Battlefield and Battlefront Could Work as eSports Games, According to EA

Could the next Battlefield and/or Battlefront game have a bigger focus on eSports? If EA’s latest statement is to be believed, the answer is a resounding “yes.”

Speaking in UBS Global Technology Conference this week, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen talked about how EA has been involved in eSports for over a decade with the publisher’s FIFA Interactive World Cup tournament. However, looking forward to the future, Jorgensen says that people should expect the publisher to give more attention to eSports, but that it isn’t looking to host its own tournaments.

It’s something we think is a huge opportunity for us because what it does is it deepens engagement in something people love…The way we’ve approached esports historically has been at a much more local level. And we’re seeing the oppportunity now to really up-level that to really more of a global level. Clearly, properties like our sports properties offer that, but also things like our Battlefield or Battlefront properties could also be open for esports.

Jorgensen adds that eSports isn’t really an avenue that the publisher is looking to make money in, but the possibility here is that more people buying the games in order to get better at it for eSports competitions.

You’ll hear more about this in the coming years, but I think there’s a huge upside for us around deeper engagement. We don’t think esports per se is a way to make money. The running of a tournament is not really our skillset. We would probably outsource some of that activity. The real opportunity is to deepen the engagement and sell more copies of your games because more people want to engage, get better, and beat people in tournaments.

Would you want future Battlefield (or Battlefront) titles to integrate eSports features? Could it compete with the likes of Call of Duty when it comes to it? 

[Source: UBS Global Technology Conference via GameSpot]

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