EA says, “Go ahead…Pirate it.”

Jun 24, 2009 by Dan Taylor    4 Comments    Posted under: Games, Technology

Certainly not a statement you’d normally hear from a top executive of one of the worlds’ largest games publishers, and certainly not from the man at the top, CEO John Riccitiello.  But low and behold, that’s exactly what he’s done. “By the way, if there are any pirates you’re writing for, please encourage them to pirate FIFA Online, NBA Street Online, Battleforge, Battlefield Heroes…” he revealed in a recent interview with IndustryGamers. “If they would just pirate lots of it I’d love them. [laughs] Because what’s in the middle of the game is an opportunity to buy stuff.”  In other words, what Riccitiello’s saying here is that the pirated disc is now more like the gravy and silverware, whereas the meat and potatoes of the title are contained online.

Now certified as a genuine success for EA, the Sims 3 was leaked weeks before the game saw store shelves, and included a note inside the file not to connect the game online.  The same note encouraged people to buy the game if they liked it.  Now call me cynical, but there’s something in the back of my mind that just screams ‘guerilla marketing’.  If that is in fact the case, I stand and salute you EA.  Well played.  Even Riccitiello is willing to give a comical nod to the concept, stating, “You identified our secret marketing campaign!  That was a very large scale – concentrated on Poland and China – demo program.”  Demo or not, it put the new title in a lot of hands, and generated one heckuva buzz that couldn’t be bought.

While the Sims 3 physical disk does include anti-piracy measures, a large portion of the game isn’t even on the disc.  Upon installation, users are presented with the proverbial ‘flip the switch to bring this badboy online’ option, upon which they then must download a massive 3gb ‘update’ in order to obtain the full experience. “A huge amount of the gameplay is an overlay for the community, where you are sampling assets created by other people. So for the pirate consumer, they don’t get the second town, they don’t get all the extra content, and they don’t get the community,” Riccitiello explained.

If any of this is ringing vaguely familiar, let me remind you of one tiny little giant coming out of Korea a few years back, Nexon.  Software piracy was, and continues to be a huge issue in the Asian market.  A few years back, a few crafty publishers took a wild and crazy idea, and made it a (rapidly becoming) global phenomenon: the free-to-play model.  In other words, publishers were sick of seeing diminishing revenues, all the while the word of mouth success of their titles were going through the roof.  The problem?  Piracy.  The solution?  Give the game away, and charge for access and/or items to be used within the game.

EA seems to be adopting, at least in part, a similar credo.  The Sims 3 is all about creating, downloading and purchasing new virtual items, something that fits in quite well with this theory, and it’s been all but confirmed that the NoCal giant has plans to turn the Tiger Woods golfing game franchise into a subscription based product.  Also, note that Riccitiello casually applauded the pirating of FIFA Online, NBA Street Online, Battleforge, and Battlefield Heroes – all free-to-play titles.  How does a gaming company lose money pirated free games?  They don’t.

“I’m a longtime believer that we’re moving to selling services that are disc-enabled as opposed to packages that have bolt-ons…. So the point I’m making is, yes I think that’s the answer [to piracy].” Riccitiello told IndustryGamers. “And here’s the trick: it’s not the answer because this foils a pirate, but it’s the answer because it makes the service so valuable that in comparison the packaged good is not. So you can only deliver these added services to a consumer you recognize and know… So I think the truth is we’ve out-serviced the pirate.”

Is EA about to just start giving games away and go 100% free-to-play/microtransactions?  I highly doubt it, as their physical disc-in-a-box sales are still thriving, but what this does signal is the first major US based player to actively step up to the plate, acknowledge microtransactions as a viable and successful business model, and unabashedly take steps forward in this direction.  If this method is even half as successful as it’s been in the Asian market…well, let’s just say EA’s current stock price of $20.84 a share could be one heckuva value.