Is PC sports gaming dead?

Peter Moore, head honcho at EA Sports, has confirmed that the latest sports sim, Madden NFL ’09 will not be brought out on the PC. I’ve never really played EA sports games but the reasons that Moore gave for staying away from what used to be a premier gaming platform intrigue me. I can understand that the decline in demand for PC sports games makes development not viable. The piracy issue is a bit more difficult to grasp, since piracy on the Xbox 360 and Wii is just as rampant. Only Sony has managed to keep the door shut on its flagship PS3 although the PSP is a lost cause. Moore argues that “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.” It sounds like EA wants to have nothing to do with them modern shenanigans. Isn't EA in danger of losing its market leadership with conservative thinking like that? Just like Apple brought music online so will other companies bring gaming online.

Lately I’ve been playing a little game called Top Speed. This cute, cartoonish racing game will be published by IAH games and is now in open beta. As the name suggests you have to drive your kart as fast as possible round a fantasy track. For those familiar with Mario Kart, it’s exactly like that. The big difference is the business model behind it. Instead of buying an expensive disk in a fancy package, bringing it home and hopefully find out that you didn’t buy 15 minutes of boredom, the game is free to download and free to play. Once you install the (moderately sized) client, you can literally design your driver. Sex, hairstyle, clothes, everything is customizable. There’s one basic kart to start with. Once you’re finished designing, off you go to race other gamers online. A race lasts up to 10 minutes and you get immediate results in the form of gold , experience, bonus items and a place on the scoreboard. With earned gold you can upgrade your kart or buy a new wardrobe for your driver, the experience points allow you to buy better karts, more powerful engines better wheels etc. Even if you have all the gold in the world, you still need to win races and gain experience to be able to drive your new cow mobile (I kid you not, there’s a cow mobile in there). Though the game is aimed at a younger crowd, I found myself in that zone that makes any game addictive; the “just one more time” zone. Have I mentioned that you can buy bombs and missiles to get rid of pesky competition in the race?

The brilliance behind Top Speeds business model is that it doesn’t cost anything to find out if you like the game. If you do, you can make it as expensive as you want. The big difference with MMORPG’s that have been free to play, as well as subscription based, is speed, competitiveness and continuity. World of Warcraft, the premier pay-to-play game has millions of players, but you need to spend at least a few weeks to get anywhere in the game and even more to gain levels. They don’t call it “grinding” for nothing.

Top Speed is very easy to learn, immediately fun to play but lasts as long as you want. You do get “quests” to gain extra items but the focus is to race, master drifting and generally have a good time with other players all over the world. Once you shut down your PC, your achievements will still be online. You can gain a name for yourself or just play for fun.

Free to play games need to generate revenue off course. Once you truly get into the game, you need to buy points with real money so you can have the best equipment to win the next race. Your competition will do the same so you’ll have yourself a nice little arms race going on. I’ve been on that road before, when internet was still in the hand of universities and the military. When I was in high school, a little play-by-mail game called “It’s a crime” sucked away my wage as a helper in the local supermarket as fast as I could earn it. With instant internet purchases, the money is bound to go even faster.

Top Speed shows that there is a future for PC sports games and I’m surprised that EA doesn’t jump into that niche. EA owns the rights to several franchises that beg for a model like Top Speed. FIFA, Nascar, NFL, PGA are just a few of the big ones. There are other (mostly Asian) free to play sports games, like Shot Online, but wouldn’t it be great to compete in an adult non cartoonish sports league where even the biggest couch potato can score a hole in one or win the World Cup?

Microsoft and Sony have a variation on the model, where you buy the game and can play online for free. A big reason Moore doesn’t mention in his blog but which must have played a big role, is development cost. On a closed platform like the Xbox 360 you don’t have to take hundreds of different hardware configurations into account. PC’s are still evolving fast and high level programming doesn’t allow getting the most out of the hardware. EA Sports games are struggling to re-invent themselves every year and are leaning heavily on eye candy and a lot less on originality. On a close platform, programmers can just take different elements from EA’s library and build games like a LEGO project. If you don’t need specialized programmers, you can keep cost down. If you don’t need to develop special routines, you can keep cost down. If you don’t need to update your games to keep your players you can use your resources for next years game and keep cost down. EA’s sports games will always be “same-same but different”.

With a free to play model you run the risk that if your game doesn’t meet expectations, players won’t pay. With the EA model you can try better next year. There will always be a place for subscription based games like World of Warcraft but in my opinion, the free to play or more accurately pay-as-you-play games have the future. Sports games have the advantage of speed, ease of play and you can pay as much as you like. Mature players with little time can play a quick round of golf or race a few laps on their notebook while waiting at the airport. Try doing that with your PS3! Capturing the interest and wallets of this group sounds like good business to me, but I guess EA knows what its doing when they leave the PC behind.

A few weeks ago I talked about taking free to play games mobile at a mobile banking conference. If done right, this will be the next big step. Mark my words.