Battlefield 3 has been a huge success for EA and the recently launched “premium” service looks like it’ll be a big success as well. So much so that EA Label’s President Frank Gibeau thinks it’s time to bring the idea to other franchises.
Speaking to GamesIndustry, Gibeau didn’t pull any punches when talking about the competition:
“We actually think our Premium service exceeds what [Call of Duty] Elite does – from a value standpoint, from a content standpoint, and longer term we think that we can bring more properties into that offering and that’ll be great for the business.”
However, he is not too proud to admit that great artists sometimes steal from their competitors and that Premium borrowed heavily from Elite in order to improve upon it:
“They [Activision] did something really innovative and if your competitor does something innovative and you think it applies to what you can do, then there’s no harm in doing that. This is an industry where people have a lot of oneupsmanship and if somebody innovates, you match it or you exceed it.”
What’s promted all this boasting? Well, the sales of Battlefield 3 for one. Gibeau remarked:
“We’re quite proud of what we did with Battlefield 3. We sold about 15 million [units] on that game, which was the number two game in the marketplace last year by a country mile.
Before he took yet another jab at the competition:
“It’s important that we don’t get into a position where we’re just milking the franchise and just mailing it in and shipping bad games… We”ve got to stay constantly paranoid about meeting and constantly exceeding expectations on the game design and fun factor.”
So what exactly does this mean? Can we expect to see Need for Speed Premium, SSX Premium and FIFA Premium showing up over the not too distant horizon? I’d say that’s a safe bet and I bet Gibeau would say it’s just good business.
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