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Pay-to-Play Online Madden?

by Steven Rodriguez - May 7, 2003, 5:09 pm EDT
Source: CNN Money

If the GameCube version of Madden ever goes online, you might need to pay to play.

CNN Money's videogame columnist, Chris Morris, has a column talking about Electronic Arts' online gaming practices, and how it wasn't making as much money as it used to be.

EA's free (but ad-riddled) onling gaming website, Pogo is still making EA money, but the ads that the site forces upon you isn't bringing in the cash that is has in past years. While in a conference call about this topic, EA's president and COO John Riccitello made a comment about the world's number one football game:

"I think in this generation there's only very modest revenue potential for [Xbox Live and Sony Online]," he said. "What has yet to be proven, but I think it represents a significant revenue opportunity if we can play it out properly, is added revenue generation capability in the back end. So instead of just selling Madden at $49, we may be able to generate subscription [revenue] on the back of that. At this point, that's frankly more speculative than it is substantive, but that's what we're going to be working on over the balance of the cycle."

In other words, don't expect to play Madden for free, if or when the GameCube version ever gets to have this feature. If EA sheds anymore light on this topic at E3, we'll be sure to grab it for you.

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