8:18AM BST 19 Jun 2012
Are you happy with how EA's E3 conference went?
When I look at the Games label, I think it's an important event for us because we have so many games shipping this year. We have five games just in my group alone with Dead Space, Crysis, Need for Speed, Medal of Honor and Battlefield Premium. So there's five things we're focussing on. But frankly I'm happy to be here, we've done it, and it looks like it's good. So that's where my head is right now.
There hasn't been many surprises this year. Is that a sign of the way the games industry is evolving? Or is it because its harder to keep things secret?
I think it's a little bit of both. It's harder than before to keep a lid on things, because things tend to spread so quickly in today's world. So that's part of it. But I think we have seen some surprises. There's been some product announcements, and obviously Nintendo is here with a new machine. Maybe expected, but they're still here with some interesting features and an interesting lineup. I also think there's a trend in the types of games we're seeing. We're seeing games that are far more connected than they have been before. I think if you scratch the surface, it may not look like there's a lot of innovation, but I'm seeing a lot of it going on. And if you look at the presence of Free 2 Play, it's obvious that that's a growing sector. We're seeing that ourselves, it's the fasting growing part of our business. So that's interesting. We have seven games in operation. So we have a relatively large lineup of games that we're working on and we have a couple of other games in the pipeline. It's an interesting sector because if you look at the most successful companies in this sector in Asia, they don't necessarily have 25-30 games, they may have 5 or 6 games, but they've been live for 5-10 years and they're still seeing growth. And that's something we're experiencing aswell with Need for Speed World and Battlefield Heroes, we're still seeing them growing in user base and revenue, which is interesting.
You obviously had a very strong focus on franchises, is it more difficult as a publisher to release new IP this late into a hardware generation?
It's a very good question. It is a little bit harder to do it at the end of a lifecycle. As a company we need to be feeding new IPs and new game experiences. But I think we also have to be cautious and diligent about when we do that. I think it's a valid point.
Don't you worry that a reliance on franchises could over-saturate the market and lead to fatigue? Or are they the key part of the industry?
I think they are a key part of the industry, but it also depends on how you treat them. I think you can continue to keep a franchise alive and keep it successful if you keep innovating and you keep sticking to quality. Ultimately it's a slippery slope and you can quickly go downhill if you're not careful.
So what do you look for in new IP?
To me, when it comes to new IP, and I think people who make games need to understand this... I think we have about 1,000 developers in our organisation, these are creative people who are creating entertainment. And whether you're an artist, programmer, designer, audio guy or whatever you are, you need new challenges. You need new things to keep you innovative and passionate about what you do. I have a firm belief that ultimately passion, quality and innovation will sell your products, but if you miss even one of them you are going to have a hard time succeeding. So you want to have teams that are highly passionate about what they do, that's going to inspire them to innovate. There are obviously other factors, like enough time, a proper budget, proper planning and a good tech library. And that's what's really interesting for me when it comes to new IP, that we need to keep feeding the creativity of our teams. We need to inspire ourselves in order to inspire the consumers.
You've got Medal of Honor down there on the show floor. You also have Battlefield on the market already. And then of course there is Call of Duty. How do you differentiate Medal of Honor in such an oversubscribed genre?
I think if you look at Medal of Honor multiplayer, it's all about the fireteam, it's about you and your friend. And the whole multiplayer game is built around that, coupled with national pride. As a Swedish guy I can play the SOG. That may not appeal to you, but it appeals to me. I frankly don't care much about military, but I do like the idea of playing the Swedes. It's almost like playing soccer. I think the best part is that we've been able to find the home of what Medal of Honor means from a multiplayer perspective. And to me, that's really important. If you look at Call of Duty for instance, that's more about the one man run and gun. Battlefield is more about two and up, three or four people in a squad working together. This is about you and your friend, and I think that's a very accessible, compelling offering. The things you do together will pay off. So I think that's really cool.
From the single-player side, Medal of Honor has always been about the authentic single-player story and that really resonates with people still. It's based on events that are supposed to have happened or close to reality at least. It's tied to our collaboration with the Tier One operator, real people who do this for a living. And we're trying to tell their story and what they're going through. I think that's a unique proposition to Battlefield or Call of Duty.
What about Need for Speed? Most Wanted is looking terrific, but it feels very much like Burnout Paradise 2. Will the Burnout name ever return, or will all your racing titles come under that Need for Speed umbrella brand?
We look at Burnout as an important IP for Electronic Arts. We have to look at Criterion as one of the best developers we have in the whole of EA. And I have to come back to passion. Criterion have a passion for Need for Speed. They actually asked us "please let us build Need for Speed". That's what that team wanted to do. They actually asked for Most Wanted before they asked for Hot Pursuit. But then they came back and said we want to start with Hot Pursuit, then go on to Most Wanted. So they've always wanted to build Most Wanted, it's Alex Ward's (Criterion's creative director) favourite Need for Speed. I think it's important to us to let them build a Criterion take on Need for Speed. And I think that's what the result is on the show floor, it's their view on what Most Wanted should be, a highly connected, social experience with you and your friends. I'm so happy that they have that passion.
Wii U is the big hardware news this year, how do you feel about the console?
You have to respect and admire Nintendo, they are an interesting company and they will do things people don't expect them to do. We played something as simple as the Animal Crossing game, it was extremely simplistic game design, but it was so much fun. And I think that's Nintendo, it's simplicity coupled with social gameplay and fun. I thought it was very cool, and it was very Nintendo, as a gamer myself it made me a little pumped and I want to go and play more.
What about on a professional level. Will we see most of EA's franchises appearing on Wii U?
EA are supporting the Wii U, we have Mass Effect and we're working on the sports titles. Then we'll look at Wii U as any other platform, we'll look at viability versus performance of the market and if it makes sense for us to be on the WiiU, we'll be on the Wii U, of course.
You spoke earlier of Free 2 Play and social games. With such a focus on this market, how do you see traditional gaming in ten years time?
I think the lines will blur, innovation will lie in a very connected experience. I think we're looking at pick up and play on multiple devices on multiple occasions and very cloud-based gaming. For you to be able to play something on the subway, then come home and pick up where you were playing on another device. It's going to feel very seamless to the consumer going forward, how you play and how you interact with games. Coupled with more and more uplinked and connected experiences. I think you see it with Need for Speed, there's no such thing as a lobby, you're in that world and I just love that approach. It's very fresh and innovative. The fact that the world is the game, I really like that.
Do you see something like Xbox SmartGlass as a forerunner to that kind of new interaction?
Yeah, I think coupled with the Wii U. I think the concepts are really cool. And I think that's something we'll gladly utilise and I think you can do a lot with it. I think it's a great idea.
