Moore: "We are standing on a burning platform"
EA's COO Peter Moore on the publisher's digital transition
Peter Moore, COO of Electronic Arts, has described the company's digital transformation in dramatic terms, and said that internally it's committed to cross-platform play.
"We're picking our way through what 'digital transformation' means," he told Gamasutra.
"We recognised that we are standing on a burning platform. It's an oil rig in the middle of the sea, and it's exploding. You can stay or you can hold our noses and jump. At least that way, you have a shot."
Moore said EA believes that cross platform play, walking away from your console but being able to still interact with that game in some way, is the future, and has already invested in the infrastructure and data services to make that work.
"The company has a vision and a mission, which we don't talk a lot about externally, but you find it a lot when you go to the office. In broad terms, we talk about uniting through play, bringing people together through play. The mission is to build the world's best digital playground with fun for everyone, anywhere, anytime," he continued.
"We think that the future of gaming is cross-platform play, always having something with you that's a gaming device, but everything you do connects."
He pointed to FIFA Ultimate Team as an example, and said the technology behind that connectivity took a lot of work, but that, when it came to revenue, it was a worthwhile gamble.
"We like to think that if you're connected to us 24 hours a day then the opportunity to make a buck is greater."
And in the future? Moore argued that companies will have to look beyond just the next generation of game consoles to make their mark in a more digital and connected world.
"The complexity is that you have to deliver the games not only on an Xbox 720 or a PS4, but you'd better have a SmartGlass solution, you've got an iPhone and tablet experience and you have to be able to do something on the PC with a special app. And you'd better have something that sits as a community layer like we do with Battlelog in Battlefield or Autolog in Need for Speed, that allows you to interact with fellow players."
The problem is, cross-platform play requires either a simple game, or a homogenised input system. Trying to cross-platform an FPS with current hardware, for example, just isn't possible. As Valve/HPE found out with CS:GO, certain control systems, like the ones consoles or mobiles have, are technically inferior to others, like the PC's. That's an in-built handicap system, which most users aren't going to want to try and overcome.
Thing is, that's a partial solution. The Log systems may be good for keeping abreast of who has a better KDR or time than you, but they're not as pervasive as Steam's chat and community system, which makes it far easier to interact with other people than on EA's equivalent. Add that to Steam's mobile app - which allows far more than just chat - and you have a community layer that's with the user at all times.Silly EA - always playing catch-up to Valve.
Edited 2 times. Last edit by Morville O'Driscoll on 19th June 2012 12:07pm
Posted:11 months ago