Peter Moore: EA Did Not Aggressively Lobby For Console DRM

Electronic Arts’ chief operating officer Peter Moore has said that EA “did not aggressively lobby” for console manufactures to implemented DRM systems on their new consoles.

Moore made the comments whilst being interviewed by Polygon at this week’s E3 event in Los Angeles.

When Polygon asked whether EA had lobbied for the DRM-supporting features that the Xbox One has, Moore’s response was categorical. He said:

“Absolutely incorrect. As the guy who is the chief operating officer of Electronic Arts I can tell you that EA did not aggressively lobby for the platform holders to put some gating function in there to allow or disallow used games.

“I am on record as being a proponent of used games. I like the ecosystem. I like the fact that it’s kept pricing at a good level for eight years. I like the fact that someone can buy a physical game and see some equity in that game.”

According to Moore the official company line regarding DRM is “I’ll get back to you”, adding:

“We have not internally even begun to sit down and answer those questions.”

Moore also claimed that EA had no idea that Sony would announce their support of the used games market at their conference on Monday, using this as a reason not say what EA’s plans are.

“We will figure out what we need to do. I’m not trying to back-pedal but this thing just happened and we need to reconvene and hear what people think and talk to our retail partners and our first party partners. We had no idea what Sony was going to announce. We’ll reconvene next week and figure it all out.”

Polygon to their credit refused to let the DRM discussion go despite assertions from Moore that he and his company were all about the games at E3. Interviewer Colin Campbell then asked about EA’s decision to scrap online passes and how many assumed this was a precursor to the kind of system that Xbox One will allow.

“We cancelled Online Pass. I was at the meeting. It just wasn’t resonating with the consumer. It just wasn’t consumer friendly. It was hard work and it was as much work for the guy who would never trade his game in, even though we gave him some digital content, because you’re punching numbers in. We just made a decision.

“I was the chair at the meeting. We said enough of Online Pass. Not saying, you know, it was Austin Powers type meeting of Doctor Evils saying [places pinkie finger on eyetooth, Dr. Evil-style] ‘we know we can get it back down the road’. No. That was not the meeting I was in. Online Pass was more trouble to the consumer than it was worth. It was a mistake. The consumer’s feedback was that this thing gets in the way of a good experience so let’s get rid of it.”

Moore always comes across well in such interviews, even when he’s giving little away, but it should be noted that he said EA’s decision to scrap Online Passes was for the good of the consumer.

Considering the recent backlash against Microsoft it would be easy to assume that EA and other companies like them are rethinking their strategy going into the impending new generation of consoles.