Gamers Uncomfortable with Change, Says EA's Peter Moore

Esmeralda Portillo

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Gamers Uncomfortable with Change, Says EA's Peter Moore



EA's COO Peter Moore believes core gamers don't like the change that comes with industry growth.

Peter Moore, the Chief Operating Officer for Electronic Arts, recently provided some insight into why he believes gamers react negatively to new models in the game industry, like multi-platform experiences and free-to-play games.

"I think the challenge sometimes is that the growth of gaming... there's a core that doesn't quite feel comfortable with that." He doesn't get frustrated, "... but I scratch my head at times and say, 'Look. These are different times.' And different times usually evoke different business models. Different consumers come in. They've got different expectations. And we can either ignore them or embrace them, and at EA, we've chosen to embrace them."

He does become a little nostalgic, "It's not the way it used to be. I used to put my disc in the tray or my cartridge in the top, and I'd sit there and play. And all of these young people coming in, or God forbid, these old people coming into gaming!"

Back in 2011 EA announced [http://megagames.com/news/ea-adopts-games-service-model] they were taking a more offensive approach to their business strategy, which was dubbed as the 'games-as-a-service' business model. Essentially EA would continue to work rigorously on games even after they launched, to provide customers a continuos and deeper experience to their titles--and Moore has been a strong advocate of this approach. A part of that model entailed more DLC, free-to-play and mobile games, and microtransactions.

Moore also expressed how with the evolving nature of the game industry, the company continues to adapt by reading and responding accordingly to customer feedback. In fact, during E3 Moore was on Twitter reading fan reactions to the EA press conference, "Half the people loved the fact that we were showing well into the future. And then the other 50 percent were basically calling BS because it was conceptual prototypes (which is how we build games, by the way). So you're kind of damned if you do and damned if you don't."

Despite the core demographic's fear of change, Moore is very optimistic of what the future entails for EA and the games industry.

Source: GamesIndustry [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-07-01-core-gamers-uncomfortable-with-industry-growth-moore]

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Floppertje

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No Mr. Moore, we have no problem with change. We have a problem with being lied to, being squeezed for cash and we have a problem with companies like EA and Ubisoft treating us like we're completely stupid. THAT is what we have a problem with.
 

Eri

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I would actually agree gamers have a problem with change. But that doesn't mean that's the issue EA is facing.

It's not.
 

Aiddon_v1legacy

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whatever Moore; I would believe this sentiment if you had actually done anything to start catering to other demographics so you could expand the gaming audience. Currently you're just circling the drain, pandering to the same audience you always have and if anything are becoming MORE exclusive. Not a good idea for any business.
 

Sigmund Av Volsung

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Dec 11, 2009
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Rather, "Gamers are more uncomfortable with an incompetent COO in charge of one of the largest publishers".

You can't just blame negative reactions to horrendous business practices on "The Times They Are A-Changin'", that's bulls**t. As soon as you guys stop pulling stuff like Dungeon Keeper Mobile and treat both the free-to-play model and the consumer with respect, then you might be able to comment on people's reactions to these new models.

Also nice photo. Very "The Devil's Advocate". I wonder who would be the Keanu Reeves of EA.
 

Hero in a half shell

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Damn. Poor me.

I guess I just don't bother to move with the times.

Isn't it a shame that I prefer my games not to be still ridden with bugs 7 months after the Dev team were forced by public outrage to acknowledge they released an unbelievably buggy game (Battlefield 4 [http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/forum/threadview/2955065670203355766/]) after, I might add, they blamed beta testers for playing the game wrong when those sorts of bugs were reported!

Isn't it a shame prefer my games to be actually playable on release, not kicking me out of the server connection because of faults on the developers side - a constant connection that the developers lied to us was necessary. (Simcity [http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/150598-drm-deceit-simcity-doesnt-need-to-be-always-online-says-maxis-developer])

Isn't it a shame I don't agree with adding deliberately frustrating and time consuming game mechanics to provide a lesser experience for your customers, then providing the ability to pay real money to remove the roadblocks that are only hampering my enjoyment of the game because EA placed them there (Plants verses Zombies 2 [http://www.usgamer.net/articles/why-im-not-playing-plants-vs-zombies-2])

I guess my desire for morally and ethically upright practices in the videogame industry is just because I don't like change.
 

fix-the-spade

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Back in 2011 EA announced [http://megagames.com/news/ea-adopts-games-service-model] they were taking a more offensive approach to their business strategy,
Offensive being the operative word.

It's a shame that Mr Moore evidently interprets the words change and growth the same way most of us see the words exploit and abuse. I suppose it should be obvious that as games grow to rival the other 'big' entertainment industries they would adopt the same aggressive and exploitative behaviour towards their customers and creators, but it's still disappointing.
 

Vivi22

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Floppertje said:
No Mr. Moore, we have no problem with change. We have a problem with being lied to, being squeezed for cash and we have a problem with companies like EA and Ubisoft treating us like we're completely stupid. THAT is what we have a problem with.
Exactly. Considering the changes he names core gamers being uncomfortable with are changes which, when embraced by EA, are little more than shameless cash grabs, barely functioning pieces of software, or suffer from any number of other issues I could name right now, it's not change that's the problem. It's companies that utilize these new models in the most shamelessly exploitative ways imaginable.

In other words, the problem is EA.
 

WarpZone

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I love how nobody even takes EA's PR lies seriously at this point anymore. EA makes a statement like "gamers fear change," and everybody hears "EA fears change, blames gamers."

Worst Company In America, etc. etc.

Oh, wait. No, I'm sorry. My bad. I get it now. EA's PR statement apparently assumes that the people who pay sixty bucks every year for the Madden roster updates are gamers.

Captcha: Choco Lazer Boom. I wish, Captcha. I wish. There's no way EA would support a game with a title like Choco Lazer Boom. It sounds too much like it might be fun. You must be thinking of Nintendo. Or possibly Dejobaan.
 

RicoADF

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Jun 2, 2009
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Hero in a half shell said:
Damn. Poor me.

I guess I just don't bother to move with the times.

Isn't it a shame that I prefer my games not to be still ridden with bugs 7 months after the Dev team were forced by public outrage to acknowledge they released an unbelievably buggy game (Battlefield 4 [http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/forum/threadview/2955065670203355766/]) after, I might add, they blamed beta testers for playing the game wrong when those sorts of bugs were reported!

Isn't it a shame prefer my games to be actually playable on release, not kicking me out of the server connection because of faults on the developers side - a constant connection that the developers lied to us was necessary. (Simcity [http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/150598-drm-deceit-simcity-doesnt-need-to-be-always-online-says-maxis-developer])

Isn't it a shame I don't agree with adding deliberately frustrating and time consuming game mechanics to provide a lesser experience for your customers, then providing the ability to pay real money to remove the roadblocks that are only hampering my enjoyment of the game because EA placed them there (Plants verses Zombies 2 [http://www.usgamer.net/articles/why-im-not-playing-plants-vs-zombies-2])

I guess my desire for morally and ethically upright practices in the videogame industry is just because I don't like change.
Considering EA wants to push out new games every 6-12 months and then close them down 24months or less later by turning off the servers they require to run I can see why little things such as quality and value for the customer are seen as unnecessary. No wonder EA is upset, us gamers are stuck on the past holding onto old ideas such as respect and quality rather than accepting that were just walking wallets that should shut up and eat their shit.

/sarcasm if it wasn't clear enough :p
 

mirage202

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No Mr Moore, we just don't like how you and EA want to change things. We have nothing against change, we love change, we love the new ideas and games it can bring.

What we hate is the way you and yours dictate what that change should be and no matter how hard you try to force it, we still wont like it.
 

balladbird

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gamers do indeed dislike change, many to an unhealthy extent, and they cling to their nostalgic yesteryear like a tick to a deer, but you're gonna have a hard time trying to spin the disdain gamers gave for your policies as being the fault of the gamers.

Nice try, though.
 

NuclearKangaroo

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"gamers get so angry when we milk them with yearly releases, on disk DLC, microtransactions and unfinished products at launch. i dont get it, i make millions upon millions of dollars, shouldnt they be happy for me?"
 

The Artificially Prolonged

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I like change, good change mind not DK mobile, SimCity online or Sims minus features that where present in previous games type change. But I guess I'm just old fashioned apparently. Although I imagine the only change EA is concerned about is the change in my back pocket.
 

el_kabong

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Yep...because the one thing you should always do as a business is blame your customers. What's next week on Jimquisition?
 

Micah Weil

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*glances at the endless stream of copy-paste games that sell millions...looks at his own DOS game collection that gets more play than his collection of recent games*

...I think I can see this man's point.
 

XenoScifi

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Floppertje said:
No Mr. Moore, we have no problem with change. We have a problem with being lied to, being squeezed for cash and we have a problem with companies like EA and Ubisoft treating us like we're completely stupid. THAT is what we have a problem with.
And this pretty must sums it up.

I personally LOVE f2p models. There are several F2P models that are working now. I would list reasons why some of these f2p games are working, but something tells me that anybody needing this insight probably wont be reading or care.

/salute
 

NuclearKangaroo

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EA is like a twisted mirror reflection of Valve

Valve has mastered the idea of "games as service" with titles like TF2 and counter strike going on, and on, and on, well after release, thanks to free update and timely patches NOT fucking paid DLC that only fragments the playerbase and kills the game earlier

the free to play models of Valve's games are always fair and provide the free user with almost as much if not the same amount of content as the paying user, they also make paying for virtual hats fun

hell Valve has even made microtransactions in non-free to play games bearable, look as CS:GO, part of the money from microtransactions goes to fund tournaments, users can upload their own weapon skins to be approved by the community and they get a cut out of every sale, and normal users can sell and trade their cosmetics, so even if you are not into the gut hats business you can still get something out of it