EA clarifies microtransactions comments

Last week, Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen raised some Internet ire by suggesting that all future EA-published games will have microtransactions. The executive has now clarified his comments, saying he wasn't claiming each game will have them but rather that each game can have them.

Speaking today at the Wedbush Technology Conference in New York, Jorgensen said that he was referring to in-house technology from EA that will allow its developers to handle credit card processing and digital downloads in-house, reports Polygon.

"I made a statement in the conference along the lines of 'We'll have micro-transactions in our games' and the community read that to mean all our games, and that's really not true," he said. He did note that all of its mobile games going forward will have microtransactions, "because almost all of them are going to a world where they are play for free." He called mobile the "real core" of its microtransaction strategy.

For non-mobile games, Jorgensen says the strategy is to extend the game's life, which might involve microtransactions, downloadable content, or services like Battlefield Premium. "It allows someone to take a game that maybe they played for 1,000 hours and play it for 2,000 hours," he said. "We are very conscious that we don't want to make consumers feel like they're not getting value. We want to make sure consumers are getting value."