Facebook games come of age – first FPS arriving soon

February 8th, 2010

Farming and Fish Tanks have been a massive success for a number of casual games developers on social networking platforms, primarily Facebook. Mafia type games have also seen their fair share of success, and while they do contain an element of violence, they’re still grounded to a static, turn based, game style. If these games may be viewed as ‘all encompassing – all inclusive’ styles, it looks like social games on Facebook might be taking a step towards segmentation, as 3G Studios plans to bring a browser based first person shooter directly to your Facebook gaming addiction enjoyment.

Menubar_BA_MidTitled “Brave Arms”, 3G Studios says that they plan on bringing, “a real video game experience,” to Facebook. While full details are currently scarce, those available indicate that the casual game will feature solo as well as team play style, and will include a microtransactions based monetization component.

A quick visit to the Brave Arms official site reveals that the game will feature 3D characters set in a variety of environments. Neither one of these images, however are very descript, one featuring a (what looks like stock digital imagery) warehouse, while the other shows a snowboard mountain setting. Additionally, screenshots show a few different weapon options; dual wielding handguns, assault/sniper rifles with scopes, as well as a futuristic looking weapon which may shoot (frickin’) laser beams!

Brave Arms has a great linage behind it. Developed by 3G Studios which is responsible for the original Rock Band, and handful of PSP games, and most recently Jillian Michael’s Fitness Ultimatum 2009 for Wii. Given these past projects, it should be interesting to see how 3G will make the transition from console and portable titles to the social gaming world.

bfh_logoAnd now for the biggest question – why is 3G Studios the first on the scene with a FPS for Facebook? With EA’s massive investment in social gaming, did 3G simply beat them to the punch? To be honest, even the Brave Arms logo is not only similar to, but I’d venture close enough to tug at consumers’ vague recollection of another free-to-play, first person shooter title they might already be familiar with: EA’s Battlefield Arms. If Battlefield Heroes, or id Software/Bethesda’s Quake Live are or aren’t in development for a Facebook port, well then….fair enough, hats off to 3G Studios for getting to the market first. For now, neither company has indicated that they’re planning on making this move. Perhaps this new offering from 3G might light a few fires at a few corporate offices quite soon. As CEO James Kosta puts it, “Our new title, Brave Arms, will bring first-person shooter games to the masses.” My alternate suggestion might be, “You snooze, you lose big boys.”

Brave Arms is slated for a March release, but enthusiastic players can reserve their nickname in advance at Facebook.

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Battlefield Heroes raises prices – receives player backlash

December 2nd, 2009

The EA/DICE title Battlefield Heroes has had a bit of a long and winding road. From being ready to go, then only to be put on hold, and finally the release with a rather gradual, we’ll let anyone in beta. Back in September EA reported that the free-to-play title had passed the 2 million registered players mark, and all seemed well. Likewise, only a month prior, EA’s own senior analytics manager Rommy Ghaly revealed that on average, users spend around $20 in-game. Sounds fair, and all is fine and dandy in this free-to-play shooter n’est pas? Well….apparently not, as EA dropped the virtual bomb yesterday by announcing that the cost of in-game earned currency was going up, while at the same time, RMT (real money transaction) cost were to be lowered. In other words – earning currency by playing has fallen out of favor at EA, and cold hard cash income is coming to the forefront.

Announced on the forum, Battlefield Heroes price restructuring took effect on the 30th, and offers players incentives to purchase items using real money transactions to purchase the virtual currency BattleFunds, as opposed to the currency earned through play, Valor Points. In effect, EA has jacked up the cost of items purchased with Valor Points, while cut the cost of items purchased with BattleFunds by upwards of 50 percent.

But why? To find the answer to this, one might want to have a read through the 70+ page forum thread of players’ reactions. To say that they’re not pleased might be a bit of an understatement. However, if seen from EA’s position, they’ve got an interesting quandary on their hands now – one that can effect virtual economies if not properly planned. It seems as though EA has an imbalanced economy, in so much as players with plenty of time on their hands, ones that have acquired massive amounts of Valor Points through play, often have accounts with upwards of 20,000 points just sitting in the economy. Through not spending this currency, the in-game economy becomes unbalanced. To add to the headache, items purchased with said Valor Point are impermanent items which expire after a certain amount of time. Conversely, items purchased with BattleFunds are permanent items. In other words – those that spend real money for items have them forever, while earned currency buyers have advanced items for a pre-determined time period. The question is – will this change now upset game balance?

What’s also important to keep in mind here is that when Battlefield Heroes first arrived on the scene, they were the only free-to-play first person shooter on the market. Since then, competitors such as Nexon’s Combat Arms or Subagames’ Cross Fire have joined the free-to-play fps ranks. As expected, with the pricing change, a number of vocal players are irate, and have suggested that they’d rather move on to something else, rather than grind away for days on end to acquire items that previously only took a few hours to get. And while these vocal players often serve up empty threats, given the number of them (not counting those that have NOT voiced their opinions), a mass exodus is something that EA should be considering carefully before we see the once promising Battlefield Heroes dead in the water.

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EA’s Need for Speed franchise tops 100 million, date set for online free-to-play version

October 22nd, 2009

EA has officially sold more than 100 million copies of it’s popular racing/driving series Need for Speed. Since the first release in 1994, the NFS titles have generated over $2.7 billion in revenue for the Redwood, California based Electronic Arts. The games’ newest iteration, Need for Speed: Shift sales have topped the franchise over this milestone, placing it in the number four all time best selling games. Also included in the over 100 million units sold club are the best selling game of all time, The Sims, as well as the Mario Brother franchise, Pokemon, and Grand Theft Auto.

need-for-speed_shift_03“Few videogame franchises ever reach the 100M units mark, so this is a huge honor. We have millions of fans to thank for driving us to this milestone,” said Frank Gibeau, president, EA Games Label. “With the launch of Need for Speed SHIFT and the upcoming release of Need for Speed NITRO, we hope to continue to deliver the most entertaining, action-packed racing experiences.”

While the game has been through 15 different versions, and produced for 14 different platforms, it wasn’t until the 2003 version, Need for Speed: Underground version was released that the franchise really started to take off. Previous versions focused on supercar racing off in a mythical European countryside. The underground version made a dramatic shift to more “accessible” cars, those that we actually obtainable by racing/gaming fans around the world. And while the good times were on a roll for EA for the following two years, in 2007 with Need for Speed Pro Street, the title had sunk back to levels of mediocrity. Recognizing the potential within the franchise, but perhaps more importantly, that there were three distinct groups that played the game, EA wisely broke up the then current studio developing the titles, and brought in a fresh set of hands and eyes, and has now developed three unique product offerings. What once was one, is now in fact three: one group focuses on an action based game for mass market fans, another on pure simulation for die hard fans, and still another, arcade style play for casual racers.

Need for Speed Shift, released this past September falls into the simulation category, while the upcoming release of Need for Speed Nitro, specifically developed for the Nintendo Wii and DS, will fill the arcade pillar, falling perfectly in line with Nintendo’s top racing game of the year 2008, Mario Kart.

The third, and perhaps most interesting continuation of the Need for Speed franchise should arrive on North American shores around this time one year from now. Titled Need for Speed World Online, this version will be an online only, free-to-play title, yet again signaling EA’s firm commitment to the free-to-play, microtransactions supported gaming business model. No word yet on where the microtransactions will come into play, but based on the game play style, it’s safe to assume that car cosmetic upgrades will be available for purchase, as well as temporary performance enhancements, alla Battlefield Heroes. Closed beta testing is expected to commence in Taiwan this winter, with an official global release in Fall 2010.

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EA’s foray into free-to-play, Battlefield Heroes now counts over 2 million registered players

September 28th, 2009

Late last week EA announced that their free-to-play, or Play4Free as EA likes to dub the genre, shooter Battlefield Heroes has officially topped the 2 million registered users milestone.

bf_heroes_fall_mapOfficially launched only three months ago, the third person shooter initially attracted over 1 million players in July, suggesting that overall game growth is slowing. A member of the successful Battlefield series, Battlefield Heroes comes out of Sweden based DICE studios. BFH is a sibling of another Battlefield title currently offered in a digital distribution only format, a more traditional rendering of the genre’s World War II action themes, Battlefield 1943.

Looking to not only hold on to these 2 million registered users, as well as draw in a completely new crowd, EA/DICE will be releasing a host of new content, as well as offering users the possibility to name the new content pack. Titled ‘Heroes of the Fall’ and set against the yellow, orange, and red shades of autumn, the new map will be focused on infantry fighting in close quarters of a village with intersecting canals. This new geography will funnel players to clashes at bridges and crossways, while also allowing stealthy players to use backstreets to launch flanking and rear attack maneuvers.

A new map isn’t the only thing being introduced to the popular free-to-play, as this content update will introduce an entirely new class to the game: the Gunner, as well as improvements and upgrades to the friends system. “Along with this new map, ‘Heroes of the Fall’ includes a slew of changes including upgrades of the Gunner class and improvements to the friends system,” said Ben Cousins, General Manager, Battlefield Heroes team. “We’ve also added a brand new ranking system for the game – players can earn cool new titles for their heroes as they play – showing everyone on the battlefield how dedicated they are.”

And sticking true to their already community heavy involvement and interaction, the folks at EA/DICE are offering users the chance to name the new map. While the development team will be selecting the name, this promotion seems like a great way to get the already engaged community even more involved.

There’s been no official word on updates to the in-game item shop, but given that Battlefield Heroes is primarily advertising and microtransaction purchases supported, I’d not be surprised to see updates to this aspect of the game as well. The new Gunner class will most certainly offer players a new way to play a game that they may or may not have already played a number of times, thereby giving the user a whole new class to customize.

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Big Numbers from Big Players at Austin ‘09

September 21st, 2009

Last week’s GDC conference in Austin spilled out a ton of information not only about what’s up and coming in the gaming industry, but also the current state of affairs. One of the most interesting sessions saw EA, Turbine, K2, Linden Labs, and IMVU pony up and lay down some eye opening, if not eye popping, facts about their microtransaction and virtual goods monetization business models.

EA, perhaps the biggest and oldest games makers now involved in the freemium market reported that after initially only selling character customization options, sales were simply OK. Specifically speaking to Battlefield Heroes, once EA instituted Boost packs, these items/options quickly shot to the top of the list. Learning from this lesson, and perhaps overcoming the initial public balk, EA is now trending towards introducing these options into all of their freemium products. The focus here is on in-game advantages that drive higher conversion rates over that of purely cosmetic items. Using this formula, EA expects a 7-8 percent conversion rate in it’s freemium games, but realizes that rates may be driven down to the 5 percent range, do to the influx from social network traffic.

Turbine is looking good with what at the time raised a few eyebrows when they announced that their long time subscription title Dungeons and Dragons switched to the free-to-play model. Turning more than a few heads, Turbine execs announced that the free switch has significantly increased subscription rates, as well as concurrency rates. To be fair, Turbine is offering a subscription/freemium hybrid model, which the company believes to be the optimal solution, capturing both hard core, play all the time fans, while also hooking the players that only want to pay for what they want, and not for what they don’t. Subscription players are given a dedicated monthly allowance of virtual currency, and free players are given the option to purchase virtual currency with RMTs. Both allow players to unlock a variety of in game content.

K2, publishers of Knight Online, Red Stone, War Rock, Global MU Online, and Sword of the New World, report that every single cent of their revenues are derived from in-game item sales. Citing their key focus on community management, K2 claims an extremely high ARPU. “ARPU is high, relationships is long and persistence is everything.” Given that their revenues are items sales driven, K2 is aggressively pushing for expansion in Turkey, Brazil, and Eastern Bloc countries, areas were the freemium model has thus far been tremendously successful.

Linden Lab, publishers of perhaps one of the most well-know Virtual Worlds, Second Life stated that their annual revenue was over $80 million, and that they’re closing in on the $100 million mark. The company monetizes in one of three ways: Currency sales, premium subscriptions, and a hosting package that allows users’ 3D items to persist throughout the games. Given Second Life’s rocky, sometimes controversy filled, track record, the folks at Linden are now focusing on plugging the holes, and retaining active users as opposed to seeking out new Second Life residents. Linden Lab execs say that the largest stumbling block they’ve encountered is in-game fraud. Remember, Second Life allows users to create their own items for sale within the game, sometimes leading to a removal of currency from the virtual economy. The company considers this fraud/loss risk a basic price of doing business.

Rounding out the top 5 on parade at the GDC Virtual Worlds Monetization talk was IMVU. The firm says that 80 percent of their revenues come from sales of virtual items, and 20 percent from advertising. While 20 percent is a sizeable contribution, IMVU says that this revenue is only possible due to it’s expansive virtual world. They stressed importance on non-paying users, as they add to a large community, and encourage others to be drawn in. Comparing themselves to eBay, IMVU execs cited it’s catalogue of over 2.5 million virtual items made by 20,000 users. The top designers of virtual items within IMVU properties annually earn over $100,000 annually, however, the IMVU market functions on the long tail model, whereby the top 10 catalogue items only account for .2 percent of all sales.

Thanks to Ada Chen for outstanding notetaking.

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Free-to-play home Outspark inks deal with Electronic Arts

September 2nd, 2009

The free-to-play/microtransactions supported industry added another major feather to it’s cap yesterday when the deal between publisher Outspark and gaming Goliath EA was announced. San Francisco based Outspark already has a number of successful free-to-play casual/MMO hybrid games that regularly attract 5 million plus unique monthly visitors, and has steadily been gathering steam. One of Outspark’s hallmarks is that their games tend to be highly social and easily customized by the end user.

dg_bi_whiteDubbed Dance Groove Online, this new title will be the first fruits of EA’s purchase last December of Seoul, Korea based J2M. This will be J2M/EA’s first western market introduction of the firms several casual online games. Instantly familiar to fans of Dance Dance Revolution and EA’s own Boogie, with the exception of the dance pad and/or wii Remote will be replaced with an 8 key keyboard layout. Not quite the physical workout, but still the same in rhythm fun. And EA isn’t joking around about making this title a success. According to the official website, in-game tracks aren’t simply studio produced pieces, but rather fully licensed tracks from real-world, bid deal house and club artists including one of my personal all-time favorites, Colette. Still in closed beta, Dance Groove Online should see it’s public appearance later this autumn.

Outspark CEO Susan Choe comments, “EA’s scale and strong heritage combined with Outspark’s online platform and unparalleled capability to provide real-time feedback and enhanced customization will bring unrivaled fun to millions of gamers as they play and connect in real time. Our players and EA fans will be eager to get their hands on this game.”

Outspark will be responsible for localizing the game, something they’ve already been successful at, and staying true to their own philosophy, they’ll be adding a host of design, social networking, and customization features. As operators of the title, Outspark will also be responsible for additional back office operations including support, marketing, community and customer service. And naturally, as it will be an Outspark operated online gaming destination, Outspark’s in-game currency system, Sparkcash will be utilized to customize the game experience.

An interesting proposition for sure, and yet more evidence that EA is clearly investing in the casual/free-to-play market. If the Battlefield Heroes numbers are on the money (pun intended), EA is clearly leading the pack of major ‘old-school’ gaming companies in these new monetization markets.

2009 hasn’t seen much in the way of new music and/or dance based titles, so the question begs to be asked, why this format, and why now? Granted EA is teeing up The Beatles Rock Band, and Activision Blizzard and readying Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, and DJ Hero, so perhaps this is a pre-fire to launch interest again? Either way, it’s a great vote of confidence for Outspark, and yet another free-to-play title to count in the EA arsenal.

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On average, Battlefield Heroes users spend $20 in game

August 13th, 2009

EA/DICE’s great experiment with free-to-play/microtransactions supported gaming seems to be paying off. In a recent interview with IGN, senior analytics manager Rommy Ghaly dished out some outstanding numbers and stats surrounding the browser based f2p title.

battlefieldheroes20094While Battlefield Heroes has suffered some production and launch setbacks, it seems as though holding fire has paid off well for EA. Since the launch of the closed beta back in February, the bright and shiny “Play Now” button has been clicked over 40 million times. Battlefield Heroes officially counts over 1.5 million registered users playing from over 133 countries across the globe. However, the majority of these users come from just ten countries – the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Sweden, Russia, Canada, Poland and Brazil.

Battlefield Heroes has two unique forms of in-game currency. Battlefunds are used to upgrade characters’ clothing options, as well as provide temporary advancement points, such as added experience and/or valor points boosts. Battlefunds are those that can be purchased via RMT’s. Conversely, Valor points may not be purchased outside the game, and are the currency used for functional in-game items such as new weapons and special consumable attributes. According to Ghaly, 76 percent of all Battlefunds are spent on character customizations, clearly indicating users are willing to spend to make their character unique. The hot ticket Battlefield Heroes items? The Kommendant’s Coat, the Special Forces Officer Cap, Maverik’s Sunglasses, the Elite Camo Trousers and the Marksman’s Honor. The remaining 24 percent of Battlefunds cash spent are primarily aimed at the 30 day xp boost, the 1 day xp boost, and the 30 day Valor points boost. While these items do not provide any pay-to-pwn advantage, they do help players earn hero abilities and purchase better weapons.

And now for the math. Given that Ghaly confirmed that Battlefield Heroes has over 1.5 million registered users, and that these registered users spend, on average, $20 on in-game microtransactions, that would line EA’s coffers with a whopping $30 million in microtransactions revenue.

Perhaps I’m missing something here, but I’ve yet to find any other data supporting one single title bringing home this much bacon solely from microtransactions. Oh, and let’s not forget that Battlefield Heroes offers users a server rental feature that allows them to play private games with their friends, i.e. additional revenue streams.

EA has clearly indicated that they are very much indeed interested in microtransactions, having implemented them in both the Tiger Woods franchise, as well as Madden 10. If Battlefield Heroes continues to be a success for the software giant, could we see even more of the free-to-play type action coming out of Redwood City?

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EA reports (almost) positive cash earnings – sees dramatic rise in digital distribution and virtual goods sales

August 5th, 2009

Electronic Arts seems to have outwitted their critics and come very close to a break even, and almost, dare I say it, a positive cash flow. Posted yesterday, EA’s Q1 financial results demonstrate a dramatic improvement in the coffers, reporting a net loss of only $6 million. Granted, 6 million clams is nothing to jump for joy over, especially when it’s $6 million in the red, but when compared to year-over-year results, it’s more than enough to get excited about. Last years Q1 results showed EA with a $135 million loss. Keeping $129 million in the bank account is a tremendous success for the Redwood, California firm.

ea_logoEA’s first fiscal quarter revenues peaked at $816 million, a dramatic 34 percent increase of 2008’s $609 million. Industry analysts had projected a meager take of only $729.5 million. EA’s digital distribution and virtual goods sales are a major contributor to the over projected earnings take, bringing in approximately $124 million, a noteable 38 percent increase year-over-year.

Putting some wind in EA’s sales (literally) are a string of successful titles and their surrounding executions. Compared to the quarter ending in June 2008, in 2009 EA was the number one publisher in both North America and Europe, with four out of the top ten games. Four of EA’s titles won Best of E3 awards: Mass Effect 2 won best RPG, Fight Night Round 4 took the Best Sports Game award, Star Wars: The Old Republic snagged Best PC Game, and Left 4 Dead won Best Online Mulitplayer. Additionally, while a perennial favorite, and old standby, the Sims franchise was a major factor in EA’s revenue streams this year. Holding the top selling retail sales title in Europe and North America for this past quarter, the Sims 3 moved 3.7 million copies out the door. And last but certainly not least, EA Sports Active helped the company garner a 21 percent market share of the wii market in North America and 13 percent in Europe. Having sold over 1.8 million copies, EA Sports Active is now the company’s best selling wii title to date.

“Good execution delivered better-than-expected financial results in the first quarter,” said John Riccitiello, Chief Executive Officer. “We are very pleased with the success of both The Sims 3 and EA SPORTS Active.”

Looking ahead, briefly discussed the upcoming Tiger Woods PGA Tour title which seeks to drive revenues from the sale of game subscriptions and virtual goods sales, as opposed to the one-time-only-buy-it-in-a-box method. With that said, and keeping EA’s open experimentations with the free-to-play/microtransactions supported model (think Battlefield Heroes) in mind, company president John Riccitiello commented in an earnings call yesterday that EA’s not 100 percent onboard. “A lot of people believe that microtransactions is going to be the lead business model in the US. I’m not so sure about that. We are seeing good microtransaction results on Pogo, but I do think there is a difference between the way that consumers buy and consume content in Asia.”

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Stand and be counted Soldier – Battlefield Heroes goes open beta

June 26th, 2009

It’s been a long, and I do mean long, time coming, but it’s now official: No more beta keys needed to get in on the cartoonish Battlefield Heroes fun.  While EA chose to ignore the traditional press release route, the announcement was confirmed on the Battlefield Heroes forum, stating that the Security Layer is gone, no need for a beta key, and the NDA has been lifted.  W00t!

Battlefield Heroes Play NowEA’s quietly been letting more and more players in on the browser based, free-to-play fun for over a year now, and the lack of press release may suggest that EA learned a lesson or two from the Quake Live mad dash, people locked out, potential customer lost fiasco that occurred when the other popular free-to-play online title went live.

While we’ve covered the ongoing trials and tribulations of actually making it to public launch day, a quick refresher.  Battlefield Heroes is one of the growing number of free-to-play titles that NoCal gaming giant Electronic Arts has been slowly adding to their offerings.  Loosely based on DICE’s highly successful Battlefield series, this cartoonish fighter pits two opposing sides against each other, with a wide variety of fighting options.  Tanks, planes, heck, riding on plane wings, it’s all available.

The game is supported through in-game advertising and character customization microtransactions.  The ads appear only in pre-roll format, and the microtransactions are both reasonably priced and feature enough customizations to make even the staunchest of ‘I’m not paying for it’ microtransaction haters have a smile, and perhaps a click through to purchase.  Initially, EA and DICE reported that microtransaction items would only take the form of cosmetic upgrades, but it appears as though “convenience” items have now been added to the list of available goodies.  While I didn’t see anything that would provide an overwhelming boost in performance, it’s entirely possible that these items are there to help speed those along that either do not or can not play as long as other Battlefield Heroes players.

By opening the game slowly and fine-tuning this, that and the other firmly signals EA’s commitment to this project.  All too often in today’s free-to-play market, we see a title brought to market that may be fraught with bugs and serious design flaws, with developers intentions to address them and fix them as soon as possible.  EA/DICE have done this to some extent, by delaying the public opening by over a year, but at the same time, more or less letting anyone who wanted to play in the door with a wink, a nod, and a not-so-hard-to-obtain beta key.

Now that the doors are wide open, it’s time for the rest of us to sit back and see just how much appeal Battlefield Heroes has to the general populace.  That, and head shot a few n00bs in the process.  See ya on the Battlefield!

http://www.battlefieldheroes.com/

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EA furthers its commitment to browser based gaming. Free to play Tiger Woods?

June 1st, 2009

Late last week, EA furthered their commitment and interest in providing gamers with a ‘play anywhere, anytime’ experience by announcing that the newest installment in the Tiger Woods PGA Tour experience will forego the physical disk and instead be available through a browser.  Coming this Autumn, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online will feature all the goodies we’ve come to expect from this leading golf simulator, and will naturally zero installation time, zippo discs, no additional controllers, and be available anywhere you’ve got a browser and an internet connection (think home, office, or even the waiting lounge at busy airports).

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“Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online is for anyone who loves golf and is on-the-go,” said Executive Producer Mike Taramykin. “Whether you have ten minutes on your PC in the office, or hours on your Mac at home, this is a golf game that makes time for you. With Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online, golf lovers can satisfy their golf fix anytime.”

As CEO John Riccitiello recently told the WSJ, “The console business at best appeals to 100 million people,” this entry into the browser based gaming arena could just be what EA’s in need of to combat flailing game sales, quarterly losses, and subsequent staff layoffs.  Clearly, EA now has a much larger audience in it’s sights, and establishing a reoccurring revenue stream via subscriptions, possibly for premium members,  allows the gaming giants to forecast revenues long term, as opposed to projected one time sales numbers at $60 a pop.

tiger2With regards to the free-to-play model, the idle speculation chatter has been running wild with rumors pointing to a “multi-tiered” subscription model, thereby implying that some of the games features may be tucked away for premium customers.  It’s previously been reported that EA has flirted with a free-to-play version of Tiger Woods; could this be a confirmation of said reports?  The site’s closed beta signup landing page claims that the title is “Free to play during the beta period”, and who’s to say that this might not just carry over during the initial ‘try before you buy’ period?    I could imagine the front 9 at TPC Sawgrass being free, and anything there after would require a subscription.  While there’s no direct implication that the entry level play would be free-to-play, given the time line, and some of  EA’s other (Battlefield Heroes, anyone?) browser based, play anywhere, anytime games, the concept shouldn’t necessarily be ruled out.  If we take BFH as an example, one might even be able to go so far as to say that that Callaway cap that gives you a +1 power advantage, might not go for 100 EA points, or $1 or $2.

And while the vast majority of EA’s revenues are still derived from physical game disc sales, testing the online social networking waters with a title like Tiger Woods PGA Tour could open a whole new realm of possibilities for EA.  If the company were to try login information into something like Facebook Connect, whereby players could challenge facebook friends to a round at Pebble Beach, keep track of score cards (and appropriately be able to post them to their profile for bragging rights), and even run full blown Tour challenges, well then heck, I’ve already got an opera singer buddy that I’m ready to challenge.

tiger1But can’t I do all of this already?  Yes and No.  Granted, I’m not entirely certain that I personally am ready to give up my projector, 5.1 surround sound system, and comfy couch to enjoy one of my favorite games, but the play anywhere, anytime, and against my facebook friends browser based version does have a certain appeal.  And who’s to say that we can’t have the best of both worlds?  I’ll fully admit that each year when the new disc version of Tiger or Madden becomes available, I pre-order and generally have it sitting in my PS3 a day or two after it’s release.  I’ve already pre-ordered Tiger 10, and the demo has been played many a night.  If EA’s smart (and I have no doubt they are), I’d figure that they’d be working on a fair and balanced way to cross promote the two games.  Meaning, perhaps I can carry over my golfer’s attributes from my console to the browser version, or maybe I earn some extra spending points for the console version from my long drive score at Sehshan.

I certainly don’t see EA abandoning the physical disc/console experience anytime soon, but rather, see this move towards browser based gaming as an entirely new division/direction for the company.  The way I see it, EA is taking more and more bold steps in this direction, and really leading the pack in experimentation.  Battlefield Heroes is the casual shooter experiment, and Tiger Woods is the anytime, anywhere sports simulator experiment.  Both are being used as measuring sticks, and will determine the amount of resources that will be dedicated to future projects/titles.  Madden 11 Online?  We’ll see…..

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