EA COO John Pleasants firmly believes that the game industry is evolving into more of a service, and that the current model of game development will be non-existant. Instead, game development will concentrate on creation, release, customer response, fixing errors / customer complaints, and distributing premium content.
“If you believe all games will eventually be services — as I do — then the idea of game teams that make a game, ship it, and then do something else goes away,” he said.
“They will now ship and day one begins when the customer gives feedback to the live service. The way you distribute will be different. The way you charge will be different. There will be more permutations in pricing. Merchandising will be much more important. Co-marketing will be much more important.
“You have to have persistent identification and entitlements for a user, no matter where they are or in what game they’re playing.”
Do you agree with Pleasants’ view of the future, with games becoming more like pay-to-play MMO’s? Is this a good way for the industry to evolve? Post your thoughts and feelings in the comments section.
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