FEB. 9, 2010 • Electronic Arts chief operating officer John Schappert pledged in a financial conference call that all of the publisher’s releases in fiscal 2011will have an online component – with both downloadable content and online play. He clarified this pledge included core EA Games titles, pogo.com content, titles from the mobile and iPhone group, and the recently acquired Playfish social gaming network.

Impact: Ten years ago this type of pledge would have seemed fairly bold.  In today’s market it almost seems one should take it for granted that a game will have online play in some form or another.  Of course, the big issue is that consumers expect online play when they put down $50 or more for a game.  Electronic Arts’ real goal, and major challenge, is to get consumers to actually pay extra for what they are currently getting for free.