With Electronic Arts (EA) being one of the world’s largest publishers of video games, it’s normal for some people to not like the publisher due to certain practices like Season Passes or killing off gaming franchises that doesn’t meet absurd revenue expectations. However contrary popular belief, EA isn’t the epitome of gaming evil.
Speaking to MCV, EA EVP of Global Publishing Laura Miele mentions that the publisher’s focus to "live services" has not only shifted the entire company, but that their metric of success is now based on a player’s "happiness" rather than just the revenue.
“There is an obligation that we have to players to keep content fresh and keep the services well rounded. We really feel like we earn our players’ time over the period of their game playing cycles. We look at our Net Promoter Score (NPS) monthly for all our games and I would say that has changed our perspective on the success metric. The relationship [between players and EA’s games], their happiness, their NPS score, are our number one primary success metrics for the company now. It’s no longer revenue. That has evolved how people feel about our games and, ultimately, how they feel about EA.”
Miele didn’t stop there; according to her, we’re in the "golden era of gaming" right now, wherein "players are at the centre" of EA’s business strategies.
Check out the full feature since it dives deeper into EA’s business model for this generation.
Is this "player happiness" thing the same metric the publisher used when it decided to stop all support for Mass Effect Andromeda or even any post-launch DLC? I really don’t know, but at least EA’s looking out for our best interest, right?
Now please make a Dead Space 4 announcement, EA!