FIFA and other sports games will no longer be released every year
EA Sports on an annual basis releases at least three games from the FIFA, Madden and NHL series, and to them less frequently joins also NBA and UFC series. But, it's only a matter of time when games will stop coming out. Not because they are not selling good - in fact, they are selling great - but because EA Sports counts on how they will instead of selling them every year for them in the future will be more cost-effective selling a subscription on one game that will be updated every year.
Electronic Arts president confirmed it in an interview with Bloomberg saying he was naive to think that the future of gaming is not in the model of subscription based on how Netflix works in the world of TV or Spotify in the world of music. Andrew Wilson says EA is already thinking about how the market will look like without Fifa and Madden coming out every year, but says the transition to the subscriber model is going slower in video games because of their specific design.
Wilson says movies and music by subscribing people can consume regardless of whether they are using a big TV, mobile device or something else. With the video game we still have no freedom and we can not play Fifa equally on consoles and cell phones, and this is one of the main reasons why we have not yet gone through a subscription model than buying a game every year.
However, EA is well aware of the fact that FIFA and other sports games are increasingly bought in digital form, and that Ultimate Team mode and similar derivations in essence bring more profit than selling the game itself. With that in mind, it is only a matter of time when all sports games will switch to a model of annual updates like on mobile platforms.
Tagged with: FIFA series