The studio acknowledges that they are considering launching a similar service for Battlefield 3 and other games, but have no plans to launch any such service anytime soon.
The video game industry is a constantly evolving, highly competitive place at the moment and has been so for quite some time. The industry has been growing at an exponential rate year-over-year with many studios posting record figures last year.
With no fixed limits or guidelines in a majority of matters relating to the industry there is constant innovation from the publishers in ways to open up multiple streams of revenue from a single title.
Downloadable Content Packs or DLCs are one example, where developers and publishers release fresh content for games in order to keep players interested. These DLCs often come at a price and voila, a new stream of revenue.
However, Activision changed the ball game when they introduced a social networking service titled, Call of Duty Elite. The service is free for anyone who purchases a copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 but the premium subscription requires users to pay
a little extra.
In return, the premium subscriber gets exclusive content and early access to the game’s new map packs. EA seem to be interested in a similar service and are considering the possibility of launching it in the future.
“I think it’s fair to say that we’re looking at that.” Confessed Patrick Soderlund, the EA Games label head, before continuing, “Like all other companies, we’re looking at how we can maximize our investment in this and get the most out of our investment
and get more people playing this product.”
“That may take us to different places, but were not really talking about where that is yet.”
EA has not been secretive about their admiration of the Elite service with a number of high-profile executives from the publisher openly praising both the concept and the implementation of the idea.
EA have already opened their own forum and service for Battlefield 3, which is currently free to use for players, but one can expect a premium version to be released in the future if one was to go on how the company wants to “get the most out of their investment.”
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