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EA’s lucrative FIFA franchise will eventually evolve from an annual boxed product into a live digital service, EA Sports’ senior vice president of worldwide development Andrew Wilson has told GamesIndustry.biz.
“I think the most convenient way for the consumer to get 7GB worth of FIFA these days is still to buy it on a disc,” said Wilson speaking at Develop. “That will change. I think that Football Club this year is turning the FIFA you buy on a disc into a live service that changes every day and every week that you play.”
Football Club is a persistent online service which promises to bring real world football and the FIFA world together. Players will have an online identity that will link all versions of the game on every platform.
Wilson added: “Over time, based on consumer feedback, those chunks that we deliver on that day-to-day, week-to-week basis are going to get bigger, and the releases that we do on an annual basis are going to get smaller, and ultimately you end up in a place where we are delivering a true, consumer-driven live digital service.
“We’re building architecture and infrastructure to facilitate a time when the pipes into consumer homes are big enough to move that kind of data around.”
Wilson believes there are two elements which will determine when the boxed retail product becomes a digital service.
“The first is the business model,” he explained. “There will come a time where the consumer is simply not prepared to pay $60 up-front for a game anymore, the same way they have said that for movies and music and television.”
“And then I think … it’s the global infrastructure that facilitates the shift. As soon as technology provides a viable alternative to a disc, then that process will change.”
FIFA 12 will be available September 30 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, PS2, 3DS, PSP, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
EA recently announced that it had given Andy Gray the boot, replacing the disgraced pundit with popular broadcaster Alan Smith.
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FIFA 12
- Platform(s): iOS, Nintendo 3DS, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PS Vita, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
- Genre(s): Sport
