3 on 3 NHL Arcade: A New Business Model for EA? - RaychelSnr's Blog

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RaychelSnr's Blog

3 on 3 NHL Arcade: A New Business Model for EA? Stuck

Posted on January 25, 2009 at 04:24 PM.

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Something which has gone overlooked, but I think is very significant is the fact EA Sports is getting ready to release a slimmed-down and arcade version of one of its more successful games quality wise, and they aren't doing it with the street brand attached to it.

Indeed, EA is releasing 3 on 3 NHL Arcade on X Box Live and PSN early next month with (so far) little fanfare. I think it's important to take a step back and take in how important this might be.

3 on 3 NHL Arcade is not going to be the next mega-hit of Sports Gaming, at least I don't think it will be. However, it could signal a very important but yet small shift in EA business, a move even closer towards the web.

In a day sometime in the future -- and probably not far off -- we will be downloading games on the internet instead of going to Gamestop to pick up a game disk. Small projects like 3 on 3 NHL Arcade are ways to test out if the market is ready for such a shift.

That's not to say it's the only reason why 3 on 3 NHL Arcade is being developed, but you can bet that is something on the minds of EA Execs as future projects are planned like 3 on 3 NHL Arcade.

So now for the big question, do you plan to pick up the game if it gets some good reviews from gamers and critics?

Comments

# 1 jaosming @ Jan 25

I'm not getting the game because of the powerups, childish sound FX and the voice.

I am all for arcade sports games, but giving it wacky sounds and big heads w/o a cheat dumbs it down too much to me, even for an arcade game.

# 2 rspencer86 @ Jan 25

The old NHL Hitz games were some of my favorite sports games to play back in the day, so I might give this one a look if the reviews are favorable.

# 3 Shinyhubcaps @ Jan 25

I won't buy it just because I like to keep my harddrive somewhat clear. Other than that, I like the idea, and I'm sure that downloads may be more prevalent at some point in the future. I can see how this might be a testing point for EA to analyze that portion of the market.

I also think that EA may be testing an arcade series for its brands in leu of street series; NBA Street will not be made for the forseeable future, and NFL Tour was pretty terrible.