EA details microtransaction-filled future

- Blake J. Jorgensen, CFO at Electronic Arts, says that all future games from the company will involve microtransactions in some way. EA has hinted numerous times in the past that it is very interested in pursuing in-app purchases wherever possible, including an example of paying a dollar to get more ammo for your clip in Battlefield. As part of a talk at Morgan Stanley Technology Media & Telecom Conference this week, Jorgensen said that EA is now looking to incorporate in-app purchases into all its games, "either to get to a higher level to buy a new character, to buy a truck, a gun, whatever it might be." "Consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of the business," he added, noting that as part of the dedication to microtransactions, the company has built its own system to handle the intake. "We've got to have a very strong back-end to make sure that we can operate a business like that," he explained. "If you're doing microtransactions and you're processing credit cards for every one of those microtransactions, you'll get eaten alive. And so Rajat's [Taneja, CTO at EA] team has built an amazing back-end to be able to manage that and manage it much more profitably." EA has previously outsourced a good portion of its microtransactions operations, but it will now bring everything in-house. Jorgensen continued, "The other piece of that puzzle is the mobile business itself. Playing games on a tablet or a mobile phone, smartphone, that business has evolved very quickly. It's become a very large part of our business and it's either an extension of existing franchises or new franchises." With The Simpsons: Tapped Out, for example, EA took $25 million in the last quarter alone. "So there's an opportunity there, probably smaller opportunity on a per title basis than something like a FIFA or a Battlefield."