EA Sports exploring persistent player profiles

EA is close to rolling out persistent profiles for its sport franchises that will allow players to pool their virtual sporting achievements and records into one online identity. Over and aboveadding a new way to brag, the system will give players the opportunity to carry their teams forward from year to year, eliminating the need to start fresh with every annual release.

%26ldquo;Today we're looking at a seamless experience across all our franchises," said EA Sports head Peter Moore to attendees at yesterday's M16 game marketing conference in San Francisco, explaining, "Regardless of where you are, what platform you have, what game you're playing, that you're constantly connected."

Moore hinted the system could be also be used to reward players for sticking with EA Sports series. Porting stats from Madden 11 into Madden 12, for instance, could conceivably unlock loyalty perks or achievements. Moore also stated persistent player profiles would be incorporated into other EA divisions, adding, "This is how we envision the future of our industry, and this is how we at EA Sports individualise and personalise this as the future of our brand and ultimately the future of what Electronic Arts as a whole is going to do across all of its titles."

As to when this feature might appear in public, Moore said, "It's not far away. It's certainly within [our] grasp."

The concept of a profile thatkeeps in step with aplayer's gaming historyhas been around for a while, butEA Sports appears to be taking the concept one step furtherbyapplying it to all future EA sports offerings, and offering tangible benefits toboot.Having next to zero skills in Madden and/or videogame sports in general, I'll have to defer tothe fans: is this a feature you'd be interested in seeing?

[Source:Joystiq]

April 8, 2011