EA is ‘building a Netflix for video games’

[SSgt Dickweed]

Interdasting to say the least. I wonder how this will work out.

Electronic Arts shares will rise due to the success of its subscription gaming services, according to one Wall Street firm.

Needham reiterated its buy rating for EA shares, saying its subscription business is already worth $3 billion to the company.

"We believe that EA is building a Netflix for video games," analyst Laura Martin said in a note to clients Friday. "It is our view that millennials want to rent content (eg, Spotify, Pandora, Netflix, Hulu) rather than own it, and that content companies with data about what their consumers view/play/use create valuation upside from programming, eCommerce, and advertising revenue streams."

Martin raised her price target to $170 from $135 for EA shares, representing 19 percent upside from Thursday's close.

The analyst noted the company announced a new, more expensive tier for its PC subscription gaming service called "Origin Access Premier" priced at $14.99 per month or $100 per year. The new tier enables consumers to play EA's biggest games as they are launched.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/22/buy...ilding-a-netflix-for-video-games-needham.html

I only wish hat Ubisoft is doing it.

 

[Headkicktoleg]

Gamefly?

 

[HereticBD]

Streaming games on a subscription based format is definitely the future. Once the bandwidth speeds catch up proper, and the data usage isn't an issue, it's gonna be commonplace.

"Playstation Now" was a little ahead of it's time. I used it for a month though, and it was pretty impressive for the most part. Once the kinks are all ironed out, and the games have no difference from their retail counterparts, it's a slam dunk for the industry. You'll pony up $20 or $30 a month to play whatever you want, and will totally accept that you no longer own anything.

 

[SleepyBoy]

A subscription service to play infomercials in order to buy more dlc?

No thanks

 

[Turtlejuice]

I read a few days ago that netflix is building a netflix for video games.

 

[milliniar]

PlayStation now is closer to being Netflix as it has more than just sony games.

 

[Turtlejuice]

PlayStation now is closer to being Netflix as it has more than just so you games.

PlayStation now does more than games now? What else is it?

 

[Swing]

Jeff Gertsmann has talked about this a bit on Giant Bomb's recent podcasts. I think I pretty much agree with him. It's coming and is a bit of a no-brainer, but I'm not that interested in a service myself unless they somehow get around the latency issues that are going to be present when streaming regardless of how much download speed somebody has. While games can be designed around more input lag, I just don't want to play games that feel that sluggish.

Edit: This depends on the genre, I guess. There wouldn't be any reason for me to avoid a turn based game or whatever.

 

[milliniar]

PlayStation now does more than games now? What else is it?

Auto correct, was supposed to say more than just sony games.

 

[Turtlejuice]

Auto correct, was supposed to say more than just sony games.

Ah that makes sense. I've been tempted by ps now just to play red dead redemption again.

 

[KaNesDeath]

Its a bad sign of your game titles when the consumers would rather rent instead of buy them. This will also hurt the multiplayer aspect while increasing EA's micro-transaction presence in their game titles.

For i guarantee EA is banking on a subscriber using this service for one game title per year. Where in the end users will be paying nearly double the retail cost of owning said game title from this subscription fee. While also banking on the users using that game title micro-transaction services. Will also hinder the game developers liquidity publishing under EA/Origin.

This just feels like EA modifying the mobile application model for Pc.

 

[PEB]

People are going to hate this no doubt because it will be a way to extract more money out of people per title.

 

[BjPenn2017]

Hahahahaha what a scam every EA game on earth isn't worth 2 bucks a month

 

[GhostZ06]

why the fuck would i want that? Especially from EA

 

[Madmick]

Streaming games on a subscription based format is definitely the future. Once the bandwidth speeds catch up proper, and the data usage isn't an issue, it's gonna be commonplace.

"Playstation Now" was a little ahead of it's time. I used it for a month though, and it was pretty impressive for the most part. Once the kinks are all ironed out, and the games have no difference from their retail counterparts, it's a slam dunk for the industry. You'll pony up $20 or $30 a month to play whatever you want, and will totally accept that you no longer own anything.

This. EA is reading the tea leaves. Anyone who is rational can see this.

Why? We've seen it happen, now, twice, in the two other major entertainment media: (1) Music (2) Movies

It isn't a coincidence that they happened in this order. It's directly correlated to bandwidth. Streaming was able to handle music first, then movies. Books would have predated music, but they didn't have a widespread electronic form. What do we have, now? Spotify, Pandora, and the rest for music. We have Netflix, Hulu, and the rest for movies. The major tech players-- Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft-- have presence in both worlds. Amazon Prime is becoming a glorified cloud rental service for books.

Video games are by far the most bandwidth-intensive of all media. They're last. It's going to be much more difficult, considering the physical limitations, but the truth is the consumer market hasn't demonstrated much of an appetite for 4K (or VR/AR), so the next phase is bringing 1080p to streaming. The It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World spec race is finally over.

There's a reason we all got sick of those, "To the cloud!" commercials a decade ago. The business world isn't stupid. They knew where things were headed. Fortunately, we got some pretty hilarious Taco episodes out of it via The League.

 

[rob mafia]

music and movies aren't crippled when the latency goes over 100 ms.

as long as there will be latency-induced input lag, shit like this would be terrible for most games. obvious exceptions for genres like turn-based and etc.

if the game would be downloadable and simply played online (i mean, like nearly everything is now, anyway) - a sub service would likely be great. if the game, itself, has to be streamed... it's going to suck.

 

[Madmick]

music and movies aren't crippled when the latency goes over 100 ms.

as long as there will be latency-induced input lag, shit like this would be terrible for most games. obvious exceptions for genres like turn-based and etc.

if the game would be downloadable and simply played online (i mean, like nearly everything is now, anyway) - a sub service would likely be great. if the game, itself, has to be streamed... it's going to suck.

Indeed. Single player first, and MP that isn't time-sensitive next. The roadblocks to this future remain technical in nature, but it's...

 

[Orgasmo]

It's called Steam, and EA is late to the punch.

 

[Hyperglide]

Lol EA. Why would I sign up for your service when I already have Xbox game pass? Xbox Game Pass is superior

 

[jefferz]

Indeed. Single player first, and MP that isn't time-sensitive next. The roadblocks to this future remain technical in nature, but it's...

Wendell's talked about it a couple of times, his thoughts are doing it like Blizzard does with there games. You can launch a game immediately, but you can only load certain levels and the rest load in the background while you're playing.