Schappert clarifies EA's sweeping DLC and online strategy

During this week's quarterly earning's report, EA COO John Schappert answered an investor question with a somewhat vague but potentially far-reaching comment regarding the publisher's future strategy for implementing online functionality into its games. "In fiscal 2011 [from April 31, 2010 to March 31, 2011], every one of EA's releases will have an online component, both downloadable content and online play," Schappert said, according to a VG247 report. CFO Eric Brown then cited Mass Effect 2's Cerberus Network as the company's "most recent example" of how this plan might manifest.

The obvious question: Does the plan apply to all platforms, including Wii, DS, PSP, and mobile? Schappert clarified to Joystiq today: "My statement wasn't in reference to any specific platform as most of our titles are multiplatform and have different features per platform. Though you can expect our PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 titles to have very robust online features. Of course, depending on the title, this may extend to other platforms as well."

While this clarification is not exactly the firestarter statement one might interpret from Schappert's original comment, the plan still raises concerns -- based on recent experiences -- that EA games' online components could continue to induce headaches so long as they are tied to EA.com accounts and the issues that have arisen as EA has increased its DLC efforts. If the plan is to include online components in all EA games in the future, then the wrinkles need to be ironed out of Project Ten Dollar now.

Reader Comments (60)

No, he couldn't. I thought he made that quite clear in his post.

Most people didn't have a problem. If you had played any EA game from the last couple of years, it wasn't a problem at all. Most of the problems came from people having multiple EA accounts, and email addresses. All the instructions were on the card, and when you first boot up the game, it asks you for the code.

The new armor/shotgun didn't work for me at first. I had to redownload it in order to get it to start working. Other than that and the bit of lag loading it gives me before I can load my game up, it's a p good system.

Well, Sgt_quackers, if you're legitimately asking...

The big issue some people had was that if you put the code in on your EA account that was not tied to your gamertag, you were pretty much screwed. The code is one-time use, so once it's used it is tied to that account forever, and if you tie your XBL gamertag to an EA account you can't change it through their web interface.

EA has been requiring people to sign up with EA accounts for things for years, they just never really used them for anything visible to the user before. As a result, a lot of people have multiple EA accounts, and when logging in to enter the code didn't remember which of those accounts their gamertag was applied to, and put the code in on the wrong one.

I didn't run into this, but I could see how it would happen.

"No, he couldn't. I thought he made that quite clear in his post."

Well, maybe you should've explained it to him like Vcize did.

"Most of the problems came from people having multiple EA accounts, and email addresses."

I did.

Wow. I guess this will NEVER happen, since the first day of their next fiscal year is NON-EXISTENT. Good try, nonetheless.

Tacked on multiplayer takes away from the single player experience unless you have a separate team doing multiplayer. With the dev cycles mostly at the 1-2 year length, there isn't enough time for a single studio to make both components great. Expect either more games with good SP but with generic MP or games that are lackluster in both modes.

Nice job Dale, what other personal attacks will you be making based upon incorrect assumptions. Try adding to the conversation in the future rather than just being a douche.

Exactly the same pain in the ass it was to handle in Dragon Age.

Hurray, more incongruent processes on future EA games to go through to download a new game prop.

Look...I think everyone knows that the purpose for having the Cerberes network is so that EA can get money from used games sales. I mean, the code comes with the game and can only be acivated once and is tied to the gamertag/ea account. If you then trade the game in and someone buys it used, they will have to pay $15 to EA in order to access the DLC..which they then have to purchase on top of the $15 access fee. It is EXTREMELY shady business if you ask me....but is a sign of the times to come. I mean, what is to say that EA won't start asking for subsciptions for all their games in the future...like you have to pay them $15/month in order to access your DLC and purchase future DLC.

Schappert clarifies EA's sweeping DLC and online strategy

Reader Comments (60)

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 2:14PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 2:16PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 2:19PM Vcize said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 2:26PM Wiizer said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 2:31PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 2:28PM uncaho said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 2:30PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 3:36PM stoned99 said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 8:28PM arkweld said

Posted: Feb 11th 2010 6:53PM Otakuon said

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