SBC News Sam Cooke - End of Partnership - EA closes competitive gaming hub 'EA Arena'

Sam Cooke – End of Partnership – EA closes competitive gaming hub ‘EA Arena’

worldgaming
Richard Branson and World Gaming Founders – Billy Levy &  Zack Zeldin

This November sees EA Sports close its competitive real money gaming hub ‘EA Arena’.Whilst the news of its closure  flew somewhat under the radar in terms of media and industry  coverage, EA Sports and World Gaming (partnership brand operated under  Virgin Gaming) have been in a competitive gaming partnership for quite a while.

The EA Sports Arena allows players to bet money against one another online on the outcome of matches they play themselves. The games include major EA titles such as Fifa, Madden and NHL.

Or at least, it did allow them to. An announcement in August stated that in the 2015 EA titles, the option to bet real money online would not be included. Additionally it noted, that from November 2014, this feature would also be disabled from previous titles.

This article investigates why EA Sports have made this decision, as well as an analysis of video game gambling / competitive gambling

EASportsHow it works?

The EA Sports Arena works in partnership with Virgin Gaming, or World Gaming, as it is now know.

Players must first register an account with a verified payment method, and they are then able to challenge one another, respond to messages on the forum, or utilise the ‘find an open match’ option. Players’ ‘ability’ is visible and their history in terms of wins and losses. Once the amount they are playing for is agreed, and the match time, they then proceed to the game menu wherein most people take a ridiculous amount of time in selecting their formation and starting players.

At the end of the match the amount is automatically deducted from the account of the losing player. It seems that it is both fun and ‘easy money’, but this, often, could not be further from the truth. Adding a real money gambling element to such classic video games often has the effect of entirely removing the leisurely, fun aspect for which they were created. It adds a palpable level of tension, and ensures you are fully focused on playing purely to win. This often results in boring matches in which both play it safe throughout. The issues of lag can also cause arguments, and whilst EA and Virgin have done their best to ensure the fairness of the software – it’s widely publicised across forums that players can often quit the game (an unforgivable act known as ‘cheesing’), should they be losing, and in doing so avoid paying out. The reputation system is in place to prevent this, in that should a player commit such a crime, then the victim is able to leave negative feedback and contact the 24/7 support team

Ahead of the UK launch in 2012, Andrew Greaves, then Operations Director for Europe at Virgin Gaming, stated that: “We take a very hard line on people trying to play the system. Normally the reputation system weeds people out anyway.”

Regardless of the issues, the EA Sports Arena proved popular, with leaderboards and big money tournaments all adding to the excitement. The potential to earn a living, or bulk up your income, by playing video games is unsurprisingly hard to turn down for the many gamers that would still be playing cash prize or no cash prize. It was popular but not popular enough, perhaps due to the ongoing grievances and problems. In 2012 over $22m (£13.9m) had been issued in prize money, but the problem of enticing a high number of users to return regularly remained.

(Pictured: Eric Wright won $140,000, one of many cash prizes for the 2013 Madden EA Sports Challenge)

Background -World Gaming to Virgin Gaming

World Gaming was founded by Billy Levy and Zack Zeldin in 2006, the Toronto based start-up aimed to bring real money incentives and a competitive angle to console gaming, with  Playstation and Xbox  beginning to leverage multi-player capabilities through  digital networks.

In 2010  serial entrepreneur Richard Branson  personally selected World Gaming as a technology and entertainment partner for the Virgin Group. Branson would invest in World Gaming, who would adopt the Virgin Brand in order to extend it marketing and partnership potential.

Richard Branson viewed the start-up as a re-entry for the Virgin Group into the Video gaming and technology market (below is E3 Virgin Gaming launch conference )

Controversy and legal issues

The obvious controversy with including a real money gambling element with video games is that a considerable portion of their demographic is under the age of 18. The way in which EA Sports tiptoed around this that the EA Sports Arena has never been an included feature in its games; it was provided online by a third party company in the form of Virgin Gaming.

Virgin Gaming is fully legal due to the fact that as it is based on video gaming, it is considered a game of skill, not chance. In Australia for example wherein there are reasonably strict laws prohibiting some forms of gambling, it is allowed. The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy stated that: “Computer games are predominantly regarded as games of skill. They therefore do not fall within the definition of ‘gambling service’ in the (Interactive Gambling Act), even where there is consideration to play and win cash prizes.”

Furthermore there is an extensive Responsible Gaming Section on the World Gaming site, and it notes on the pre-registration page, that they ‘may request a piece of government-issued id as proof’ prior to awarding cash payouts and rewards.’ There is the additional security that a credit card is needed, and there is a dedicated email address for reporting underage players.

Why is the EA Sports Arena shutting down?

The official statement from EA can be understood in the two excerpts below.

‘The shape of competitive gaming has changed greatly over the years, and the EA SPORTS Arena is no exception. There are tens of thousands of gamers challenging others each day, and there are many options available where these kinds of matches can be played.’

‘Less than 0.2 percent of our players were participating in Arena events on a regular basis. That told us that our fans weren’t seeing value in the Arena service, and we decided to focus our efforts on developing new, engaging services for our players’

What these new services will consist of, and whether they will include a real money betting element, is as yet unclear. Whilst competitive video gaming is huge business, especially in Asia (in Korea for example tournaments draw huge numbers in audiences alone), it seems that in this online form there are too many issues.

Whether these can be ironed out and EA, or another competitor, will try again remains to be see. What we do know however is that the market is there should the product be improved. After all it is cold, hard fact that until the end of time, 98% of people will think they’re better at Fifa than they really are

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