EA bringing micro-transactions to all future games

Written by David Hing

February 28, 2013 | 17:10

Tags: #business #dead-space #microtransactions #money

Companies: #ea

EA has declared that all of its future games will feature micro-transactions.

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Seeking Alpha reports that EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen outlined how the company perceived micro-transactions as the next significant piece of the business.

'We're building into all our games the ability to pay for things along the way, either to get to a higher level to buy a new character, to buy a truck, a gun, whatever it might be,' he said. 'Consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of business.'

He also explained how in order to set up this system, EA needs to have a strong back-end system to process everything, adding that if you process credit cards for every single small payment, 'you'll get eaten alive'. The publisher is bringing all of its payment infrastructure that it had originally outsourced in house in order to establish stability.

The speech made no suggestion however that the implementation of micro-transactions would have any affect on the overall price of its games and Jorgensen added that the company will continue to support its current retail model.

'In no way do we want to see the retail channel disappear,' he added. 'We think that's an important part of the overall industry and we want to keep that a vibrant channel for us long term as well.'

Most recently, EA has experimented with a micro-transaction feature in Dead Space 3. Payments can be made to buy crafting materials that players would otherwise collect in the game world, a system which has proved unpopular with fans of the series.

EA has however seen success in micro-transaction implementation in titles including the FIFA and Battlefield series.
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