EA: Extra Content Business Is $1.3B A Year

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Ever wonder why so many developers these days are adding microtransactions to their games? Electronic Arts says that its Ultimate Team modes bring in $650 million a year all by themselves. :eek:


The Ultimate Team modes in EA's FIFA, Madden and NHL franchises are now earning around $650 million in annual revenue - half of all sales generated by the extra digital content released to accompany the publisher's games. "We've been a leader in driving digital extra content for games, which really drives the profitability of this business," he said. That extra content includes products like a Season Pass for Star Wars Battlefront, say, or map-packs for the Battlefield series, but the biggest contributor - by far - is Ultimate Team.
 
If I was a younger man I would chunk it all and develop apps for Android. Now I'm too old and busted.
SO I must have my son to fulfill my dreams for me. That is why he is learning Python. :D
 
DLC and micro-transactions are a very dangerous path. There is just too much room for shady business practices and more often than not, that's what happens.

How much content is ripped out of a game only to be re-sold? We will never have the exact answer but we all know it happens. Look at the recent Star Wars Battlefront. That game suffered horribly because there wasn't enough content or game play modes. Not to mention it was basically a casual mobile game dressed up as a PC game.

I hate DLC and have never participated in it and probably never will. The only time I did was BF4 with all the bundled content for a VERY reasonable price. I hear BF5 is coming out this Fall / Xmas. If the Super Duper Deluxe version is a crazy $100+ dollars or even close to that figure I won't buy the game. If it reviews really really well among hardcore players, I will keep my eye on a sale of the game maybe.

EA could have made all the money and then some had they just been super focused on their games and making them great. DLC = Greed. Look at how they mangled Simcity. Thank god we had City Skylines.
 
I can't say I'm without fault -- I have had a particular weakness for Mass Effect DLC and have purchased almost every one of them (at least until the initial few months into Mass Effect 3); I'd buy even the rare ones off eBay for stupid amounts for ME2 for example -- but other than that, I have avoided purchasing DLC like the plague. My wallet alone won't stop DLC but I came from a generation that played games that the community expanded, for free, that publishers released maps and content for, for free and these communities lasted a long time. Nowadays, most communities last for 6 months to a year then wither away. But that's their goal, to get people antsy about having the latest and greatest while cashing in on it.

It's the same with hardware, but at least hardware has a prolonged effect. The system in my sig isn't up to date (I'll get around to it, one day) but it's still relatively the same. Same old 950, same mobo. Primary upgrades have been the monitor, ram and video cards. If it works, it just works. If a game is good, it will last on it's own merit and not by the latest pixel weapon.
 
Just screwed the system and bought BF4 while it was on sale. They were offering everything including premium access for $20... TOTAL.

All the DLCs, all the extra downloads...

That's more like it.

I think that's the first $20 I've given EA in a few years. I didn't like it, but figured there was $20 worth of game value there and a bunch of friends wanted to play. I still HATE the entire Battlelog interface, but it's more mature than BF3 was.
 
viscountalpha said:
And this is why I don't buy EA games. But there's another sucker born every minute.
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Yeah, you have to love people who say "vote with your wallet" knowing full well you're completely outnumbered by people who will buy whatever is waved in front of them.
 
At least EA never released DRM disguised as a service and then shit on their customers like Microsoft did with GFWL.
 
rezerekted said:
At least EA never released DRM disguised as a service and then shit on their customers like Microsoft did with GFWL.
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You mean like Origin? Although, they haven't shit on customers with it and I don't see Origin going anywhere. Although, when it came out, I got a second copy of a lot of my EA titles. I have Alice: Return to Madness on Steam and Origin. Some of my CC games are like that too. I still don't like having it. Wish they would have just kept their stuff on Steam.
 
I completely ditched all EA PC games years ago. I never miss a good title anyway since every good franchise they lay their hands on instantly gets ruined. Too bad there is too many people buying brand names and talking themselves into that they have something good and instantly ruin every effect non-buying customers could make.
Then again, if people actually abandoned a product they push, then they would still not learn as they instantly blame pirating instead. Since their product obviously is perfect in their eyes. Thus, There is no way to win EA back to the good old days. So just ignoring them works out well, for me at least... :)
 
krotch said:
You mean like Origin? Although, they haven't shit on customers with it and I don't see Origin going anywhere. Although, when it came out, I got a second copy of a lot of my EA titles. I have Alice: Return to Madness on Steam and Origin. Some of my CC games are like that too. I still don't like having it. Wish they would have just kept their stuff on Steam.
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Yea, it's the shit on part and rip me off of games I paid for that has me boycotting Microsoft. If Origin pulled the same shenanigans I would do the same to them too. Having more trust in EA than Microsoft shows just how low Microsoft has fallen, IMO.
 
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