EA Isn’t About “Offline Experiences” Anymore

We’ve had our fair share of always-online scares this year, especially after the whole Xbox One stunt that was pulled at E3 all the way back in June. In terms of software, we’ve seen some prime examples that demonstrate why we aren’t ready for always-online systems yet, or rather how the companies trying to enforce them aren’t prepared enough to actually offer a functioning service. One such publisher is EA, who earlier this year suffered during the release of SimCity.

As you may remember, the launch was absolutely terrible. With players being forced to connect to servers in order to play, launch day was havoc, with server overloads and frequent disconnects. The game was virtually unplayable for most of the launch week, prompting some gamers to forcibly acquire refunds through various channels. However, the publisher has not let this get in the way of their business plans, which paint an always-online picture.

EA COO Peter Moore has stated in an interview that EA is no longer concerned with the offline experience, and will not ship a game that is not online.

“We don’t ship a game at EA that is offline. It just doesn’t happen, we don’t deliver offline experiences.”

Of course, this does not mean that soon to be released titles will fall under this new strategy. Battlefield 4 and FIFA are primes examples of games that still contain offline modes, but EA’s focus on multiplayer titles such as Titanfall, as well as the broadening of existing multiplayer systems in the Battlefield and FIFA franchises could be a glimpse at what the future holds in store for us from the publisher.

Will they choose to go always-online? Not just yet, I don’t think so, but it certainly is interesting to see where EA is likely headed. So we have a publisher that only publishers games that will be franchises, and now this. What next?

Name: Alessandro Barbosa
Location: Johannesburg
Position: Ex-Editor, News

Alessandro has published 1939 posts. Read all of Alessandro's posts.

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