EA Looking to 'Move to Online Model as Fast as Possible'

Anyone following the games industry knows that online is becoming a more and more important component of the business. The fact that EA recently decided to sell Burnout Paradise as a digital download through PlayStation Network is further proof of where the industry is headed. Signal Hill analyst Todd Greenwald said it's "indicative of EA's direct-to-consumer push, and is a warning sign for packaged goods retailers."

With that in mind, now EA Games label head Frank Gibeau has acknowledged that EA is putting a much heavier focus on online. "...I need to move to an online model as fast as I possibly can," he told Cnet.

He continued, "If you look at our customers' behavior patterns, you're seeing them engaging with fully connected experiences. And I think we have IPs and ideas and expertise that can really allow us to do that. I think Spore is a connected experience. I think Battlefield is, and Warhammer. These can be very lucrative for us, and they can be very exciting from a developer standpoint, because you're moving from a fire-and-forget model to more of a service model, where you launch the game but you're thinking 24-7 about when's my first content pack, what's happening with telemetry, how are people playing the game, and how do I make their experiences better?"

Gibeau added that from the get go on any project, EA now looks beyond single player to see how online can be leveraged. "...I'm just not interested in single-player-only experiences anymore," he said. "When we're green-lighting new ideas, we look at the team, we look at the IP and an important part of this is also looking at what is the online experience like, and how do we measure and capture an idea that's bigger than just a fire-and-forget model?"