Electronic Arts is launching a new EA Desktop application, a beta version of its improved original online gaming service called EA Next Pay Generation’s PC gaming platform. But it is one more application among many people in the subscription-loving video game business today.
The service will have fast downloads and updates, easy access to games and the ability to connect with friends on the platform, EA says. Players will use the EA Desktop app to access subscriptions such as the newly renamed EA Play (5 5 a month) and EA Play Pro (15 15 a month).
Another example is getting rid of some old brands like EN and rallying around its own acronym name and gamer-centric EA Play brand. On August 14, EA said it would relaunch its EA Access Access and Origin Access Access subscription game services under the EA Play brand name. That same week, Amazon renamed its Twitch Prime membership service as Prime Gaming, with the goal of reaching a wider audience.
EA Senior Vice President Michael Blanke said in an interview with Gamesbet, “The EA Desktop app is designed to provide a non-friction and socially connected experience that is fast enough for players to gain access to sports.” “We’ve made some of these public, but we haven’t made them all public.”
The new app promises a faster experience, fewer clicks to get back to your favorite games and playtime controls to help you keep track of how much time you and your family spend playing. You should make it easier to find and install new games or just play through your EA Play membership, simply said.
Above: Michael Blank is Senior Vice President of Strategic Development at EA.
Image Credit: EA
EA Play and EA Play Pro subscriptions will also bring new benefits for members. Anyone can register for the beta, and EA is sending download invitations on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are a native player, your games, progress and friends will move forward. You will have full access to all of your original content.
EX
Simply EA Dub leads a team at EAX, creating products that connect players together and connect them to their games. He was in charge of making sure that players could play all of EA’s games wherever they wanted to play and that they could work with cross-play, cross-progress, and cross-generation in an age where games like Fortnight are changing. There is a team. . In the long run, EA wants to make its games a platform.
“The move is aligned with the strategy, which will help players play our games more effectively,” Blanc said. “And the things you see in the market, like our EA Play gaming subscriptions, are designed to help break down barriers to play. You will begin to enable more cross-play in our games, not only in games that are moving towards cross-play, but also in games that are coming which will be cross-play by def. “
Epic Games is one step ahead in cross-play with its Fortnight game, which allows people to play with each other on PCs, consoles and mobile devices (except iOS due to claims between Epic and Apple Pal).
“We had different names. The reality is that they all come together for the same purpose, to help our players play, ”said Blanc. “So bringing the brand under a branded experience, just having AA Play makes sense.”
EA Play Pro is the top level, where players can play games under subscription at the same time as games start on the same day. EA Play, meanwhile, offers access to older games.
Subscriptions are ours
Above: Original name is being removed, becoming an EA desktop application.
Image Credit: EA
If you’re wondering what the big rage is about game subscriptions, everyone wants to create a “gaming netflix”. It helps in finding new games, as players try out more games when the cost of coming comes to zero.
“What subscriptions offer is the ability to try games for people they haven’t tried.” “In many cases, it reduces the barrier for them to play the game they want to play on an ongoing basis for which they may have to pay a higher price annually. So they can buy a game one year, but they can’t buy a new version of that game the next year because it’s expensive to buy those games. We value providing great experiences to players. We value their engagement time, and the more opportunities we can offer them to play the game, the more mutually beneficial it is between them and us. “
Simply stated that previous subscriptions can also make them “players who can give the title” while others can access it.
“Players can access this game only if they are offered this game,” he said. “It’s a little difficult to predict what will happen next. I think subscriptions have a very strong role to play. That is why we continue to invest in it. That is why MicroSFT is investing in it. That’s why every platform company invests in it because it’s worth it for the company to do so. “
The original name has been around for a long time since EA bought Richard Garriott’s Ultima Studio in 1992. EA closed the studio in 2004. But it launched its original online gaming service in 2011 as its own platform in the digital game distribution business. It was EA’s competitor for the valve-powered steam service.
“It was less about the original name and more about how we are traveling to offer players a choice of how to play,” Blanc said. He said that “by introducing different brands” no longer serves EA or its players.
Cross play and more
Above: Can you afford to buy Maiden every year?
Image Credit: EA Sports
EA is trying to make as many connection points as possible in its games, even if it can’t make cross-play, cross-progress and cross-generation play possible on every game.
“If you’re offering the same game experience on many different devices, it’s important to be able to let those players play,” Blanc said. “We know players are switching between different platforms and a new pay generation of consoles is coming out. Switch has emerged as a leading platform, and people can get ownership of other consoles as well. “
In some EA games, players can be on different platforms and still play against each other. Players from Apex Legends can enjoy cross-play on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch (this fall) and Windows PC. Cross progress, where you can move from one platform to another and access your same game level, is not yet supported.
“The thing we’re doing here is centralization around a common brand,” Blank said. “The vision is connecting with players from the AAA ecosystem, whether it’s through EA Play on the EA Desktop. Can create. “
EA has recently made available EA games available at no additional cost on Valve’s Steam service, as well as the Micro .ft Xbox Game Pass service.
Blank said players are demanding this kind of world, as they have seen with services like Netflix or Spotify, which run on almost any device. They want to gamble like other entertainment subscriptions.
Blank said, “The gaming experience is fluid, and it doesn’t start or end the way it once did. “Whether you’re playing on a mobile device or on a PC or on a console or you’re playing in the cloud, or you’re playing on a subscription, players are demanding a more seamless, connected ecosystem.”
I asked if we were anywhere near EA, once able to write a game and run it on any platform.
“We’re not there yet,” Blanc said. “If everyone can agree on technology, it will work. But that’s not the way the world is. ”
