EA Sports is the well-known brand from console and PC game maker, Electronic Arts (EA). The US-based company is popular with gamers for its titles that include the likes of “FIFA” (football games), “Madden NFL”, “Ashes” cricket games, “Tiger Woods PGA Tour” (golf), among others.
The company is targeting the mobile platform here in India, which it sees as the next big destination. EA already has a facility in Hyderabad.
In an interview to
Below are edited excerpts:
How big is the video games market for you in India?
We think India offers a big opportunity for our products in the future and we are very serious about understanding the Indian consumer. We have a large office in Hyderabad and hundreds of employees who take care of different operations like game development, testing, user interface as well as administrative services.
EA has started looking at options for game development coming out of Hyderabad facility.
What will be your focus areas?
We are mostly focussed on mobile games and tablets. There is opportunity there for us with the large population; and with the smartphone penetration picking up, we are continuously looking for opportunities.
So your primary focus is on the mobile platforms?
Yeah. Primarily, we see the opportunities on mobile.
Can you talk about the Hyderabad facility?
We have probably around 400 people and we opened it some six or seven years ago.
The gaming market in India is nascent. Console gaming is cost prohibitive and PC games are not much popular either. How does EA plan to overcome these issues here?
Mobile devices are changing or rather growing the video game audiences rapidly. There are close to one billion smartphones across the globe and getting that game now is so much easier. You can download it at the click of a few buttons and make payments too (in-app purchases). So the opportunity to market our products is relatively bigger. Mobile devices offer huge accessibility.
Is the reason for your focus on mobile gaming because of the fact that India remains a place PC or console gaming are yet to pick up?
Yeah, that is one point. And even in most of the Asian countries where we have presence, we are heavily impacted by piracy. But in case of a mobile game, there is no piracy.
How do you tackle issues of piracy with your PC and console games?
We now have codes in the console games that can be used to open up online purchases. So if the game is a pirated one or resold then you will not have access to the code. The only way to gain access to it is through payment of a sum.
On the PC, we are looking at the service-based online model. To play the game, you need to be connected online. As the game gets more service-oriented, there will be an application world.
Instead of game development through large global brands isn’t it feasible that there are India-specific games?
We have to fish where the fish are. And deploy our capital in multiple ways. We are game to gravitate towards large global brands. Certainly, we are always looking at opportunities to extend our offerings which may be more relevant in some market to another.
So any chances for developing a global product based out of India?
Not yet. But never say never. We have to focus on the biggest brands. The markets are in transition right now and the big titles are by far taking a greater share.
The new platforms of mobile and tablets are extremely fragmented. In order to compete in the mobile and tablet space, we need to have our cash-cow from the console space for our entry into the new emerging markets.
(The reporter was in Canada at the invitation from the Government of Canada)