Electronic Arts Is Experimenting with Cross-Play
It looks like Electronic Arts has their sights set on cross-play and follow in the footsteps of games like Fortnite. EA CEO Andrew Wilson discussed the possibility in a recent earnings call when he was asked if the company’s games, like Battlefield V, will feature cross-play. Wilson said that cross-play is an “important part of our future development profile,” although he didn’t officially confirm anything.
“We have a vision on a 3- to 5-year time horizon where a great portion of game experiences will exist in the cloud and be pushed to every device you own,” he said. “And the game experience you have won’t be measured by local CPU or GPU, but will be measured by screen size and session time you have and will drive tremendous liquidity in a market.”
Wilson also hinted that EA is experimenting with cross-pay support for some of the company’s “key franchises.”
“We’re looking at key franchises in terms of how we should deliver cross-platform way … in a similar way that Fortnite has, especially … some of our titles have a broad and diverse player base,” he said.
“Households typically have one console, so the ability to bring PC to console and console to mobile into that play experience can bring families together, can bring friends together,” he continued. “And we think it’s an important part of our future development profile, both in terms of mobile games that we have today moving up per se to console and PC, and console and PC games being playable in mobile. And I expect more from us on that front in the future.”
EA also just acquired GameFky’s Israel-based streaming outfit in order to bolster its cloud and streaming effects.