Peter Moore:"De gameïndustrie hoopt op digitalisering"

Peter Moore, president van EA Sports, sprak gisteren op een evenement in Stamford Bridge, het voetbalstadion van Premier League club Chelsea FC. Hier werd FIFA Online  voor de PC aangekondigd, een free-to-play web-based versie van FIFA. 

Moore vertelde daar dat de gameïndustrie hoopt op een digitalisering. De verkoop van games in de winkels zullen namelijk steeds dalen volgens hem, de echte groei moet komen van digitale downloads.

"As you all know, we're flat to down in the world of packaged goods. When we look at the latest US numbers for 2009, we're actually down 10 per cent year on year. The real growth, though, is coming from digital downloads, premium downloadable content, subscriptions, micro-transactions, premium access - all of the things we look at which are innovative and, quite frankly, are upon the horizon; the future of our industry from a growth perspective," vertelde Moore.

"The future of where we see growth, particularly within sports, is having a sports experience regardless of time, budget and platform. That ubiquity is going to be the key to where we're going. Are we still going to be deeply involved as we always have been, in the world of classic console games delivering personal access to the emotion of sports? You bet. But are we going to be stagnating in that world, when we see other opportunities - whether you see, for example, what the company has done in the acquisition of Playfish, which is an up and coming social network developer and publisher - looking for different ways you as consumers are consuming your entertainment content? We've got to be there, we've got to be on the front edge, and in some instances we've got to be ahead of the curve. I could argue that both with Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online and with what we're doing with FIFA Online, we're ahead of that curve right now."

Daarom brengt men FIFA Online uit, Electronic Arts wil zich namelijk steeds meer focussen op de digitalisatie van haar content.

"This is going to be, from an Electronic Arts perspective - not just EA Sports but EA as a company and a whole - one of the tips of the spears of our strategic focus on the digitisation of our content and our business; looking at new business models on new platforms in new ways to play, with great IP that obviously is part and parcel of who we are at Electronic Arts. That's going to be important to us."

"[It's] not only critical for the growth of EA Sports, not only critical for bringing more football fans into this world, but it's also a very very very important part of the strategy of EA going forward here, as we continue to move towards this digital future that the industry is, quite frankly, pinning its hopes on."

Onder andere met de release van FIFA Online - wat je met enkel een muis kan spelen - probeert EA een deel van de twee miljard voetbalfans te bereiken.

Wat vinden jullie hiervan? Liever een doosje of toch liever de eenvoud van een download? Discussieer er mee over op ons forum.