110°

EA going offensive with digital distribution

Speaking at a recent earnings call, EA CEO John Riccitiello has revealed that the publisher is going on the offensive with digital entertainment, and in all departments, shifting away from their current defensive strategy.

Over the coming years we will transform EA from a packaged goods company to a fully integrated digital entertainment company," said Riccitiello.

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slavish35411d ago (Edited 5411d ago )

i'd like to just download new release day 1. no more going to a store to get a big selling title waiting in line and them not having any left or forced to preorder @!!!!!!!!!!!!

slavish35411d ago

yeah but not every game i like is on pc some on ps360!

koh5411d ago (Edited 5411d ago )

The problem is I usually wait until the earliest good deal I find. I waited to get Portal 2 for $40. Probably will be a lot harder to find good deals if the game isn't offered in stores. Not to mention the other problems such as trade ins and sharing games. I do like the environmental impact at least.

darksied5411d ago

No, it'll be fine. See, everyone right now is fighting over the best price to get the most sales. Best buy puts a sale up on a pre-order, and so Amazon price matches (as they do) to get the sales. Or maybe Newegg will offer a better deal and Amazon will have to price match that, and so on.

Well, we can see even Amazon is even going with digital downloads, because they're putting those up for sale a LOT more often. What will happen in the future is, if everyone is digital, then they will all have to get your business somehow, so they will STILL offer discounts. Amazon will almost ALWAYS price match a big company's discounts; even if they don't, they still want you to pre-order games from them, so if no one is offering a deal, they will offer you like $5 or $10 bucks back in a gift card. I don't see this trend changing if everything goes digital.

Personally, I thought I would hate it, but I like the fact that I can re-download games and not have to worry about having discs in the drive. EA's digital download manager has been a surprise; I find myself liking that more and more.

koh5411d ago

Honestly, I only ever own about 5 or 6 (current gen) video games before selling them back at any given time. I have a few favorites I keep and just flip the rest once I think I'm done with them. If they make a way I can do that with digital I'll probably be fine with it.

BeastlyRig5411d ago (Edited 5411d ago )

lol steam & d2d(owned by ign) has the best prices!

also gamestop bought impulsebuy.com one of the biggest dd sites!

darthv725411d ago

what matters most is the adoption rate by the developers/publishers. Consumers basically wont have a choice if they do it this way. If you want this new Madden game....here is what you need to do.

The forced adoption method is not new but it just looks bad when it happens. At some point there is a cut over people need to make. When and where is usually up to them. We can see that isnt the case anymore.

There are pros and cons to doing this but the opinions of the cons will likely outweigh the pros for time to come. All the while...people will be doing the digital distribution and dealing with it.

If it's going to happen...let it happen.

VampiricDragon_5411d ago (Edited 5411d ago )

its not going to happen. No form of entertainement has ever gone dd only and it never will. Most people like owning things physical and that will never change. A recent ndp report had it at 75 percent of all gamers.

And your misinterpreting his words

he isnt saying dd ONLY

darthv725411d ago (Edited 5411d ago )

to say it "never will" is a bit short sighted. I am sure there have been changes throughout time that has been met with opposition only to be phased in at some point.

I like owning physical copies of stuff too but we all know this is happening. More and more companies are making their content available in digital form time and day to the release of physical.

How long until we see a shift in the digital version being released before the physical? Or no physical at all?

Denial is like a drug. You can only use it for so long until you completely fall off or get clean and accept the changes that have occurred while being on it.

ct035411d ago

It's true that no form of entertainment has gone dd only. But that's because dd is still young. And the growth it has seen makes it quite obvious that it'll take over completely in the long run.

The book market makes this most obvious because download limitations and bandwidth caps have little impact. Movies and games will follow with a delay because the downloads are much bigger.

In 2010, Amazon has already sold more Ebooks than paperbacks and WAY more Ebooks than hardbacks:
http://www.the-digital-read...

darthv725411d ago

I dont know the statistics but I would imagine the ease of purchasing a single track or the entire album was a huge convenience for music lovers.

I buy both digital and physical. I think people have a hard time accepting the digital age is because of the commitment involved. You cant sell off your digital copies.

As for the speed of the internet and availability of internet period....that is changing every day. New tech is making things more efficient to get from one point to the other. People seem fixated on the idea that these current gen file sizes are so huge that it just wouldnt be possible.

Not true. I have played around with the various audio formats to find there are some that can make a file so tiny and yet still sound as clean as an uncompressed track. It all comes down to what is used and right now the only real standard is the old MP3. There are better formats but just not as widely used.

I would like to think progress is a good thing but we get stuck in a rut and dont want to change unless it is something meaningful. I would say we all have at least something in a DD format. Its ok to like the past but we shouldnt slow progress either.

Forgive me for being optimistic but file sizes will decrease and efficiency will increase. This has been the straight and narrow for some time.

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Rettom5411d ago

This is good and bad...
Good: No scratches FTW
Easily accessible, can't lose your disk
Might be the future
I hope it will make it so it will have faster loading times

Bad: Need a large hard drive for how big games are getting
Can't share/borrow with friends
Can't sell it if you don't like it

Question: Can there be errors with download games, such as glitches in the game because it somehow got corrupted during download?

Quagmire5411d ago (Edited 5411d ago )

With digital distribution, the publishers can choose whatever price they want.

For example, do I pay $40 for Prince of Persia 1 on PSN, which takes space on my HDD and download with a shit net connection, and cant be resold or shared with my friends, or do I buy the entire HD trilogy for 25bux, which I can then sell/lend after I have finished?

fluffydelusions5411d ago

Biggest downside for me is the no selling point. I purchased a few games off Steam I wish I could sell.

Rybakov5411d ago

buy new if you dont want scratches then take care of your discs
explain how you lose a disc.....when you should put it straight back in the box after your play?

digital distro may be a big fad for a little bit but owning a physical copy will always be better than digital

Rettom5411d ago

Yup, but I'm talking mostly about other people. I always put my disks in cases and never drop em.

Ahasverus5411d ago

Yay because going digital is the future, just see how succesful and secure the online platfforms are!!

Oh wait...

DOMination5411d ago

The security might not be great but at least we know from the experience of the PSPgo that DD is hugely successful.

Oh wait...

GhettoBlasStarr5411d ago

Unless there is a big enough difference in the price being cheaper than stores, I don't think it will catch on. Because everyone knows digital distribution saves a lot of money for the game developers and its time for the developers to past some of those savings down to the consumers.

5411d ago
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50°

US Lawmakers Urge Review Of EA Sale

The Congressional Labor Caucus sent a letter to the FTC warning the debt-financed, largely PIF-owned deal could be bad news for workers

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aftermath.site
Trilithon33d ago

lol ya think? they're sending all that work to the cheaper labor market as soon as possible. and FYI, that labor market has exploded in the last 5-10 years. They have enough people to replace every single job. But honestly, EA is over filled with useless upper management as it is. You could probably trim 25% of their staff with no real loss in production. They aren't gamers, they're business execs. Just look at how many AI related jobs they're already starting to post. Its also hilarious that PIF owns Battle field 6

lodossrage33d ago (Edited 33d ago )

Wait,

The same congress that attacked Lina Khan when she fought the Microsoft Activision purchase.
The same congress that allowed Disney to buy 90% of Fox
The same congress that allowed Liv Golf to buy the PGA
The same congress that sits back while Paramount tries a hostile takeover despite losing the bid for Warner Bros.

NOW, the suddenly cares about doing what's "right" for works? Yeah, right.

thorstein33d ago

No. There were elections and some of the scum were replaced.

TheColbertinator33d ago

Different elections. Different scum. Same results.

rlow133d ago

i know its a long shot, but i hope this gets shot down.

ZwVw33d ago

EA now owned by The Saudis and Ubisoft to inevitably be owned by China. In hindsight, once EA and Ubisoft started having their financial woes, they should have pulled a Koei Tecmo/Bandai Namco by merging their operations into one.

160°

Saudi Arabia Will Own 93 Percent Of Battlefield 6 Publisher EA

When the dust settles on the $55 billion leveraged buyout of Electronic Arts, Saudi Arabia will be its only true owner, despite a “consortium” of investors being involved in the deal. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund will control 93 percent of the company, according to filings with Brazil’s antitrust regulator.

blacktiger84d ago

Technically speaking, Saudi Arabia and TENCENT can buy the entire USA. ANf Democrat and Republican will not do crap!

Inverno84d ago

Letting foreign entities own half of American businesses is liberal and very progressive. So is bringing in all that talent from outside the States to replace the talentless and lazy American workers. And here I thought the Trump administration wanted to border is up but nope. We're supposed to worry bout them "radical Muslims" minding their own here and ignore China/Saudi/Israel taking over.

blacktiger84d ago

Another thing I hate hearing is "liberal and very progressive"
It's 2025 and that stuff is outdated. Everything and everyway is literally the same thing wheter it's progressive, conservativ. Because they all wants the same thing have, king unlimited oney buy everything including your house.

Now they making mainstream media news that it's AI Bubble justify to highjack the price of RAM.
Another excuse for inflation!

Tacoboto84d ago

"here I thought the Trump administration wanted to border is up but nope"

Lol, you actually bought what he was selling? Let's see this week alone...

Yesterday he pardoned an international drug lord, while allowing the murder of random fishermen on boats. Remember drain the swamp? He pardoned a Democratic Congressman jailed for bribery just today, nevermind that fraudulent drag queen republican that was kicked out of Congress and imprisoned for their fraud. It's so petty they're picking fights on social media with pop stars while using their music, and even using Franklin the damn Turtle to cartoonify their murders.

thorstein84d ago

You believed him!?!!

I've got some Trump $5000 bills for you, only half off.

84d ago
Inverno82d ago

People I do not use /s to point out my sarcasm. Should be obvious I don't believe anything coming out of Trump's mouth or any politicians mouth.

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gold_drake84d ago

its quite ridiculous that they were able to do that. or even allowed to.

but saudis even have their grabby hands in nintendo stocks.

maximusprime_84d ago

Looking on the bright side, the games may be patched to remove any ideologies that are incompatible for the majority of the world.

S2Killinit84d ago

What do you mean? You want censorship in games?

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40°

EA Quells Fears and Says It Will Retain Creative Control If Saudi-Backed Buyout Proceeds

Electronic Arts says it will retain creative control if sold to a Saudi-backed group, assuring staff its values and vision stay the same.