Core gamers aren't that comfortable with change, says EA's Peter Moore

EA's COO Peter Moore has discussed the nature of new trends in the games industry as part of a new interview, suggesting that core gamers are perhaps a little stuck in their ways when it comes to microtransaction and free to play titles.

Speaking with GI.biz, Moore expressed his excitement at the current state of gaming.

He said, "I think we're going into almost a golden age of gaming, where it doesn't matter where you are, at any time, any place, any price point, any amount of time, there's a game available to you. And our job as a company is to provide those game experiences. And then on our big franchises, tie them all together."

This ties in with EA's plan to offer shared experiences across a variety of platforms, such as Battlefield 4's Commander tablet mode, FIFA 14 Ultimate Team and its stock of mobile titles, the PC Origin store and multiformat console releases.

Free-to-play and microtransaction models are also coming to the fore, although EA has perhaps stumbled in this department, as the publisher recently admitted it could have done better with its treatment of Dungeon Keeper's intrusive payment model. I had a big old rant about it in this article. Do you agree?

The problem - Moore feels - doesn't lie just with EA, but the unwillingness of core gamers to embrace these new ideas.

"I think the challenge sometimes is that the growth of gaming... there's a core that doesn't quite feel comfortable with that," Moore continued. "Your readers, the industry in particular. I don't get frustrated, but I scratch my head at times and say, 'Look. These are different times.' And different times usually evoke different business models. Different consumers come in. They've got different expectations. And we can either ignore them or embrace them, and at EA, we've chosen to embrace them."

So the problem isn't in the business models themselves, but also with the gaming public. Moore went on, "There is a core--controversial statement coming from me, sadly--that just doesn't like that, because it's different. It's disruptive. It's not the way it used to be. I used to put my disc in the tray or my cartridge in the top, and I'd sit there and play. And all of these young people coming in, or God forbid, these old people coming into gaming!"

Speaking personally, I'm not afraid of business models Peter, I'm afraid of averts and having to pay to use core components of a game that should be part of the free product.

What's your view?

Via PCGamesN.