EA Boss Says Games Too Expensive

EA's John Riccitiello has been shaking things up at EA lately, with everything from layoffs to the purchase of BioWare. Now he's suggesting the company take some really drastic measures: make their games less expensive. "Riccitiello says the $31 billion gaming industry will suffer if it doesn't start to reevaluate its business model. Game executives at Sony, Microsoft and Activision must answer some tough questions in the coming years, like how long they can expect consumers to pay $59 for a video game. Riccitiello predicts the model will be obsolete in the next decade. 'In the next five years, we're all going to have to deal with this. In China, they're giving games away for free,' he says. 'People who benefit from the current model will need to embrace a new revenue model, or wait for others to disrupt.' As more publishers transition to making games for online distribution, Riccitiello says he expects EA will experiment with different pricing models."

Re:Stop licencing sports then

[p0tat03]

Licensing gives them far more sales than the licenses cost. If anything that's the *smartest* move they can make. Sports games, while no piece of cake to produce, have costs that are far less than, say, an RPG like Final Fantasy. How many stadiums do you have to make to satisfy your players, vs. how many entire WORLDS the RPG would need to have?

No, better spend $20M licensing + $5M producing mass-market game with millions of sales, than to spend $50M making an epic hardcore-gamer game that's going to top out a a few hundred thousand.

Try downloadable games

[Jim Hall]

Consider this, I would LOVE to be able to buy a console that had games priced between $15 to $20. I don't really give a squat about the graphics, I want to be entertained. You'll have a customer for life if you make that happen, as I'll be able to justify buying a game or two a week.

Have you considered downloadable games? I purchased a PS3 this summer because of the PS3 games, and was surprised about the downloadable games you can purchase at low cost from the PlayStation Network store. My fave right now is Super Rub-a-Dub [youtube.com] - I'm 35, but I love this game. But I tell people I got it for my wife. :-)

Seriously, we will sometimes play this game for a few hours at a time. Lots of fun! Most fun you can have for only $7.

They have a ton of other games on PSN that are about the same cost. Very cheap, and fun! Especially for a casual gamer like you.

And I know it's an oldie, but Spyro the Dragon [youtube.com] just appeared for sale on PSN. I bought my copy! [slashdot.org] Yeah, it's a PS1 game, but the PS3 upscales it really well - looks great on my 40" HD TV. You can play it on PS3 or PSP, and it's only $6. And it's still lots of fun!

Re:Is this thing on? Can you hear me...

[tepples]

I would LOVE to be able to buy a console that had games priced between $15 to $20.

Try Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, Nintendo DS (some games $20, most games $30), Leapster, and soon WiiWare.

Re:Not all games worth the same price.

[Kalriath]

Uh, no. You still get multiplayer (even a games browser!) with Games for Windows Live games for free, the paid subscription only gets you things like Halo's skill-based matchmaking system. For free, you still get: Friends List, Text Chat, Voice Chat, Multiplayer, Game Server Browser, Updates, and so on.

Or, if you don't believe me, check out this page [gamesforwindows.com].

According to MS, the free subscription gives you a Gamertag, Profile, Gamerscore (single player achievements only), Text and Voice chat, Friends List, and PC only multiplayer including Games Browser. Paying gets you Skill-based Matchmaking, Multiplayer achievements, and cross-platform (PC/Xbox360) gameplay.