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EA CEO wants to turn pirates into paying customers with DLC

Posted Dec 8, 2009 at 4:45PM EST by Karl B.

Listed in: PSP, PS3, Nintendo DS, PC Gaming Tags: dlc, Electronic Arts, games for windows, John Riccitiello, piracy

riccitiello

As much as he doesn't want people to pirate games, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello concedes that there's a sizeable pirate market out there, and he wants to turn them into paying customers. How? By selling them post-release DLC.

"There's a sizable pirate market and a sizable second sale market and we want to try to generate revenue in that marketplace," he told Kotaku in a recent interview. Riccitiello suggested that since EA's download services can't perfectly distinguish between used and pirated copies, they end up selling DLC to both the used and pirated markets. And judging by the sales of some of their DLC, people are lapping them up even if they're paid downloads.

Riccitiello also added that instead of the music industry's reaction of "demonizing" its consumers, EA has an obligation to entice people to play games legitimately. To that end, Riccitiello hopes that EA's DLC releases as well as services like the BioWare social site that interfaces with Dragon Age: Origins will make it "increasingly less likely that people will pirate because there is so much value on the other side of the door."

Still, the EA CEO made it clear that pirating games is bad. "I don't think anybody should pirate anything," he said. "I believe in the artistry of the people who build [the games industry.] I profoundly believe that. And when you steal from us, you steal from them."

It's worth noting that one of Riccitiello's comments -- "They can steal the disc, but they can't steal the DLC." -- isn't entirely accurate, but I guess that can be excused as long as they keep steering clear of insanely frustrating DRM practices and focus on quality releases instead.

[Kotaku]

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next thing you know you'll get a message "In order to proceed to the next level, you must buy it. Click here." rofl.

well anyway, a good game for me definitely deserves my money. but that's for me to decide. they can't do sh*t about it. haha.

so far, i've played games that are jack sparrow edition and if liked it, i ended up buying the game just like dragon age origins. lol. and mostly indie games. i passed up on mw2 since it sucks on pc imo. played the jack sparrow edition of mw2, single player campaign, it is good but short.

if they really want to eliminate piracy, they should go to somalia. xD

# . — m3rox 2009-12-08 21:00

The only way to stop video game piracy is to shut down the internet, permanently. And ban the sale of blank discs. Since those two things are never going to happen, piracy of video games will always exist.

# I brought some kindling for you — xyal_zx 2009-12-08 22:10

I know he isnt calling piracy theft, that would just be retarded. Obviously pirating has potential to hurt game sales but that doesnt make it theft. Theft involves loss of something you already had. You can argue that he has lost sales, but sales arent objects that have been taken away from him without permission. Not sure why he cares about Disc theft, only retailers need worry about that one. If I were bottacelli or w/e id be plenty worried about piracy though. Who the heck would pay money for a new EA title. LMFARO.

# Huh. — ShinseiTom 2009-12-08 22:18

I see nothing wrong with what he said, other than the "DLC can't be pirated" thing. But otherwise, I like his stand. Pirating is bad, we should entice people to play our games legitimately, and if they still won't buy, maybe they'll at least buy the DLC if they liked it enough.

Now, if they also get rid of draconian DRM, they'll be good (other than the normal "EA Quality" they're famous for."

# True.. — papajag 2009-12-08 22:41

Quoting Silver-Tiger:

WOW, does this guy actually know what's up in the scene?

"They can steal the disc, but they can't steal the DLC."

Yes, you can. Actually it's very easy in the case of Dragon Age with the included DAupdater.

But I think it requires you opening your HDD.

# lol hackers — vizard00 2009-12-08 23:07

i have a bad news for M$ ,

xbox360 is now fully hacked and play isos from dvd also arcade game are now cracked . so i dont see why pirates will buy DLC ,

also m$ used this strategie from the begining with xbox live so i dont see whats new ,

but i feel a litle scam on this statement , as feelt that one from IW , so EA want to use the hackers and cheaters fact and start releasing uncompleted games on dvd so all must have a account to finish teh game , yes thats teh only thing that they can add

so we will have

- FIFA 11 with a missed league
- NBA with a missed team

off course that will enjoy DLC service since players must have a account a paid one , and this will reduce the licence fees for sure .

so after what IW did and enjoyed it gaming will become a DLC world , nice done noobs you buy over priced games now youll rebuy your games

and remember piracy do not afect gaming market

# . — Luciddreamin92 2009-12-09 00:18

last time i remembered, to steal something u have to actually touch it ")

then again thats jus being a smart ass "D

# - — UltimaArmorX 2009-12-09 07:04

I haven't thought much of this (the idea just popped up and I'm writing it before I punch too many holes) and obviously since I thought of it other people might have too, but, I don't see why EA doesn't start releasing anti-piracy swap discs. It would require you to obtain a free anti-piracy swap disc with the purchase of any EA game (or $1 alone?) and you have to put the swap disc in, take it out when the message tells you, and put in the game disc. I figured it's worth mentioning because like in the game dj max portable you have to swap discs if you want to play older songs on newer dj max portable games but when you are playing the ISO you cannot swap anything. It would put a complete halt to all custom firmware ISO running. For a good amount of time at least.

# then again.. — UltimaArmorX 2009-12-09 07:09

sony psp firmware programmers might have to incorporate a swap disc check. i can see where things would all be open to piracy again if the careless psp hackers out there tinkered yet again. but it's better than simply releasing bug fixes and generally useless features otherwise. (imho) you are one bored person if you started running skype on your psp.

# lool — vizard00 2009-12-09 09:04

swap disc lol, hackers and crackers cracked hardware chek by usb , and u speak about swap disc .

# Funny — Walo 2009-12-09 09:24

Funny how EA criticize the music industry when they have the worst reputation of "demonizing" their customers.

# ... — cory1492 2009-12-09 09:32

typical, from a rep of a company that forces you to have an internet connection just to get accesses to the full game that is already on the disk, at additional expense no less.

# what the hell — L0NG 2009-12-09 10:22

f*** you , EA CEO! i wanna be a pirate and i will !
even if ALL games will cost 1 cent i will download.
and, you may not afraid i never downloading EA games you know why :) ha ha ha ha
your games not need even for free, f**** FIFA 98 99 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 etc plus NHL NFL and ALL your trash (not OLD EA games, some of they are cool).
so, F*** YOU!

# hmmm — vizard00 2009-12-09 10:27

fifa 2010 is a good game i think , if u played it

# Last I checked — dustinfoley 2009-12-09 13:35

Last time i checked, pirating is stealing.
You are unlawfully acquiring a product you didn't pay for and as a result costing the company money. Theres a reason PC games are at an all time low, its because its just not profitably to make games for a system that has such a high pirate base.

But hey, keep pirating, and let me know how it feels when companys stop making games for the xbox because, even though it has a higher fan base (by alot) the ammount of profit generated is only slightly more then a ps3 (where pirating is almost non existant in comparison to the 360)

# - — APerson 2009-12-09 13:50

PC gaming is at an all time low? I guess thats why L4D1 and 2, CoD4 MW1 and 2 are all selling in their millions on Steam.

Jesus fucking christ why do people always say gaming is dying? They've been saying it for near on a decade now and low and behold - it isn't. Just a lie spread by people who don't look at ratings, sales etc.

# RJ — dustinfoley 2009-12-09 16:19

xbox 360: 6200000
ps3 : 4200000
pc: 1500000
12000000 sold week ending in nov 28th

55% on Xbox 360
35% on PS3
10% on PC

34.1 million xbox 360, with roughly ~1 million being modded
27.8 million ps3 with roughly < 100,000 being moded (I actually think this number is closer to 100 but to be fair i way over estimated)

Looks like pc is a dead market to me in comparison. But hey it might just be the funky thing people call math..

check vgchartz sometime

# previous post — dustinfoley 2009-12-09 19:57

My previous post was MW2 numbers

# lol — vizard00 2009-12-09 23:59

your stats are just a dream ,

pls chek real stats i think ps2 sell more than xbox360

# ?? — houaruto 2009-12-10 00:42

27.8 million ps3 with roughly < 100,000 being moded (I actually think this number is closer to 100 but to be fair i way over estimated)

if it has anything to do with privacy last time i checked PS3 is still king of unhackable and still pisses off privates to no end for that.

# Or.. — davidg 2009-12-10 02:09

They could simply make their games PS3 exclusives, since nobody hacked the ps3.. And I don't think we'll see something ever on that. Not that sony is god (far from that) but I don't see myself downloading a 52GB disc and burning it on a 25$'s worth blue-ray... lol. Unless hackers can get a way of splitting the games on multiple discs and even if they find a way, I would NOT hack my PS3 to get this worst than anything service(like red faction on the ps2, that was one of the 1st using double layer DVDs that costed like 3$ each at the time. The hackers made a split on 2 disc and you had to save your game in one the the places that were on both single layer discs, and load from the second.. a pain). The ps3 is hack-proof for the major part. The only thing I can see getting hacked is the playstation store, like the apple app store got ripped off.. I can't understand studios,

# L0NG 2009-12-10 10:35

and what a difference between FIFA 98 and 2009???
players and teams names? a color of the ball?
FUCK IT!!!

# bullshit — L0NG 2009-12-10 10:40

this nubbers taked from f*** corrupt marketing souces - only stupid schoolboys berliev in any public statistics lol

# Hmm.... — Bountyhunter53 2009-12-10 15:27

Not really, we have flash USB's now ;)

But to the point hes thinking wrongly. If Pirates got round the games protection, whats going to stop them cracking the DLC's protection :|. Doesn't make sense.

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