Madden 12 News Post

EA Going Away From In-Game Ads? Microtransactions Proving Far More Lucrative

09:00 PM - December 20, 2010 by Steve_OS

Is EA going away from in-game advertising? According to Edge, they might be.

Quote:


	"In-game advertising has not delivered the expected levels of revenue, with microtransactions proving far more lucrative for EA. The publisher�s general manager of free-to-play, Ben Cousins, told us: �We actually aren�t getting much from ad revenue at all. The in-game advertising business hasn�t grown as fast as people expected it to.� He points to the success enjoyed by Zynga, the publisher that has enjoyed huge revenues from microtransactions in its Facebook games, as evidence of his claim. �If you think about how fast the virtual goods business has grown in the last year or so, it�s been much quicker and become a much more reliable source of revenue."

Game: Madden NFL 12Reader Score: 6.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Wii / Xbox 360Votes for game: 44 - View All

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Member Comments

# 41 IlluminatusUIUC @ 12/29/10 07:19 PM

I generally don't complain about DLC because I do my research and know what I'm buying before I get into it. What I cannot stand is EA selling boosts which unbalance competitive multiplayer. Basically, unless you have a week to spare then it costs at least $20-30 to get your player boosted enough to be competitive in the EASHL for NHL 11. And of course, that character gets reset to zero once NHL 12 comes out. There was a thread on OS asking what people felt about NHL 11 and I have to say, the stat boosts completely killed it for me. I haven't picked it up in over a month.

# 42 extremeskins04 @ 12/30/10 03:48 PM

EA this is your wake up call. Notice that big sign that says "18% loss of sales on Madden"??

Maybe if they would develop a better product, they wouldn't lose money and wouldn't have to start "talking" about microtransactions.

What's it gonna be now?

We throw a pass to Andre Johnson in the endzone for a TD but wait, while the ball is in mid-air a window comes up and says "Please pay $1.00 to complete this pass for a TD. We accept Visa, MC, and Paypal. Thank you."

No thanks. I just won't spend any money again this year.

# 43 Hova57 @ 12/30/10 04:07 PM

What's more interesting about this thread is someone actually got themselves banned for this exact thing.

# 44 Bonee @ 12/30/10 06:33 PM

Assuming I really like a game I would be willing to pay extra cash for the extra features I want (need). The price people would pay in total (for the game and the extra features) is only a question of supply and demand.

The tricky thing for EA is, having a somewhat "stale" game coming out of the box year after year would make it impossible for them to earn cash from the extras. As long as Madden is not "state of the art" (comparing to other computer games) they won't earn much money this way. But at the point where the majority of the customers are happy with the Madden-Series they can dig out the money.

# 45 Aggies7 @ 01/13/11 11:51 PM

Does this mean no more Doritos Play of the Game and Old Spice Redzone....Seriously if they get rid of that it will kill some of the presentation.

And if this is their plan, that is stupid...All these years they have made money off of us buying relatively the same product year in and year out and they are worried about this. Maybe I am miss understanding, but this maybe my last straw.

# 46 roadman @ 01/14/11 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aggies7


	Does this mean no more Doritos Play of the Game and Old Spice Redzone....Seriously if they get rid of that it will kill some of the presentation. And if this is their plan, that is stupid...All these years they have made money off of us buying relatively the same product year in and year out and they are worried about this. Maybe I am miss understanding, but this maybe my last straw.

I think they are talking about the smaller ads on top of the plays menu.

This is the first Madden that had the FB application and they really advertised more DLC this year, MUT, Madden Live Moments, cheats, etc.......

You won't start seeing the benefits of the DLC revenue added till future Maddens are produced.

# 47 rsoxguy12 @ 01/15/11 10:33 PM

What bothers me about microtransactions is that EA is charging us for something that used to be free. Who remembers madden cards back in the PS2 days? For a similar in-game service today, we would be forced to pay that fee. We had access to ALL madden moments in madden 09. The in-game ads aren't too bad; some of them just need to be woven into the commentary a bit better, but they add to the experience overall.

# 48 SmashMan @ 01/15/11 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rsoxguy12


	We had access to ALL madden moments in madden 09.

We have access to all Madden Moments this year.

The "Madden Moments Live" ones are supplemental and not part of the core out-of-box package. They also don't cost any money to play.

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