EA Disagrees with Capcom, Claims Game Life Cycles are Increasing
By Chris on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 4:09 PM PST In Capcom, Electronic Arts, Game Companies, Games, Games Industry
In the hunt to discover why it’s so difficult to track down a new copy of Tetris DS, Patrick Klepek spoke with Capcom about the life cycle of games. Capcom VP Christian Svensson claimed, “The sales life cycle of a product is shrinking,” but in speaking with Electronic Arts’ head of North American publishing, Jeff Karp, we’ve learned that this is not necessarily the viewpoint of all companies. In fact, he believes that the life cycle of games is actually increasing.
Karp said that most high-profile games will be viable at retail for 18-24 months, and admitted that some EA games like The Sims and Spore are different. In fact, EA is planning on creating new content for Spore for at least ten years.
Downloadable content is key in extending the lifespan of a game, although properly handling it (i.e. fair prices and good content) is an important factor. While EA can rely on titles like Madden every year not everyone has that in their stables. “We have products that have been around for a while and people are used to [them],” said Karp. “Very few other publishers really have these types of franchises that have the longevity.”
He admits that he could very well be wrong, and is also fairly modest about what EA’s stance is when one of their games underperforms. For the full story, head over to MTV Multiplayer.
