Although the free-to-play trend is becoming increasingly evident, Electronic Arts believes that its model is much more effective.

Unless there is an unexpected twist in the script, EA Sports FC 25’s biggest source of revenue will be the sale of packs in Ultimate Team mode. Microtransactions have long been Electronic Arts’ golden goose, which raises the logical question: with such a business model, wouldn’t it be better if the game moved away from annual releases and became a free-to-play game? The developer gave a straight answer and assured us that no big changes were on the horizon.

Electronic Arts does not support a free-to-play model

The company’s answer was given in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport. “We’ve encountered scepticism in the market about free-to-play. When players immerse themselves in these experiences, they quickly realize that if they want to fully enjoy them or be competitive, they don’t have to be completely free,” explained the person in charge of the EA Sports FC brand. Vice President (David Jackson). For him, the idea is to offer more value for a “relatively low price.” “Ten years ago, the retail price of a ‘Triple A’ game was $60.”

“Despite inflation, the price is still about the same today”.

“We update the game daily, and now [EA Sports FC 24] has over 300 days of content that you either spend or you don’t. You don’t have to pay to get in-game items. Players prefer to know that value, which they get for spending money in the game, as a ‘free to play’ experience, where the exchange value is not so clear,” explained the head of EA Sports. In this sense, and although they are open to changing their opinion “if the fans ask for a different way of doing business”, the developer defends that their model is the one that provides the best service to fans of football games.

“We’ve seen our competitors in the industry move towards ‘free-to-play’ games, as Konami has done. But they haven’t yet succeeded. This is partly due to our reliance on the EA Sports experience, which is authentic, innovative, and high-quality. At the moment, we don’t think things will change,” the company explained. Also, although not mentioned in the interview, it should also be noted that the series sells millions of copies every year. It may not be the primary source of income, but it has never stopped being a massive slice of the pie.

When compared to the rest of the industry, Electronic Arts is in a very unique position. Their dominance over football games is almost undisputed. This gives them more room for maneuver in making decisions. We’ll see how long things stay this way. Although competing against EA Sports FC 25 is an almost impossible task, the promising football game ‘UFL’ is scheduled to make its final debut this year. In addition, FIFA has announced that it is making its own video game.

Source: La Gazzetta dello Sport