Games as services concept will radically alter industry, says EA boss

As games become services, EA COO John Pleasants has told Venturebeat, the standard model of how the general development industry operated will be thrown out the window. Probably into a "dumpster".

"If you believe all games will eventually be services — as I do — then the idea of game teams that make a game, ship it, and then do something else goes away," he said.

"They will now ship and day one begins when the customer gives feedback to the live service. The way you distribute will be different. The way you charge will be different. There will be more permutations in pricing. Merchandising will be much more important. Co-marketing will be much more important.

"You have to have persistent identification and entitlements for a user, no matter where they are or in what game they’re playing."

EA is currently in the process of onlinifying Tiger Woods, the thin end of what will obviously be a rather large wedge.

There's a good interview through there.