EA offering FIFA for free?

by James Ransom-Wiley { Jan 19th 2007 at 8:25PM }

For the past eight months EA has been offering FIFA Online for free in South Korea. The strategy being: if you can't beat 'em (software pirates), join 'em. Much like any other company that owns digital media sought after by consumers, EA has had to contend with the free, albeit illegal distribution of its products across the internet. So FIFA Online is free in South Korea ... with a catch.

EA has divided the cost of FIFA into micropayments, sold as "enhancements." Want to extend the career of a star player? It'll cost you some change. The approach has proved agreeable to consumer habits -- and presumably less conducive to piracy. Since last May, EA has sold roughly 700,000 enhancements. Cha-ching!

Tags: EA, FIFA, Micropayment, South Korea, SouthKorea

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Oshi @ Jan 19th 2007 8:42PM

As far as I've heard, this has been the basic business model for many, many Korean MMO's for a good few years now.
EA catching wind and joining the crowd is nothing new, really.

carlos @ Jan 19th 2007 8:57PM

can u post stories that are relevent to this country i mean its not like we can get fifa here for free and pro evo is way better then fifa

Eggman @ Jan 22nd 2007 3:14AM

Wow, congratulations to EA for making the first smart move in a long time. This is how companies should combat piracy, instead of trying to develop stronger forms of DRM. Copy protection just doesn't work.

Petrie @ Jan 19th 2007 9:14PM

@carlos

Seeing as Joystiq is on the internet and caters to an international market, saying "this country" means nothing. Also, all happenings the world over have an effect on our industry as a whole, so this is relevant, and could one day become the norm here as well.

dirtyone @ Jan 19th 2007 10:21PM

can you say 'test market'

fahmi @ Jan 19th 2007 10:29PM

South Korea piracy? huh. If EA really wants to combat piracy, they should aim at the largest distributor of pirate games, China and Malaysia, instead.

David004 @ Jan 19th 2007 10:57PM

So if the USA steals more video games we get them for free?

Rubang B @ Jan 19th 2007 11:50PM

I'm going to steal an assload of games this weekend.

gott @ Jan 20th 2007 12:12AM

Don't mind Carlos...he was born yesterday. Literally...dude is in a diaper, needs his chin wiped, and many many wet wipes.

Carlos...can you say oblivious?

I live in Calif...please tell me you didn't think that the US is he only country with the internet...please, please, please don't...

GhaleonQ @ Jan 20th 2007 12:29AM

*cries*

GoPodular @ Jan 20th 2007 12:32AM

ROFL @#6.

mkoracer @ Jan 20th 2007 1:48AM

Yeah brah, it's not like the US is all legal eagles. I think that the price of a game has to be comparable to the effort it takes to pirate it.

South Korea has built one of the best fiber optic networks in the world, internet access costs about $25/mo for 40 MEGABIT UP and DOWN... yeah, you read that correctly, look on the intarweb if you don't believe me. Over half of the country is online, so to download the latest 4 Gig FIFA game from your buddy would take about 15 minutes.

The US is pretty low on the broadband totem pole and it is super sad that dumb companies like comca$t can charge over twice as much for an eighth of the speed.

lee @ Jan 21st 2007 6:33AM

Yeah quite a few kids play fifa online in korea..., i see it quite a lot in PC rooms here. I didn't know it was free though, kinda explains a lot

SK is still in love with starcraft and diablo it makes me cry. New releases here are cheaper then both.

mkoracer, it's $30 for 100MB up n down ;>

Rufus de Rham @ Jan 21st 2007 1:50PM

Like Oshi said this is the basic business model for Korean online-based games. Not just MMORPGS but also shooters (WarRock) and racers (Kart Rider) both of which are free to download and play but offer enhancements for money (better guns, extra slots for WarRock and upgrades and cosmetic changes for Kart Rider) This model makes sense in Korea because most gaming does not occur in home (due to limited domestic space) but outside in PC Rooms. Even console games are the same with loads of PS2 gaming rooms popping up in Korea. There are even boardgame cafes you can go to to play boardgames. So you pay an hourly rate (generally very cheap, esp if you are a repeat customer) and the PCs come with all the hits pre-installed. Yes starcraft and diablo are always there. So companies cant really make money (theoretically I know plenty of my friends play games on home computers) unless they set up this micro-payment system (or subscription fee such as WoW etc.) I think this has less to do with piracy than anything else. Mostly i saw pirated dvds and music in Korea...not many games.

Also begin back in the states now with UltraHighSpeed being 10MB up/down I miss the 100MB speed I was getting while in Korea. the only downside? I had trouble connecting to wireless servers in Seoul because i use an Apple...and almost no one in Korea has one...