If I were a bettin’ man, I’d venture to say that over half of you reading this right now have some type of mobile app or game you downloaded to your phone for free. EA suggests this is but a taste of things to come.
At the recent Wedbush 2014 conference, CFO Blake Jorgensen revealed how he feels about paid downloads (and that allowing gamers to pay-as-they-go is a more viable business model). “I think paid downloads will probably go away. That business is very small for us now and at the end of the day, the consumer expects to get the game experience on a mobile device for free. And they know they can grow that experience over time by monetizing or paying for more, or continuing to play for free. And you’re going to a little bit of both of those. But I do think the upfront fee for downloading is probably slowly disappearing. And it’s fine, because I think the experience for the user is more immersive; they are able to get in and experiment with titles.”
While the “install base” figures are what EA looks at as their measuring stick (which is sizable and well into the millions), Jorgensen hopes this is a foundation they can build off of to translate more of these interactions to paid revenue. He calls it a “…very important number for us because you’re essentially creating a network and a group of users that you can keep moving to other games over time. It reduces your cost of acquisition so to speak.”
EA already has a strong presence in mobile, with hits like The Simpsons Tapped Out and more.