Sports games not viable on the PC, says EA

Posted at: 10:15am 4th July 2008 by Ben Hardwidge

Next-gen consoles, piracy and a changing business model cited as the reasons for EA stopping PC development on a number of sports titles

After revealing that EA has decided not to release a number of PC sports this year, Peter Moore from EA Sports has decided to give his reasons for the decision, saying that the PC is in decline as a sports gaming platform.

‘The PC as a platform for authentic, fully-licensed, simulation sports games has declined radically in the past three years,’ Moore explains on his blog. He adds that this is mainly because ‘the next generation consoles, with their high definition graphics and 5.1 sound capabilities have attracted millions of consumers.’ Moore makes a distinction between console gamers and PC gamers here, saying that PC gamers ‘lean in’ when gaming, while console gamers ‘lean back’ and relax.

As with many other game developers, EA Sports is also upset about piracy in PC games, which Moore insists is an issue, despite disagreement from many EA Sports fans who have commented on his blog previously. He explains that ‘the numbers don’t lie,’ adding that the ‘employees developing the game design, writing code and creating art deserve to get paid for their work. Period.’

Another reason for the decision, according to Moore, is the change in the business model for PC games, which he says is shifting from packaged goods to downloads. This is true, but we don’t see why EA couldn’t use a download service such as Steam to get around this and the piracy issue in one go.

However, Moore feels that many of EA’s Sports games don’t have the online features needed to be a success on the PC. ‘The on-line experience is paramount,’ says Moore, ‘and hundreds of companies in this space are experimenting with direct-to-consumer revenue models, incorporating premium downloadable content, sponsored downloads, micro-transactions, subscriptions and massive tournament play.’

Earlier in June, EA announced that it wasn’t going to release Madden, NCAA Football, NASCAR, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR and or NBA LIVE for the PC, and that those games would be for consoles only. Moore doesn’t rule out coming up with new sports games for the PC that are more appropriate in the future, but insists that ‘for right now we are assessing all of the options open to us to shift the current paradigm for our games on this platform.’

Do you play sports games on your PC (and no, we’re not counting Football Manager), or would you rather play them on a console? Is the PC in decline as a platform for sports games? Let us know your thoughts.