EA wants to expand Premium service to other games

In news that stunned the world today (not), EA has confirmed they’re looking at ways to incorporate Premium services to other games in the company catalogue. Anything Activision can do, EA can do better – and bigger.

“We actually think our Premium service exceeds what [Call of Duty] Elite does – from a value standpoint, from a content standpoint,” EA label boss Frank Gibeau told GamesIndustry. “And longer term we think that we can bring more properties into that offering and that’ll be great for the business.”

Since launching two weeks ago, the Battlefield Premium service has already signed up more than 800,000 subscribers. For a one-off $50 subscription fee, players get access to heaps of exclusive content, as well as discounts on incoming DLC add-ons.

Gibeau is not shy to admit that, basically, EA copied Activision’s big idea, although he also took the opportunity to subtly slag off the competition.

“[Activision] did something really innovative and if your competitor does something innovative and you think it applies to what you can do, then there’s no harm in doing that. This is an industry where people have a lot of one-upsmanship and if somebody innovates, you match it or you exceed it,” he said.

“It’s important that we don’t get into a position where we’re just milking the franchise and just mailing it in and shipping bad games… We’ve got to stay constantly paranoid about meeting and constantly exceeding expectations on the game design and fun factor.”