Although we currently receive new installments of popular sports series such as Madden, FIFA, and NHL on a yearly basis, new comments from EA suggest that this business model might not continue to be the norm in the future. Instead, the publisher is looking into the possibility of a subscription-based system replacing the annual releases, taking sports gaming in a whole new direction.
In a statement to Bloomberg TV, EA CEO Andrew Wilson put forward the idea that the likes of Madden and FIFA might one day make the switch to a subscription series.
"There's a few things that have got to happen first," Wilson continued. "We do a lot in a FIFA game every year and a lot in a Madden game, and there's a lot of code that we make available as part of the new iterations."
But in Korea or China, the service doesn't quite work the same way and EA instead releases a "big new code drop" every four years or so in order to offer incremental change over time. In areas where the sports series aren't quite as popular, this might seem like the best course of action for the company, rather than have shelves stacked with new copies of the games every year.
"I think there's a world where that might also happen in other parts of our business," Wilson finished.
A subscription-based service could allow Madden to deliver more regular updates to its new Longshot mode, and allow FIFA to make more chapters of The Journey. What has become a welcome and worthy addition to newer sports games, story-driven campaigns could soon potentially become a much more frequent experience, funded by regular payments from fans.
The new potential system would also mean that mechanics and graphics could see changes on more than just an annual basis, but it's unclear as to whether or not fans would be willing to make the switch to a subscription-based service. Given the popularity of EA's series, though, chances are the majority of players would prefer to pay more regularly rather than miss out on the experience altogether.
Source: Bloomberg