In the wake of The Sims 3 leaking to BitTorrent and being downloaded millions of times, Electronic Arts is rolling with the punches.
Speaking to IndustryGamers, EA CEO John Riccitiello said his company has "outserviced the pirate" with an online community and a more complete game than the leaked version. The same holds true for other titles in EA's catalog.
"By the way, if there are any pirates you're writing for, please encourage them to pirate FIFA Online, NBA Street Online, Battleforge, Battlefield Heroes ... if they would just pirate lots of it I'd love them," Riccitiello said with a laugh. "Because what's in the middle of the game is an opportunity to buy stuff."
Could it be that EA finally gets it? The Entertainment Software Association, a games industry trade group, has famously called piracy "the single greatest threat to the development and release of innovative and creative entertainment software that consumers demand and enjoy." Riccitiello's comments prove the opposite.
Electronic Arts appears to be using piracy as a motivation to be more innovative, at least from a business perspective. The games have value beyond the disc, to the point that they're "selling services that are disc-enabled as opposed to packages that have bolt-ons." That's a lesson that any media trade group could learn from, be it movies, music or video games.
