EA: The PC is an 'extremely healthy' platform

EA Games President Frank Gibeau had some good things to say about the future of PC gaming in a recent interview with Gamasutra. According to the executive, the company's overall strategy to regain market share includes a renewed focus in the platform, and noted that it was "totally conceivable" that the PC will become their biggest market in the future.

"The user base is gigantic," he said. "PC retail may be a big problem, but PC downloads are awesome. The margins are much better and we don’t have any rules in terms of first party approvals. From our perspective, it's an extremely healthy platform."

Casual games on Facebook are a part of the plan, but FPS, MMORPGs and other PC genres are a huge focus for the company, with games like DICE's Battlefield 3 and BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic coming this year. EA also has a big interest in the free-to-play model, pointing out that Battlefield: Heroes is doing very well with 368, 241 new users every month on the PC alone and now have over 7 million registered users since launch. An open beta of Battlefield Play4Free is coming to PC in April and will use the same micro-transaction structure as its predecessor.

The publishing giant is looking to reclaim its once held throne at a time when the general perception about the company has dropped among gamers along its revenue -- which was down 15% last year. It's unlikely we'll see a radical shift in the short term considering console games accounted for 72% of EA's net revenues during its last reported quarter, but it's still good to see some renewed enthusiasm towards the most powerful and flexible gaming platforms of all.

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Dead Space’s Isaac Clarke sneaks into Dragon Age 2

 

Clearly there's more than a little mutual appreciation going on between Dead Space 2 developers Visceral Games and the Dragon Age 2 crew at Bioware. Players of the latter, EA promises, will hear bards' tales recounting the exploits of demon-slaying knight Ser Isaac of Clarke. However, if that's not a cheeky enough in-joke for you, Ser Isaac's distinctly familiar-looking armor will be available to players themselves.

Dragon Age 2 players whose taste for fantasy-horror transcends any one game might well pick up Dead Space 2 as well, what with the two sequels both due for impending release. Rather than divide audiences between “dark fantasy with sword-dismemberment” and “dark sci-fi with plasma-dismemberment,” publisher EA will reward players for spreading their efforts between the two titles. Players who pick up Dead Space 2 will receive a one-time activation code to unlock Ser Isaac's armor within Dragon Age 2 as well.

We've got our doubts as to whether it'll go so far as to display your character's health within the faithfully-recreated back-panel – Dragon Age has its own HUD, after all – but hey, you offer a cool thing for free, we set to work finding its shortcomings. Welcome to the Internet!

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EA: microtransactions are more profitable than in-game ads

In an interview with Edge, Electronic Arts revealed that in-game ads aren't as profitable as originally expected. Ben Cousins, EA's general manager of free-to-play operations, told the publication that the mega-publisher "[isn't] getting much from ad revenue at all," and that the in-game advertising model hasn't grown as quickly as people expected it to. Instead, Cousins explained that microtransactions are more profitable.
EA tested both models with its free-to-play cartoony shooter Battlefield Heroes, and while virtual sales exploded, advertisements have been somewhat of a flop. "If you think about how fast the virtual goods business has grown in the last year or so, it's been much quicker and become a much more reliable source of revenue," Cousins said in reference to Farmville, which has been wildly successful thanks to microtransactions.
EA plans to release a new free-to-play Battlefield title called "Battlefield Play4Free" next spring, which will ditch Battlefield Heroes' cartoonish graphics and allow gamers to purchase items and upgrades with real money. Play4Free will scale up to 32 players, support vehicular combat, and include popular maps from Battlefield 2 as well as the classes and factions in Bad Company 2. You can register to become a beta tester on the official site. 

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