EA Mobile doubles down on free-to-play

Electronic Arts' mobile-focused All Play label saw out 2012 on a four-month high. After buckling under the weight of demand on its initial release, The Simpsons: Tapped Out relaunched on the iOS App Store in August, made a dash for the upper reaches of the top-grossing charts, and has since refused to budge. In October, it was the highest grossing game in the world for four straight weeks, attracting 2.8 million DAUs at its peak, and rounding out the month with a Treehouse of Terror pack that was played by more people than watched the TV series' own Halloween special. It's in the top-grossing chart right now, in fact, sandwiched between Clash of Clans and Hay Day in third place.
Popcap's admirable back-catalogue aside, The Simpsons: Tapped Out is one of EA's most significant mobile hits since its very public transition to digital began. Other EA products can be found among the App Store's most lucrative games - FIFA Soccer 13 is in fifth place, for example - but Tapped Out is particularly important because it is free. According to Nick Earl, senior vice president and general manager of All Play, from here on the £2.99 being charged for FIFA will be a rarity.
"EA sees mobile as the tip of the spear, the key growth area for our digital strategy"

"EA sees mobile as the tip of the spear," Earl says, "the key growth area for our digital strategy.
"For the most part [it will be free-to-play]. There will be some exceptions here and there, where it just makes sense to offer a one-time paid download, but for all intents and purposes freemium is what we're doing going forward. From here, you'll really see freemium rule the day.
"Freemium games are really driving our direction from a business model perspective. We're huge believers in the model. Not only is it here to stay, it's also really going to power the spread of mobile devices."
Successes like All Play's Tapped Out and The Sims Free Play have strengthened that resolve. In relative terms, EA entered the mobile gaming market during its pre-history, acquiring Jamdat for $680 million several years before the existence of either iOS or the App Store. It was a lot of money back then, and it still sounds like a lot of money now, but it enabled EA to become what Earl terms "king of the hill" of premium priced mobile games. What we now know is that there was another, much bigger hill just beyond premium, and EA was slow in staking a new claim. According to Earl, that changed in 2012.

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