EA: Ignore the vocal minority – the market likes free-to-play

The angry whining of teens on the internet should not be mistaken for actual, real-world opinion.

That much is certainly true. Whether it can be applied to arguments surrounding free-to-play gaming is probably slightly more debatable.

There’s no confusion as to which side of the fence EA sits on, however. EA All Play senior VP Nick Earl says that there’s no disputing free-to-play’s victory in the modern games market.

"The market has spoken very loudly that that’s the model they like," Earl told GamesIndustry. "Even though there’s some vocal minority that don’t like it, ultimately the numbers would show that they and others all support the freemium model better.

"At the end of the day you kind of have to look at real numbers. The old proverb, ‘You can’t please all the people all the time’ is just so true."

The comments reiterated Earl’s statements last month following the release of Real Racing 3.

The iOS title shunned an upfront free in favour of going free-to-play. The move was decried by the Angry Internet Men, although the game went on to become the most downloaded title in the series.

"There’s no question that going freemium was the right way to go," he said at the time. "The vocal minority lashed out at freemium. We respect them and understand, but the market has spoken. That’s just where things are going."