On a Saturday night red eye to London when I started writing this, connecting to Vienna for meetings with our partners at UEFA and FIFA (and maybe the Euro final between Spain and Germany…). I’ve been reading the constant flow of comments regarding our position this year on sports games on the PC, and at the risk of once again opening the floodgates of people comparing me to the devil incarnate, I will try to address what I see as the core issues that continue to be up for (very spirited) debate.

- The PC as a platform for authentic, fully-licensed, simulation sports games has declined radically in the past three years as the next generation consoles, with their high definition graphics and 5.1 sound capabilities have attracted millions of consumers to eschew the “lean in” PC sports gaming experience for the “lean back” full room console experience.

- The business model for PC games is evolving from packaged goods to a download model. The on-line experience is paramount, and hundreds of companies in this space are experimenting with direct-to-consumer revenue models, incorporating premium downloadable content, sponsored downloads, micro-transactions, subscriptions and massive tournament play.

- Piracy is an issue. Sorry, I know many of you disagree with me on this, but the numbers don’t lie. Companies spend millions developing content, and deserve to see a return on investment for their risk. The employees developing the game design, writing code and creating art deserve to get paid for their work. Period.

- Businesses have to make hard trade offs for where to invest for the best return, thus creating capital to make even more games. They have to take expensive risks in our hits and misses industry with new intellectual property to keep the games available to gamers fresh, innovative and pushing the technical boundaries of the hardware platforms. I know this concept touches a nerve with some of you, but our industry is founded on publishers that have driven for financially-successful games and then re-invested the proceeds in development of even more content for gamers to enjoy. It’s a simple financial premise, and an obligation for publically-traded companies who answer to their shareholders. We are not making games in garages or bedrooms any more.

- In order to make fundamental shifts in an ecosystem, you  sometimes have to hit the reset button. That’s what we have done this year at EA SPORTS as regards some of our franchises on the PC. That does not mean that we aren’t coming back next year with new, innovative, maybe even less-expensive ways to play all of our franchises on the PC, but for right now we are assessing all of the options open to us to shift the current paradigm for our games on this platform.

Writing in the middle of the night when you are a little tired is always a dangerous thing, but what you have is my honest, personal, unvarnished opinion. I am sorry that our decisions on this issue have caused some of you so much apparent heartache, but at least you maybe have a little more insight into our thinking here…

So lock and load and have at it…

Cheers,

Peter