I have to admit something to you all -- I am seriously becoming a fan of Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello. Having accused the games industry of stagnation in the past, and seeming to want to move his notorious company into a more innovative, original age, Riccitiello has again made another ironic statement for an EA boss to make -- he wants to "deal with" the high price tags of videogames.
Talking in a recent report, the leader of the locust-like corporation stated that an arrogant and complacent games industry could suffer from resting on its laurels, much like major TV networks did when cable rose to dominance.
"In the next five years, we’re all going to have to deal with [the current pricing model]. In China, they’re giving games away for free," Riccitiello warned. "People who benefit from the current model will need to embrace a new revenue model, or wait for others to disrupt." EA is already looking into new ways of doing business and the future of digital distribution.
I have no idea what it is that Electronic Arts is playing at, but its attempts to get in my good books are starting to have an affect. As pleased as I am by EA's recent strides toward credibility, however, I can't help but fear this is some sort of evil trap to suck gamers into the Dark Side. Should John Riccitiello be confirmed as a Sith Lord, you bet that Destructoid will have first scoop. You know ... he does look a bit like Senator Palpatine.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
2:26 PM on 10.31.2007
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The current pricing model will never change as long as the consumer is willing to pay it.
EA is big enough to effect the market, if they want to anyway.
I too agree with donut, in-game ads annoy the hell out of me.
who wants to play mcdonalds presents ea's john madden wilson nfl football 2012?
He mentioned digital distribution in the article. Perhaps EA will be the company that will put Gamestop in its place and let lower prices be a staple of online downloads.
Naahhhh.... never happen.
I agree. I always get all giddy when opening a new game.
Here is where you start: Don't waste money on repackaging Madden every year, instead EA should offer downloadable content that would include the engine upgrades, lineups, multiplayer updates, and other general evolutions. They should implement this DLC model for all the core EA Sports franchises.
By working their sports games this way EA has more money available to pump into their more interesting games and able to start taking more risks on new IPs and the such. I mean that's how they can manage the millions it would take to publish Crysis, work on Army of Two, try to reinvigorate Fifa Street with new art direction, cute up the Sims for a wii release, pour money into Spore, work on Dead Space, afford all the equipment they're using to gather data for NFS Pro Street, try out a different kind of boarding game in Skate. Not to mention gems like the Battlefield games they've brought us in the past. Plus y'know, I can't speak for hours and pay etc. but I did have a chance to get a tour of their building in Burnaby, BC, Canada, and well it certainly doesn't LOOK like a bad place to work.
I mean they've pretty much shit on gamers with downloadable content and they're a western world company so of course they're going to be big ass capatilists
/paranoid programmer
On a tenuously-related note, Jim, I wanted to let you know that your work is currently featured on Wikipedia (for now). Many articles for websites have screenshots of their front pages, and so I decided to add one for Destructoid (the article itself was recently started by wardrox). When I hit “Print Screen”, this story was the newest one, so it (and part of the picture) was in the image. Check it out at:
Destructoid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Also, there's going to be some interesting changes at EA pretty soon for the better. Trust me.
The average next gen game here in Australia costs from $100 - $110, which at todays rates is $93USD - $102USD.
Of course, the Aussie dollar is doing really well against the greenback right now, but even at a median rate of 75cUSD/100AUD, that is still around $75-$80 USD per game.
You're welcome.
Funny thing is, frat boys have no idea gamers hate them so much and would probably care less.
i know thers a joke in there but i cant remember it
Sorry, who are you? My apologies, I rarely use NeoGAF for my news, and when I do, I link it. As you can quite plainly see, this particular story is sourced from Next-Gen, not NeoGAF and not yourself, whomever you may be. I occasionally read NeoGAF, but find it not too useful a tool for my needs.
Of course, had you *written* the article on Next-Gen and had I not credited you, then I would most assuredly be in the wrong. As it is, getting uppity because you posted somebody else's report on some message board is kind of ... sad.
You're welcome, btw.
Oh contraire!
In reality, you're just another guy who scowers the Intertubes for tidbits of randon goodness. And that's ok -- seriously. Whether you got this specific story from NeoGAF or not isn't the point. I read Destructoid because the writing can be pretty decent sometimes and that's a rarity.
But just be careful. The vast majority of your recent stories post date extremely popular NeoGAF threads. And if you haven't noticed yet, it's the #1 gaming board on the Internet. Your story leads come from somewhere, no?
Cheers,
Superblatt
I linked a story in my post, I didn't hide it, so I fail to see where your warning holds merit. I only do what the majority of my colleagues do here -- follow tips sent in to us, cite the correct source of our news, and put an editorial spin on things. Nothing more, nothing less.
Just because NeoGAF runs a story, doesn't mean it's the sole source and anybody who posts the same news is ripping it off. That's an arrogance presumption to make. I got this news the same way I get a lot of the stuff I post -- one of our staff sent in a link, I followed the link, added my personal flare to the story, and happily posted the same link I had to give due credit.
My story leads certainly come from somewhere ... 99.9% of the time, it's not NeoGAF.