Tag: ea

Electronic Arts CFO says today’s mobile gamers expect games to be free.

Blake Jorgensen, chief financial offer at Electronic Arts (EA), has said that paid mobile games, those that require the player to pay a fee to download the app, are gradually disappearing and eventually all games are likely to be free to download because that is what the consumer wants.

A free mobile gaming experience is the future of EA.

According to Jorgensen, who spoke during the recent Wedbush 2014 Transformational Technology Managements Access Conference in New York, the renowned gaming company is likely not to add many more paid titles to its mobile gaming portfolio. The future will be all about free-to-play mobile games for EA.

Jorgensen said, “I think paid downloads will probably go away. That business is very small for us now.” He went on to say that consumers are aware that they can expand their gaming experience when and if they choose by paying to access more features in the game or they can still enjoy playing for free.

However, he said that he believes the upfront downloading cost is likely to disappear slowly. “And it’s fine, because I think the experience for the user is more immersive; they are able to get in and experiment with titles,” he added.

Discoverability is the hardest part for developers of mobile games.

One of the greatest challenges of mobile app development, specifically for mobile game developers, is having their app discovered. There are thousands of games available for download on Google Play and iTunes. With so much competition, it is hard for developers to make their game stand out from the crowd. As a result, discoverability can often be what costs the most.

That being said, EA does have the upper hand over other mobile gaming companies. This is mostly due to the fact that they are already well established in the gaming industry and have a collection of popular franchises such as The Sims, The Simpsons, and several EA Sports titles.

Electronic Arts is finding success in the mobile space. Currently, they have more than 130 million active users every month. Jorgenson said that, only including the fiscal year 2014, players have downloaded 600 million EA mobile games. Most of the games installed were free and he suspects this trend will only increase in the years to come.

EA puts mobile games before PC titles

The global game industry has been seeing some turbulence recently as profits fell below expected levels for many developers and publishers around the world. This downturn seems to be restricted to console games, however, as the PC gaming market has been seeing a relative boom. A recent report from the PC Gaming Alliance shows that the PC gaming market grew by 8% in 2012 and this is supported by the latest financial report from Electronic Arts, one of the world’s largest game publishers. Despite the apparent success of the PC gaming market, Electronic Arts has only modest plans to pursue PC titles. Instead, the company is looking to focus more on mobile games.

Game industry evolving to embrace mobile titles

Mobile games have become a major part of the game industry in a relatively short amount of time. Developers around the world are beginning to focus more heavily on mobile platforms because of their popularity among consumers. Indeed, many consumers have shown a great deal of interest in gaming from their smartphones and tablets. The value of mobile games is not lost on Electronic Arts and the company has been working to establish a more formidable presence in this sector in recent years.

EA to focus on next-gen consoles alongside mobile games

While mobile games have become a major focus for Electronic Arts, the publisher’s top priority is next-generation consoles, such as the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One. While next-gen consoles are the priority, the publisher will be looking to support cross-platform games for these consoles as well as mobile devices. Electronic Arts has a chief interest in free-to-play mobile games, which are, quite literally, free to obtain. These games typically include some form of in-game shop that allows consumers to spend real money to unlock additional content.

Major titles likely to have a mobile companion

Electronic Arts intends to make the free-to-play mobile games experience a part of its various franchises. This likely means that every major game published by the company will have some sort of mobile game attached to it. These mobile games will include a cash shop that will sell virtual content  to gamers. Typically, games that are overtly cavalier when it comes to in-game purchases are not well received among consumers.