EA May Drop Yearly FIFA and Madden Releases in Favor of Subscription Based Platforms Instead - Sensationalist Headlines

[quote]Electronic Arts Inc. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Wilson said there may soon come a time when the video-game publisher doesn’t release a new annual version of hits such as FIFA 18 and Madden NFL 18 and relies instead on online updates or subscriptions. “There’s a world where it gets easier and easier to move that code around -- where we may not have to do an annual release,” Wilson told Bloomberg TV host Emily Chang on her show “Studio 1.0.” “We can really think about those games as a 365-day, live service.” The video-game industry has been shifting from sales of physical discs to online delivery over the past few years. That includes everything from full-game downloads of new titles to in-game purchases of gear or fantasy sports-like rosters of players. Even with the shift to digital though, the video-game industry still relies on splashy new holiday releases to drum up excitement -- and gifts from grandma -- for their biggest titles. They have also positioned their games as far more advanced graphically than mobile games, and thus better played on souped-up personal computers or consoles. Although Electronic Arts released the Madden NFL Mobile game three years ago, it hasn’t released a new version, preferring to refresh the existing product at the beginning of every season. The user base has continued to grow, Wilson said. There are challenges, however, to shifting to an entirely online world. “When we design a game that lives in a true streaming world, we have to think about screen size and session time,” he said. “How does a Madden game that exists in the cloud manifest on your mobile phone, one minute at a time? How does that manifest on your 60-inch TV, an hour at a time.” Augmented reality could be one of the technologies that bridges the gap between the streaming world and the real one, Wilson said. One day players could earn rewards based on how many eggs they have in their refrigerator at home when they are playing The Sims or get online points for real life drills at soccer practice before playing FIFA. Geolocation tracking could make such events possible, according to Wilson.[/quote] [url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-08/electronic-arts-ceo-imagines-a-year-without-a-new-madden-game]Bloomberg[/url]

I've always wondered why they didn't just do that in the first place Yearly updates is much less work and off of a base game that can be gradually improved with larger patches The base games are always exactly the same anyway, the sales are declining because it's basically 60 bucks for a roster update lol

Normal I find subscription systems in games to be absolutely awful ideas, and it's one of the reasons I don't touch most MMO's with a ten foot pole, but this may be one of the few cases where a switch to a subscription based model would probably be [I]more[/I] consumer friendly than the current model.

Wow this actually sounds like a fantastic idea.

[QUOTE=Mort Stroodle;52878007]Normal I find subscription systems in games to be absolutely awful ideas, and it's one of the reasons I don't touch most MMO's with a ten foot pole, but this may be one of the few cases where a switch to a subscription based model would probably be [I]more[/I] consumer friendly than the current model.[/QUOTE] ya but this is EA, they WILL find a way to extract 60$ from people yearly, so that new lineup might be free with the sub but you're gonna have to buy dlc dlc dlc and more

I hope they call them 'season passes'.

honestly no clue why htey havent done that earlier. make a platform, constantly update the platform. people who dont like madden dont get constantly bombarded with it every year, its good

At this point the differences are so slim between yearly releases that it doesn't even seem to make a difference. Curious how this will pan out, seems like a good idea.