EA Sports supports 'Project Ten Dollar,' out to 'digitize' Madden consumers
Watch out, Madden consumer, 'cause Peter Moore is coming -- and he's gonna digitize you. In a speech at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference yesterday, the EA Sports prez said, "I think we need to move much quicker, in particular with Madden, through a digital world ... you're going to see more announcements there how we digitize our Madden consumer." He was likely referring to the currently "burning" business model that revolves around disc-based media, a topic Moore has remained outspoken about for some time now.
In his eyes, rather than focusing on moving more units which each year's release, EA Sports should instead be looking at "How do I get an extra $4 or $5 dollars?" from the already existing 6 million person-strong install base. He insisted that, in line with the company's "Project Ten Dollar" aspirations, digital content keeps gamers from trading in their titles. "It keeps the disc in the drive longer, it stalls trading the game in, it allows me to be able to take further advantage of that consumer over a longer period of time." We'd like to remind you that Moore was speaking to a group of financial analysts, so when he talked about being able to "further take advantage" of you, he meant it in the nicest way possible. Promise.
He finished up by promising that future EA Sports titles will have new business models that allow for a customer to trade in their annualized sports games while simultaneously granting EA the ability to earn money from that customer -- a "best of both worlds" take on the transition from retail to digital, if you will. We'll see what happens in the not-too-distant future, as Moore also promised "We're [EA] certainly going to do a lot of that this year."
