EA makes mobile rallying call

Though some publishers are dabbling with direct-to-consumer strategies, EA says the high cost of customer acquisition in the current climate will preclude success outside of operator portals for many of them.

Speaking to ME, Javier Ferreira, EA Mobile’s VP of publishing in Europe, said: “The customer/operator dichotomy is a little false - we need to open up the number of retail channels so that everyone in the value chain can benefit.”

Ferreira said that many operators are keen to move to a more pluralistic model, but stressed the process must go hand-in-hand with increased billing flexibility, a lack of which he cited as a key reason for the under-development of the off-deck games market.

“Using premium SMS to essentially pre-charge people for downloadable content is problematic for both technical and economic reasons,” he said. “We need WAP billing - the existence of schemes like PayForIt in the UK are a good sign that we’re moving in the right direction.”

Having established itself in the mobile market in 2006, Ferreira said this year will see EA focus on growing the mobile category as a percentage of its overall business as well as ensuring the continued growth of the industry as a whole.

“EA brings capabilities to the table that not many other publishers can in terms of IP and consumer reach,” he said. “Handset performance is getting better all the time and we believe we have the content to take the platform to its limits.”