guide, novelization, comic book, poster, soundtrack CD, stickers, t-shirt, etc., with the game. Thus the packaging has value as opposed to the game. Purchase a real (not tiny) Master Chief helmet (free game inside)?
4. Playing online provides additional value beyond playing alone. This wont work for all games (e.g. Mass Effect).
5. In game sales like the he infamous Oblivion horse armor or wizard's tower. Pay for additional weaponry or short cuts to beating the game.
6. Subscription based. Personally, I would have given away World of Warcraft and only sold the monthly subscriptions.
Not that I like them all. Just some first thoughts,
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
CEO at least recognizes the problem
I took some games to EB Games in CA to trade in that I new would never see the light of day again. I was not expecting much, just something to help pay for some new games.
When the guy offered me 10 cents for some of the games, I said he couldn't be serious. He was. I immediately turned around and gave all the games to kids that were in the store. I think 10 cents is an insult and if those kids were not in the store, I would have broken each one and left them on the counter.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]