EA: Game Console Cycle Has ‘Gone Forever’

Here today, gone tomorrow, that—in soh many another words—was what EA CEO Can Riccitiello had to say about computer game consoles in an earnings call yesterday. Riccitiello was on the phone to discuss EA's business enterprise 2020 firstly fourth, which he described American Samoa "ahead of expectations," led by strong gross sales of digital games and the dismissal of first-soul sci-fi puzzle Portal 2 ("Portal 2: A Little Better All The Time"). He besides discover-checked Field of battle 3 and Star Wars: The Sure-enough Republic (he says EA's "bolstered aside strong preorders" for some) and, no surprise Here, same the keep company was "proud of" that the NFL lockout had ended (it bound up Monday, though the Salt Lake Tribune notes the NBA's is "just first").

When CEO's omen, the conventional wisdom boils down to "watch out." Self-fulfilling speechifying is more or less part of the job description. So take this with a grain of salt, granted what EA, with its budding addiction to pithier mobile and digital games, might like to be the case.

Describing the industry as "radically changed" and adding that "the pace…has accelerated dramatically," Riccitiello spoke in sweeping terms astir the Fate of the video gamy console biz.

"Done for forever is the 4- to 5-yr console cadence that gave developers ample time to invest and revise for the next big wave," he said, implying the mobile and member markets are the culprits. "Think that just 18 months ago, there was no iPad, Google was just experimenting with Humanoid and most big games were limited to a unshared tax income opportunity at launch. Consider that for each one of the major consoles now has a comptroller that encourages users to get off the couch and get into the action."

Downloadable complacent, check. Smartphones and tablets, double and triple check. But postponemen-a-moment, motion-perception peripherals? What cause they have to do with disrupting the "console cadence" (aside from extending the liveliness of Nintendo's Wii and plaguing the Xbox 360 and PS3 with a lot of awesome games)? Answer: nothing yet. If anything, they've simply filled sociology deficits (as Riccitiello notes, "While the game manufacture has fundamentally changed, games are reaching a far larger audience base than of all time earlier").

Chapeau-tipping digital distribution, Riccitiello said the top paid apps happening smartphones and tablets were every games, adding that it's "the fastest-growing taxation [stream]" for console, PC, smartphones, and tablets. I assume atomic number 2 substance the division where digital dispersion changes the preponderating type as well as the prevailing price of games available, which in turn references the shift, for better or worsened, to smaller games with quicker turnaround multiplication and significantly vitiated development and publication costs.

With that in heed, says Riccitiello, EA's deuce-ac-divided glide slope involves further nonindustrial its sophisticated prop, establishing EA atomic number 3 a distribution platform (think "Origin," it's digital statistical distribution tool), and growing a talent pool capable of juggling content "across the full spectrum of [the company's] many channels and business models."

All well and good, save for the part about IP-development, which is just EA's same-ol'-same-ol' strategy with a fresh surface of social-maneuverable rouge. Ea says IT has just about "a dozen very substantial IPs," and that "[each] of these testament be transformed into year-round businesses with major packaged goods launches, social launches, mobile launches, downloadable smug and micro-minutes."

Which means? For better Oregon worse, more Battlefield, Need for Speed, Madden, FIFA, The Sims, and Mass Effect than you can shake a gamepad, smartphone, Facebook page, or Chirrup feed at.

(via Seeking Alpha)

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Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/481377/ea_game_console_cycle_gone_forever.html

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