Games Industry Needs More Innovation
In one of John Riccitiello’s first in-depth interviews since taking the helm of the world’s largest game publisher [EA], he speaks openly about a lack of innovation of building and monetizing games.
He says EA and others need both to push more aggressively beyond traditional audiences to court “casual” consumers and to experiment more with new sales approaches — outside the norm of selling $50 to $60 discs with 40-hour games that he says few players ever finish.
How many times have you bought the next iteration of Madden? I know I have… but for what? New updated jerseys and player trades? With broadband penetration nearing critical mass (if not already there for some parts of the world), why go out and buy games the traditional way? Why not just add on updates and virtual goods?
That’s not just my thought; actually, it’s shared by a few in the games industry who are generating hundreds of millions of not billions of dollars in microtransactions or RMT’s (which they are commonly referred to as).
I am going to start following the RMT/virtual goods sector on this blog a bit further and more frequent… it’s a passion of mine…