The concept of a metaverse is nothing new, with many believing that it will come to fruition first in the gaming industry. The latest videogame company to talk about building a metaverse, however, comes from a surprising source: EA in the world of sports.
When asked whether EA is considering taking all of its “siloed sports communities” and connecting them, thereby creating a sports-themed gaming metaverse, CEO Andrew Wilson gave a lengthy response as to why a company (like EA) would do just that. He noted that EA has over 700 million players and they spend on average 90 minutes during a playing session.
After doing this with their core friend group, they go to other platforms to talk about the game, then create content about the game on even another platform. Hence, there are many interconnected relationships, but the platforms themselves are dispersed. According to Wilson, there is a “meaningful opportunity” to “harness the power of that community” outside and inside of EA games. He added that is the “third pillar of our core strategy” which will be led by the brand.
While he said that EA had nothing to announce today, he noted to “watch this space.” Wilson has expressed a positive attitude towards Web3 before, saying that play-to-earn and NFTs would likely be part of mainstream games in the future, though adding that the conversation was “very, very early.”