So, we knew EA was not going to be bringing any of its EA Sports Games to the PC this year.
Next year in 2009, they'll be back -- and likely with a newer business model.EA: PC Sports Games Will Return Next Year, Reinvented by 'Meaningful' Online Connectivity
by Aaron Linde and Chris Faylor Jul 29, 2008 5:51pm CST tags: EA Sports, PC Gaming, Electronic Arts
During an investor conference call today, EA Sports president Peter Moore offered new details on the studio's attempts to reinvigorate its PC sports title offerings.
"We are retooling these titles [on the PC] to take advantage of the online connectivity in a bigger and more meaningful way," Moore said today, noting that EA's usual sports offerings--Madden, NCAA Football, NBA Live, etc.--will reappear on PC in 2009.
He also said the company is toying with subscription programs to reward players, but offered no further details on either subjects.
EA Sports had previously announced that several EA Sports franchises would not appear on PC this year, citing "serious business challenges" and a need to reinvigorate sports offerings on the platform.
Speaking on EA Sports' overall performance, the company further revealed that pre-orders numbers for EA Tiburon's NCAA Football 09 and Madden NFL 09 are down compared last year's iterations, though sell-through of NCAA Football have matched up to last year's figures.
Both Moore and EA CEO John Riccitiello stressed that the company is not concerned as sales have remained consistent.
One of EA's biggest problems on the PC for sports games is that many people will buy the console version of the sports game -- namely, so they can play w/ their friends in the same room and same TV. So, that don't help the PC version of the game at all, of course.
Another thing. EA doesn't change much in a new sports game per year to warrant the $40-50 for what is a new patched-up version of last year's game, normally. Not really until a new console generation is out do things majorly change with their sports series, usually. Maybe every year, you get the following changes -- maybe a new updated rosters and updates players; maybe a few gameplay tweaks here and there; maybe one or two new game-modes; and that's about it. So, many gamers like myself if we're hungering for a new sports game, we'll wait til the new game gets cheaper to buy it; maybe buy a sports game every few years from EA; or just buy the entire EA Sports collection for the year once that drops or get that collection when it gets much cheaper.
That leads me to another factor. Every year, after all their sports titles are out for the year, EA will put out their Yearly PC EA Sports Collection that has all their sports games in it for that particular year -- Madden, NBA Live, NHL, Tiger Woods, NASCAR, etc etc. So, since they been doing this for a while -- if a PC gamer wants some EA Sports stuff, they'll likely wait until the Collection Box is out and just go out and get that.
So, I wonder if like Spore, given there are plans for "online" stuff for EA's Sports Games, I wonder if there might micro-transactions involved for EA's Sports Games on the PC -- you know, DLC content. Maybe they do one stock box for the series -- like say Madden. Then, every year after that, there'll be new DLC pack for the new season and that'll cost a (hopefully) fair price for you to update your game to the newest season -- for the buyer to get a new roster added, new game-modes, or whatever EA wants to add. Wouldn't be a bad idea, instead of forcing the gamer to have to buy the same game over again the next year w/ few major changes every year for another $40-50 (or causing the gamer to majorly wait for price drops or the entire box collection to come out).
Also, I wonder if PC version's will get more MP-focus online, too. That would also be a good idea -- since sports games have always been at their best when playing usually w/ other gamers (especially on consoles). I can't see why this strategy couldn't apply to the PC; but instead, it would have to apply to the entire Internet -- that could be a lot of fun.
Hmmm....hopefully, EA will change things for the better. But, hey -- it's EA, so I ain't biting my tongue...
We'll have to wait and see...
