Future games will be free, but with a micro-transaction catch

Speaking in a lengthy interview with Kotaku, EA COO Peter Moore has given his views on the direction the video game publishing industry will take as it grapples with a number of factors.

Among these is the new wave of mobile and social gaming platforms, the rise of the free-to-play model, and the massive proliferation of the general home console market around the world.

“Whether it was with the Wii getting mom off the couch to do Wii Sports or whether it was, more recently EA Sports Active, where we get females who love to work out, all the things that social gaming did—Rock Band did it, Guitar Hero did it—all of the things that elevated it from being a dark art of teenage boys usually sequestered in the bedroom—that it was testosterone-filled content that everybody railed against—to where everybody is a gamer…if you can move your index finger and swipe it this way, you’re a gamer. And that has got to be the way it goes,” said Moore.

Moore spoke about the impact the changing video gaming landscape has on a massive company such as EA.

“We’re going through, as an industry, just an unbelievably difficult transformation, that is not from one business model to another but from one business model to a myriad of different business models,” said Moore.

“Consoles are still going to be a very important part of what we do. But so are browsers. So are iOS devices. So are Android mobile phones. So are PCs, which are feeling a renaissance.”

Speaking about the pricing model for games of the future, Moore said “…microtransactions will be in every game, but the game itself or the access to the game will be free.”

“I think there’s an inevitability that happens five years from now, 10 years from now, that, let’s call it the client, to use the term, [is free]. It is no different than… it’s free to me to walk into The Gap in my local shopping mall. They don’t charge me to walk in there. I can walk into The Gap, enjoy the music, look at the jeans and what have you, but if I want something I have to pay for it.”

“It may well be that there will be games that survive and they are the $60 games, but I believe that the real growth is bringing billions of people into the industry and calling them gamers,” said Moore.