During the earnings report for the fourth financial quarter,
Electronic Arts’ CEO Andrew Wilson stated that a new way of publishing games must emerge in the future. Because with Anthem, this “old” way did not work as well as hoped.
What was said? Electronic Arts’ CEO Andrew Wilson believes that the way games have been published so far does not work today. Something needs to change so that players are not disappointed about what a new title truly is.
Anthem versus Apex Legends
What triggered this? Andrew Wilson mentioned that Anthem did not meet Electronic Arts’ expectations. Nevertheless, they stand behind the title and will continue to support it. Apex Legends, on the other hand, has managed to reach around 50 million players.
Therefore, a rethink is now necessary regarding how games will be published in the future.
Players should know exactly what they are getting
What should this new way look like? Electronic Arts wants to present games better. A potential customer should always know exactly what they are buying. The players’ expectations must be better managed.
Furthermore, EA plans to orient itself towards the Asian market for future game launches. Many so-called soft launches take place there. Games launch for a selected number of gamers or only in certain regions at first. This allows the developer to see how the title is received and gather valuable feedback before the “real” launch.
It is also important to change the communication with players. In the future, marketing will focus less on simply presenting a new game and more on engaging in a dialogue with players. This is intended to improve interaction with customers.
Ultimately, players should always know exactly what kind of game they are buying, without having unrealistic expectations and then being disappointed.
Development and QA are changing drastically
What else is changing? Andrew Wilson also announced that the development processes and quality assurance need to be improved. He cited Bioware as an example. In the past, games were developed with 40 to 80 hours of offline gameplay. The quality assurance for these titles was significantly easier than for a modern game, which brings with it 100 to 300 hours of online endgame in addition to those 80 hours of offline gameplay.
The way such games are developed and tested is set to change dramatically.
Andrew Wilson hopes that EA can be a pioneer in this regard and help other studios follow suit, ultimately leading to better games for customers.
What does all this mean? In the future, EA will likely hold more discussions with gamers and explain more precisely how a new game plays. This will allow developers to gather early feedback and implement it where necessary.
There will also apparently be larger game tests before the release. How exactly that will look, we will have to see. EA might already be handling the development of Dragon Age 4 in this manner.
Other successful games will meanwhile continue to be demanded and expanded:
