Peter Moore has acknowledged that the EA Sports division is seeking a solution that'll allow it to "keep sports an important part of the portfolio that's available to PC gamers".
"[With the PC platform] we've got to find the right business model for us going forward," he said.
"We really want to keep sports an important part of the portfolio that's available to PC gamers, but the business model right now, shipping a physical disc for the PC, simply isn't working for us," he added in an interview with Edge .
"And along the context of making the right choices with our resources and making sure that we're delivering a return on investment for valuable employee time, I've got to find innovative ways to bring our content to life on the PC and online is the way that that's going to happen."
Moore also said that the division thinks about developing a major sports MMO "all the time".
"There's a couple of people trying it on PC with, I guess, mixed results, I don't know, it's difficult to figure it out. We're constantly looking at what would be a compelling experience.
"Some of the challenges quite frankly are licensing approvals. Do you want it to be all sugary and nobody does anything wrong or gets into player disputes, and no player gets in trouble at a nightclub at night? If you want it to be that way I might get licence approval, but if you want it to be a bit more realistic then I might have a challenge getting licence approval. So I have to fight that fine line of making sure our partners feel comfortable with that content versus types of game experiences they don't feel comfortable with."
Isn't this where the whole Steam argument comes in?
Also even though I'm not into sports games (let alone football) but here's an idea I've had for awhile which I can imagine would work very well in a football MMO (for example).
Rather than having you control the entire f**king team have it so that you only control one person (like you would in real life -yourself). Either from a third person behind the player view or from a first person view (if it can be pulled off).
Not only would it be more realistic but you could also play with more of your mates at a time rather than just against one at a time (or two controlling one team which tends to get confusing).
And you could have an AI bots filling in the rest of the team if there wasn't enough players in a game until people filled them up or people dropped out. That and in case people get bored sitting around as the goalie.
Just out of interest what does everyone else think?
Isn't this where the whole Steam argument comes in?
Also even though I'm not into sports games (let alone football) but here's an idea I've had for awhile which I can imagine would work very well in a football MMO (for example).
Rather than having you control the entire f**king team have it so that you only control one person (like you would in real life -yourself). Either from a third person behind the player view or from a first person view (if it can be pulled off).
Not only would it be more realistic but you could also play with more of your mates at a time rather than just against one at a time (or two controlling one team which tends to get confusing).
And you could have an AI bots filling in the rest of the team if there wasn't enough players in a game until people filled them up or people dropped out. That and in case people get bored sitting around as the goalie.
Just out of interest what does everyone else think?
I think you've not tried Football Superstars dark_gamer. Then again, maybe you have. :Very Happy:
Nope, haven't. Guessing it's similar then? Like I said I'm not really into sports games let alone football (in fact I'm not really into sports at all, lol), just every football game I've ever seen (Fifa, PES etc.) play in the same top-down view and have you controlling the entire team (unless you're playing with someone else on the same team).
You're right. Just asked my brother. Didn't know that before, so guess my idea isn't so original after all oh well.
So why does shipping discs for consoles work but discs for PC not work?
There's a few reasons up for debate on that. Including things like piracy, pc gaming dying, download games services (i.e. Steam) or just downloading games in general etc. So that's really a debate for another topic and you're more than likely to already find tons of those around.
Isn't this where the whole Steam argument comes in?
Also even though I'm not into sports games (let alone football) but here's an idea I've had for awhile which I can imagine would work very well in a football MMO (for example).
Rather than having you control the entire f**king team have it so that you only control one person (like you would in real life -yourself). Either from a third person behind the player view or from a first person view (if it can be pulled off).
Not only would it be more realistic but you could also play with more of your mates at a time rather than just against one at a time (or two controlling one team which tends to get confusing).
And you could have an AI bots filling in the rest of the team if there wasn't enough players in a game until people filled them up or people dropped out. That and in case people get bored sitting around as the goalie.
Just out of interest what does everyone else think?
that is EXACTLY what "be a pro" mode is on fifa 09
MMMM I wonder why selling PC games is not working for EA..
Now why would that be? It's got nothing to do with bad software, it's got everything to do with illegal downloads and illegal file sharing websites.
Downloading of PC games is killing PC games with sales dropping every year. Soon developers will will not bother releasing PC versions of games, it simply will not be commercially viable. Only then will the illegal downloaders realise what damage they have done to the industry.
I realise that I am in the minority with this view, the majority thinking that it's their right to have stolen software on their hard drive and they don't care what damage they are doing to the industry. These thieves even claim the high price of pc games is the reason that they download. Education is the only way forward and criminal proceedings against illegal downloaders.
MMMM I wonder why selling PC games is not working for EA..
Now why would that be? It's got nothing to do with bad software, it's got everything to do with illegal downloads and illegal file sharing websites.
Downloading of PC games is killing PC games with sales dropping every year. Soon developers will will not bother releasing PC versions of games, it simply will not be commercially viable. Only then will the illegal downloaders realise what damage they have done to the industry.
I realise that I am in the minority with this view, the majority thinking that it's their right to have stolen software on their hard drive and they don't care what damage they are doing to the industry. These thieves even claim the high price of pc games is the reason that they download. Education is the only way forward and criminal proceedings against illegal downloaders.
Actually he said they were having trouble shifting SPORTS games on disk, and to be brutally honest its because most of the sports games EA release on PC are frankly gash. So you see it has everything to do with bad software.
Sure piracy is always going to be an issue, but you can't always pin the blame on pirates when a bad game doesn't sell very well.
Sports games are always going to be stupid and crap no matter what console so u can play as Man U whoopty friggin do, u are playing a sports game on a couch/office chair getting none of the benefits of acually playing the game urself, the reason shooters and RTSes and RPG's and such like are popular because u get the thrill of bullets a swords crashing around you without the adverse possibility of deadness!!
With far lower sales of sports games on the PC and the piracy issue it seems the sports games on the PC days are numbered! This seems to be a shame, and is clearly recognised from what's said in the article but there still seems to be enough of a market to try to find a profitable way of keeping sports games alive on computers, which is a little encouraging.
As far as piracy is concerned, for as long as it's easy to copy and distribute games online there will always be people that will do that. You can't stop people wanting to pirate games or trying to, as much as you can't stop anyone wanting or trying to do anything illegal. We all know piracy is theft, but let's be honest, we'd all be more shocked to hear of a friend breaking into someone's house, or stealing a car, than we would hearing that they've downloaded a game, or movie, or song. So the pirates don't care and will never stop, and the rest of us aren't particularly bothered by it, so who's left?...
The resolve must lie with those who control the internet and law enforcement agencies. It seems the software industry can't do anything about it directly as no one has an answer in terms of software protection. And why should it... no other industry protects it's products from theft, which is effectively impossible. Software theft (and that includes movies and music) is unique and like no other product.
Internet providers and law enforcement agencies can clearly work together when they take the crime seriously - with paedophiles for example. But the problem is no one takes this crime particularly seriously. It's fair to say that the law regards a criminal who steals a coat from a shop, or a woman's handbag, more criminal and utlimately more pressing an issue than a kid who downloads a few games.
As someone previously mentioned; it's about education. But it's not about educating the pirates but those who provide the service that make piracy easy, and those that are supposed to uphold the law. And the only people that can possibly educate them or try to make these changes is the software industry itself.
Every sport has officials that ensure those involved play by the rules. Every aspect of life is governed by something or someone in a similar way. The internet seems to be practically immune from rules, regulations and laws. It must be possible to stop the internet from being the means by which pirates distribute.
If not, after sports games have gone the way of the DoDo, what's next for PC gaming? I think we already have the seeds to our digital entertainment future partly laid down with current trends and future plans... Discs being replaced by downloads... monthly fee to play some games... monthly fee to play Xbox online... monthly fee to watch sports, or the movie channels on TV... a monthly fee service allowing us access to all our related entertainment needs. We've seen the seeds of such a business plan already in cloud-computing (or whatever it's called) and Onlive (or whatever that games system is known as). We all know the whole computer and entertainment industries want to take money from us, so what better way than to provide the ultimate service of giving us everything, and taking a monthly fee for the service? Sadly, or not, it's the future! Ł100 a month to play any game, watch any movie, listen to any music you choose? Piracy's just getting us there quicker!
I for one do not want to see anything like that ever happen to gaming, for me it would ruin it completely. I like to have the original game in a box and disc/instructions, it's all part of gaming for me. Piracy is having a big impact on PC and it appears PSP gaming the most, PC game sales are decreasing every year and soon titles will not appear for pc any more because of it, the profit is in console gaming. The PSP has been given a lifeline but how long before Sony give up on it due to the 'sickening levels of piracy'?
How happy will all the pirates out there be if they can't download the new release on PC because it's not been released for it? Sorry sir, only on PS3 and Xbox360 and a cut down version for Wii in a few months time.
The only real hope for the gaming industry is that Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo can keep updating the firmware on the consoles to keep piracy at low levels so the consoles don't go the same way as the PC. Which console is being affected worst by piracy? Is it the PSP, DS, 360, wii then PS3?
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oh well.
