EA: 70-75% of EA Sports players play Ultimate Team, around half (35%+) spend microtransaction money

Nirolak · Dec 5, 2017

As you can imagine, this is an incredibly high spend rate. Casual mobile games often only have 2-3% paid conversion, while core oriented f2p games are more like 20-30% depending on the title (at least based on Warframe and Team Fortress 2, though it could have gone up since they gave numbers).

Japanese mobile games also tend to have 20-25% according to JP Morgan Chase IIRC.

GamesIndustry.biz said:
"Today about 70-75% of all the people that buy the sports games join Ultimate Team," Jorgensen said. "It's fun. It's a great way to play the game. Of those 75% of the people, about half of those people actually spend some money and the other half just play without spending. But in a free-to-play world, that's a fantastic balance of spenders and non-spenders."

He also addressed the company's strategy for growing those numbers, saying, "We spend very little time trying to get people to spend more money. We really try to spend most of our time getting people into the funnel because we know once they're into the game, they'll really have a good time, and they'll play it for a long period of time."

Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...t-of-ea-sports-players-spend-on-ultimate-team

And a note more generally about service games and how they act as long term platforms:

Jorgensen returned to that idea later in the presentation, saying that people are playing fewer games these days, but playing them for longer periods of time thanks to live services and regular events.

"This entertainment form is probably one of the greatest entertainment values for consumers," Jorgensen said. "If you go to a movie today, it can cost you in the US $20 to get in the movie before you buy popcorn, which is fun. It's great, I love it. But at the same time, a $60 video game that people are playing three, four, five thousand hours during the year on, that's a lot of value for your money. And even if you spend some money on top of that, you're typically spending it on increasing the fun and excitement of the game. So we're just trying to give the consumers what they really want, and more of it, versus trying to build another game or do something different."

Brass Body Dave · Dec 5, 2017

Ultimate Team has been such a great thing for EA. Kudos to them for making something that the majority of the market can't get enough of, and loves the shit out of.

HUGE percentage of people spending money as opposed to the F2P ones. That's admirable.

zombiejames · Dec 5, 2017

"If you go to a movie today, it can cost you in the US $20 to get in the movie before you buy popcorn, which is fun. It's great, I love it. But at the same time, a $60 video game that people are playing three, four, five thousand hours during the year on, that's a lot of value for your money. And even if you spend some money on top of that, you're typically spending it on increasing the fun and excitement of the game. So we're just trying to give the consumers what they really want, and more of it, versus trying to build another game or do something different."

Oh fuck off.

Deleted member 21693 · Dec 5, 2017

Insane numbers.

TheBeardedOne · Dec 5, 2017

That's crazy and not good to hear.

I've played NHL every year, and have dabbled in Ultimate Team a bit. It's never hooked me though, as it's too much of a time sink and too random. Plus people play it more than I do and are willing to spend money.

I've never spent a cent.

Knight613 · Dec 5, 2017

zombiejames said:
Oh fuck off.

The irony of that statement being about yearly sports games that do the bare minimum additions to justify a new $60 release.

Acerac · Dec 5, 2017

KonFot said:
Insane numbers.

Funny how under the radar P2W sports games are.

You can understand why EA thought that the nonsense they were pulling in Battlefront would be fine, they've been doing similar things for years.

RoboPlato · Dec 5, 2017

This is why they're trying to make everything they publish have Ultimate Team like hooks. We really should have listened more to people who warned us about this stuff in sports games.

borges · Dec 5, 2017

FUT is the best MTX system implemented. Ever.

Nirolak · Dec 5, 2017

Acerac said:
Funny how under the radar P2W sports games are.

You can understand why EA thought that the nonsense they were pulling in Battlefront would be fine, they've been doing similar things for years.

RoboPlato said:
This is why they're trying to make everything they publish have Ultimate Team like hooks. We really should have listened more to people who warned us about this stuff in sports games.

Yeah. The other part of this conference was Blake going "Yeah... so it turns out different game audiences have different expectations when it comes to monetization..."

Abrasion Test · Dec 5, 2017

RoboPlato said:
This is why they're trying to make everything they publish have Ultimate Team like hooks. We really should have listened more to people who warned us about this stuff in sports games.

NBA 2K's VC in this year's game is particularly egregious in how insidious it is. It's always been bad, but the way it creeps up in later game balance is very sneaky.

MLB the Show's Stub system is actually not too bad in comparison, although still a bit dirty.

Surface of Me · Dec 5, 2017

Surely, the entirety of that 35% are gambling addicts taking out payday loans to fund their addiction.

Foldedpencil · Dec 5, 2017

5000 hours a year!? Who is doing this? That like 100 hours a week. Also, I have never paid $20 for a movie ticket.

HeresSomeWeapons · Dec 5, 2017

35% is "around half?" TIL.

Kage Maru · Dec 5, 2017

zombiejames said:
Oh fuck off.

x2.

RoboPlato · Dec 5, 2017

HeresSomeWeapons said:
35% is "around half?" TIL.

Around half of the people that play Ultimate Team, which is 70-75%

Deleted member 21693 · Dec 5, 2017

Acerac said:
Funny how under the radar P2W sports games are.

You can understand why EA thought that the nonsense they were pulling in Battlefront would be fine, they've been doing similar things for years.

And I have never really heard much of an uproar when it comes to FIFA. Maybe the analogy here is just too perfect for people to care. You buy FUT packs just as like you bought stickers with footballers on them when you were a kid. But it's P2W.

I did see some #fixfifa hashtag or something like that floating around not too long ago though. But looking at these numbers, the mass market has totally accepted these monetisation mechanics.

The takeaway here could be that publishers will have to distinguish the microtransaction acceptance for each title/genre/series from now on.

rras1994 · Dec 5, 2017

HeresSomeWeapons said:
35% is "around half?" TIL.

35% is half of the number of people who play Ultimate Team (70% of the full playerbase)

Chaos2Frozen · Dec 5, 2017

I saw that video about the "Wilson Lootbox"

This is almost assuredly the reason why EA thought they could get away with it in Battlefront 2.

They're banking on the unenlightened masses to make up for the lost in core gamers.

Nirolak · Dec 5, 2017

HeresSomeWeapons said:
35% is "around half?" TIL.

Around half of the people who play Ultimate Team, which is 70% of the people who play the game.

BioDigital Jazzman · Dec 5, 2017

Foldedpencil said:
5000 hours a year!? Who is doing this? That like 100 hours a week. Also, I have never paid $20 for a movie ticket.

Depends where you go most newer theaters with nice seats etc are more money. I can easily pay $15 for an adult night time ticket and IMAX or 3D is $18

Dekuman · Dec 5, 2017

More reason we should tell Lucasfilm to move away from exclusivity with Star Wars.

HeeHo · Dec 5, 2017

Foldedpencil said:
5000 hours a year!? Who is doing this? That like 100 hours a week. Also, I have never paid $20 for a movie ticket.

Came here to say this. I dunno where he pulled those numbers from.

Fubar · Dec 5, 2017

I guess I fall in that 35%, but I usually buy one, maybe two packs total per game to get started. Rationalize it by saying the EA access discount pays for it. Oh well.

rras1994 · Dec 5, 2017

Dekuman said:
More reason we should tell Lucasfilm to move away from exclusivity with Star Wars.

Tell them what? That people play their games alot and a large amount decide to spend extra money? Why would a big company like Disney be annoyed at that?

Deleted member 21693 · Dec 5, 2017

Dekuman said:
More reason we should tell Lucasfilm to move away from exclusivity with Star Wars.

More like Lucasfilms sees this and thinks EA did the right thing in principle but went too far.

Look at these numbers. They're incredible.

SapientWolf · Dec 5, 2017

I was thinking about this the other day. What if, given the option, the market votes yes for P2W multiplayer? There is a mode that is non-P2W but people still participate in this one. And pay actual money while doing so.

ec0ec0 · Dec 5, 2017

so 35% spend some money.

that's just a number to make themselves look good.

If you actually want to tell us about the numbers, tell us what percent of the users generate what percent of the revenue, and so on. You know, the significant info.

nikos · Dec 5, 2017

zombiejames said:
Oh fuck off.

Seriously?

It makes perfect sense. An IMAX film here costs $25 for two hours of entertainment.

I can go out and spend the cost of a new game on 2-3 drinks. For what? To enjoy myself.

I don't mind spending $50 on a game even if it provides one night of entertainment. I'll continually pay for content as long as the game continues to entertain me.

P A Z · Dec 5, 2017

I just realised that I am finally at that point where I say "ok" and move on from EA.

I've put all the energy I can muster into hoping EA can win me back or at least stop doing stupid and/or bad things with games and devs I like but they're not going to because they've already got younger people with looser wallets to replace me.

I'll go find my "something different" somewhere else and be much happier for it.

Everyone wins.

Vic Damone Jr. · Dec 5, 2017

RoboPlato said:
This is why they're trying to make everything they publish have Ultimate Team like hooks. We really should have listened more to people who warned us about this stuff in sports games.

Has been happening in nba 2K...

Level 9 CPU said:
NBA 2K's VC in this year's game is particularly egregious in how insidious it is. It's always been bad, but the way it creeps up in later game balance is very sneaky.

MLB the Show's Stub system is actually not too bad in comparison, although still a bit dirty.

Ah I see someone beat me to it. But yea, it's been in nba 2K for years and gets ignored cause it's a sports game. But the hardcore for sports games are dropping loads of money day one. A lot of them are dropping money at the store when they pick up the game through the mtx digital codes and cards.

Delusibeta · Dec 5, 2017

Isn't the big problem with F2P games getting people to pay for the first time? That would presumably be resolved when you have to buy the game initially.

Doesn't explain why Japanese mobage has such a high conversion rate, however.

Dekuman · Dec 5, 2017

rras1994 said:
Tell them what? That people play their games alot and a large amount decide to spend extra money? Why would a big company like Disney be annoyed at that?

KonFot said:
More like Lucasfilms sees this and thinks EA did the right thing in principle but went too far.

Look at these numbers. They're incredible.

I use 'we' here as in we gamers. Not schilling for EA or the Star Wars brand.

I agree that Lucasfilm/Disney may be tempted by the potential cashflow here but they have other bigger revenue streams such as licensing. The brand would be more important to them than getting a cut of whatever EA is doing. Which in this case has only seen negative publicity. Gamers and star wars fans are not the same as sports addicts it seems.

Brass Body Dave · Dec 5, 2017

nikos said:
Seriously?

It makes perfect sense. An IMAX film here costs $25 for two hours of entertainment.

I can go out and spend the cost of a new fame on 2-3 drinks. For what? To enjoy myself.

I don't mind spending $50 on a game even if it provides one night of entertainment. I'll continually pay for content as long as the game continues to entertain me.

Ding ding ding. Completely right. Games are honestly too cheap considering what they offer, compared to other media except for books, which are a world of imagination for dirt-ass prices.

Deleted member 21693 · Dec 5, 2017

ec0ec0 said:
that's just a number to make themselves look good.

If you actually want to tell us about the numbers, tell us what percent of the users generate what percent of the revenue and so on. You know, the significant info.

Is it really that difficult to accept that others feel differently about microtransactions than you do?

Acerac · Dec 5, 2017

SapientWolf said:
I was thinking about this the other day. What if, given the option, the market votes yes for P2W multiplayer? There is a mode that is non-P2W but people still participate in this one. And pay actual money while doing so.

Do you know how much these games sell?

There is no closing Pandora's Box here, the market has spoken, and loudly. It's just a question of how widespread the results will be.

Derrick01 · Dec 5, 2017

That's a lot of people who need interventions.

rsfour · Dec 5, 2017

Should sell UT separately.

Nome · Dec 5, 2017

Delusibeta said:
Isn't the big problem with F2P games getting people to pay for the first time? That would presumably be resolved when you have to buy the game initially.

Doesn't explain why Japanese mobage has such a high conversion rate, however.

No, F2P's biggest hurdle is retention. Conversion rate is not an issue.

Different territories monetize differently. Japan is much more culturally accepting of monetization tactics.

Deleted member 21693 · Dec 5, 2017

Dekuman said:
I use 'we' here as in we gamers. Not schilling for EA or the Star Wars brand.

I agree that Lucasfilm/Disney may be tempted by the potential cashflow here but they have other bigger revenue streams such as licensing. The brand would be more important to them than getting a cut of whatever EA is doing. Which in this case has only seen negative publicity. Gamers and star wars fans are not the same as sports addicts it seems.

Pretty sure these 35% that spend money on FIFA video game microtransactions are gamers too.

BernardoOne · Dec 5, 2017

Dekuman said:
More reason we should tell Lucasfilm to move away from exclusivity with Star Wars.

Lucasfilm and Disney don't give a shit. They like this. Disney and Lucasfilm have literally greenlit this kind of business a shitload of times, they are no strangers to it in the slightest.

ec0ec0 · Dec 5, 2017

KonFot said:
Is it really that difficult to accept that others feel differently about microtransactions than you do?

i accep that, but to actually convince me, they would have to show me the whole picture (i.e. not selectively choosing to show some info, but omit other which is as important)

LoyalPhoenix · Dec 5, 2017

nikos · Dec 5, 2017

Sunflower said:
Ding ding ding. Completely right. Games are honestly too cheap considering what they offer, compared to other media except for books, which are a world of imagination for dirt-ass prices.

Yup. The cost to content ratio is insane, yet gamers are the most vocal about what they're paying for entertainment. We haven't even mentioned the cost of developing and releasing a game. It's pretty disgusting.

New Fang · Dec 5, 2017

Acerac said:
Do you know how much these games sell?

There is no closing Pandora's Box here, the market has spoken, and loudly. It's just a question of how widespread the results will be.

This is the cold hard truth.

Deleted member 42 · Dec 5, 2017

That's a really big chunk of people, holy shit

Abrasion Test · Dec 5, 2017

SapientWolf said:
I was thinking about this the other day. What if, given the option, the market votes yes for P2W multiplayer? There is a mode that is non-P2W but people still participate in this one. And pay actual money while doing so.

Halo 5's Warzone was kind of like this. It wasn't that egregious, but they managed to avoid a lot of the backlash by restricting gameplay altering MT's to one mode that isn't meant to be very serious.

Gxgear · Dec 5, 2017

Quick google showing ultimate team stuff doesn't even carry over year over year?! Man people are crazy about football.

It's little wonder why they're trying to jam that model into Star Wars.

Derrick01 · Dec 5, 2017

Dekuman said:
More reason we should tell Lucasfilm to move away from exclusivity with Star Wars.

Yeah tell Disney, the company that's about to increase their near monopoly by buying Fox, to move away from an exclusive deal. That should go well.

Brass Body Dave · Dec 5, 2017

BronsonLee said:
That's a really big chunk of people, holy shit

It's legitimately impressive if you see how most MTs work on mobile and what 'saves' a game. They do some real fantastic work and leverage of their sports licenses are unreal. Whoever works on UTs deserve a hellacious raise for making it such a juggernaut.

EA: 70-75% of EA Sports players play Ultimate Team, around half (35%+) spend microtransaction money

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