Electronics Arts has implemented a new system for getting their product to their consumers. EA Access is an Xbox One exclusive service that allows users to play games made by Electronic Arts that have been released in previous years for $5 per month or $30 per year. EA Access also lets users play demos of new EA games before they have been released for several hours and then download the game at a 10% discount once its release date has passed. According to EA, the Access user base has doubled in the last six months.
In my opinion, Electronic Arts new service is a revolutionary product for the video game industry. EA is using differentiation in the gaming industry, however their strategy is one that has been proven in other industries. EA access is very similar to other extremely successful products such as Netflix and Spotify. The trend in the media market place has been to allow users the maximum amount of content for the cheapest price; This is easily achievable through subscription. It is very reasonable to assume that this strategy will be mimicked and possibly used by an external source to link many gaming companies together (similar to the value proposition of Netflix). From a partnership perspective, I believe that Microsoft made a good decision by partnering with EA for this exclusive product; they could also experience financial gain from consumer base growth.
photo http://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/ea_access_01.jpg
