“We can, and we may still, offer our own,” says EA exec Mike Blank, as Microsoft and Google plan major streaming platform launches this year.
Considering the number of companies stepping up to the cloud gaming plate, it looks like there won’t be much of a choice. Sony and Microsoft have both teamed up for cloud gaming solutions as the former gets an opportunity to utilize the latter’s Azure platform to enhance PlayStation Now for the next generation of home consoles. At E3 2019, Microsoft also announced a Stadia competitor called Project Xcloud. In that same week, Ubisoft introduced Uplay Plus for PC gamers and shared that the publisher is partnering up with Stadia to allow Uplay Plus subscribers to access the subscription’s games wherever it can be played. Bethesda even introduced a software suite meant to enhance any cloud streaming platform.
“The new trend of subscription offerings in games is an innovation,” Mike Blank, senior vp of player network at EA, tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It might not seem like one because subscriptions have been around for a long time in other forms of media, but there’s something unique about games because they are highly immersive, have long life experiences and they’re highly social.”
EA already has a PC gaming subscription called Origin Access and there are two tiers that cost either $5 a month/$30 a year or $15 a month/$100 a year. The more expensive premier tier of Origin Access is similar to Uplay Plus and could be positioned as another Stadia-friendly subscription. Games like Ghost Recon Breakpoint, The Elder Scrolls Online, Metro Exodus, and Farming Simulator 19 are on the list of confirmed games for Stadia but there are no EA games slated for the platform’s launch just yet. That will likely change as we get closer, unless EA decides that a streaming platform of its own is worth producing.
“We can, and we may still, offer our own,” Blank says. “That said, I think there is space in the market for multiple complementary and competing services that offer different kinds of experiences to different players.”
While EA does not disclose the number of Access subscribers, Blank says the company has “hundreds of millions of people” connected across all of EA’s services. He says it remains “to be determined, ultimately” if Google or Xbox are able to offer a wider user base than EA can reach on its own but remains cautious of branching out completely. “Clearly we can reach millions upon millions of players directly, but there’s always folks out there who want to participate on their favorite gaming platform,” he says. “If that’s the case, we’ll go where they are.”
Offering a subscription service or digital storefront is still a far cry from a full-blown streaming service. “Having the tech to deliver an attractive streaming experience is not trivial,” says Doug Creutz, senior analyst at Cowen and Company. “I think Microsoft is in the A-spot because they have a significant install base and technology.”
The competition between platforms may also be quite different in the near future as cross-platform play which allows gamers to compete with one another in the same online match regardless of the gaming platform they are using becomes the norm.
