It’s easy to sit here as a games writer or armchair pundit and rail against the practice of publishers asking for more money from gamers who have already spent $60 on a new title. But hey, turns out plenty of people love doing it (and are doing it), especially when it comes to EA Sports’ big games.
Despite titles like FIFA and Madden releasing as full-price games, some of their biggest draws in recent years have been their “Ultimate” modes, where players can purchase decks of fake cards to bolster the rosters of their personal, Ultimate team.
EA revealed this week (via GI.biz) that they make $1.3 billion on “extra content” a year, which is all extra digital stuff, like DLC, season passes, etc. Around half of that figure, though—$650 million—comes just from EA Sports’ Ultimate Team.
God damn that is a lot of money on top of the money people have already spent on the game.