The president of EA Games talks to the Guardian about the evolving games industry, and that rivalry with Activision
When Frank Gibeau took over as president of EA Games in 2007, the company had a bloated roster of ageing franchises and movie licences of questionable worth. Together with chief executive John Riccitiello and chief operating officer John Schappert, he set about re-structuring the company, formulating a 'city state'-model in which studios were given greater freedom and individuality.
The result has been offbeat originals (Dead Space) a vibrant EA Partners programme (Bulletstorm, Crysis, Shadows of the Damned), and the strengthening of brands such as Battlefield and Need for Speed. The company is now recovering from the financial nadir of 2008 and 2009 (which led to the loss of more than 1,000 jobs), and has been especially successful in the digital arena, earning $800m in revenue from its social and mobile titles last year.
So what does EA think of its progress, and where is the industry veteran heading next? To find out, we caught up with Frank during last week's E3 extravaganza. Here's part one of our interview...
Over the last two years there's been a philosophy change at EA, with a move away from large rosters of games and close centralised control, to fewer titles created by semi-autonomous studios. How has that worked out?
We feel like our strategies are really hitting their stride, they're working. At the time, we were trying to go from 20 average games down to six to eight great games, such as Mass Effect and Battlefield. We're also going from 13 different technology engines down to two or three. We're committed to online, trying to shake the company up around that ? we had a lot of bold statements around that, and this last fiscal year we reported record digital revenues of over $800m (�490m) that put us in the top two companies in the world. So from that standpoint we feel good ? the strategies are really starting to pay.
But we're far from satisfied, and we feel our best stuff is ahead of us. We've got Star Wars coming, and Fifa continues to boom, our social business is really picking up, it's doubled year on year, our mobile business is doing great. There are always challenges and pitfalls out there, but overall we feel like we're going in the right direction. We're on the offensive ? we're off our heels and on the balls of our feet! We can finally tell our shareholders, here are some numbers you can believe in! It's a transition from "we're changing the company, trust us". Confidence and innovation are way up. People are excited.
Is the move to fewer game engines about freeing up studios and allowing them to concentrate on creativity?
To a degree. With Frostbite, we've built a technology that works across genres. I don't want engineers, artists and designers to be fighting their tools, I want them creating great gameplay experiences. That was definitely a conscious decision ? we've got to get out of fighting all these engines, because I can't even move an artist from one game to another. The beauty of Frostbite is, the spectacular piece of technology that you see in Battlefield 3 and Need for Speed: The Run is just the tip of the iceberg ? we'll be taking that tech across more genres to help us do great things in the future.
Social connectivity has become a key element of EA games over the last year with the Autolog and now Battlelog features. Where do you see this going for EA?
It's a primary design pillar for us. Social mechanics and social features drive gamer engagement ? you stick with the game longer, you play with friends, it gives us the opportunity to put out more downloadable packs, different features and keep you engaged longer. We think of games as a service and underpinning that has to be that you can find, communicate with and compete against others in the community.
Autolog was a fantastic innovation from Criterion, but that was just breaking through on a primary level ? we'll continue to add design features. When I'm in design meetings with game teams, I'll say: "this is spectacular, but what's the social component?" Deathmatch by itself doesn't sell units, Deathmatch with your friends matters. Leaderboards that tell you you're the 770,000th best player in Battlefield don't matter, you want to know how you compare against your friend down the street or your college buddy, you compete that way. We're taking a leadership position in this ? we're going all out.
And in some ways you've won an interesting PR war with Activision. You're not charging for Battlelog, whereas Call of Duty Elite is a subscription-based service. Some see that as Activision exploiting its user-base ?
[Frank nods, then laughs?]
...So when Riccitiello announced Battlelog on stage at the press conference, was that at the back of his mind?
This was a conscious decision ? we do not believe you should charge for social features. Social features attract gamers and create engagement, but if you want to talk about business strategy, it enhances how you monetise content. But I shouldn't charge you to talk to your friends, or to learn how you did inside the game. That doesn't mean we're opposed to online business models, we just think they have to be the right kind...
EA has very publicly stepped in with support for Wii U; Riccitiello was onstage at Nintendo's press conference. How will this system fit in to EA's release strategy?
I think that's the first time we've been on the Nintendo stage in my lifetime! We learned a lot from the Wii. I think Nintendo learned a lot from the Wii. Coming off that generation of game technology, our world views started to align and it led to this relationship. We make HD game experiences that have online components, and they make wildly successful and innovative user interfaces, and there's been a convergence of those different aspects.
From our perspective, it's a lot easier for us to build experiences on the Wii U that are closer to what our DNA is all about, that also take advantage of what Nintendo has done with the controller. It's very different than the Wii which was standard def, very different GUI, very young, family-based audience ? it was contrary to what we typically do. The Wii U is an important part of our framework, but we're platform-agnostic, we will support all platforms that make sense to us.
It's interesting to think about the next generation, because, the last we converted from one set of technologies to another it was crazy brutal. We went from standard def to high def, from single-player to online, from CDs to 25GB Blu-ray discs, from single processor environments to parallel processors ? it was like, everything we could change, we changed. And then there were interfaces changes, accelerometers ? I think the next generation is going to be a lot more evolutionary from a processing power and display standpoint. Where the big innovation is going to happen is in the online services side and also on the user interface experience side ? for us that's great because those are the areas we've been investing.
The interview concludes tomorrow.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2011/jun/13/ea-frank-gibeau-interview
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