According to EA’s VP of investor relations Chris Evenden, gaming is going to end up like Spotify and Netflix, moving from traditional ownership of content, to a subscription model. 

The change is “inevitable,” with gaming following the way that “the music and video entertainment worlds have already moved.”

Evenden said all this while speaking at the Deutsche Bank Technology Conference.

“We’ve been building an infrastructure both from a product and a marketing perspective so we can move our slate across to new platforms, and we can move with our games across to new platforms as well,” Evenden said. “So all of these things, we’ve been working on for five or more years now, actually. But I think it’s inevitable that the gaming entertainment world will move in much the same way that the music and video entertainment worlds have already moved, in the sense that people have moved from an ownership model to an access model. And you’ll see that in gaming, just as you’ve seen it with Spotify and Netflix in other media businesses.”

He continued to explain how the subscription model results in a much lower cost of entry for new customers. It’s less of an investment, less of a risk, and should attract more people. 

“Right now if you want to play FIFA in the United States, it will cost you $460,” Evenden said. “You have to buy the game; you have to buy the console. In a streaming world, it could be $9.99 a month. The commercial details have to be worked out, but whatever number it ends up at is very much less than $460. So that extends your market, because all you need locally is literally a smart TV.”

Can you imagine a world in which a TV is all you need? What about going from owning all of your games, to subscribing to multiple collections for all of your virtual needs?

Source: GamesIndustry.biz