It's 'Game Time' for EA division
Cyberbiz Brief
Westwood Studios, a division of vidgame giant Electronic Arts, said it will sell "Game Time" cards through retailers as part of a variety of sub-scription-payment methods it will offer to buyers of its massive multiplayer online game, "Earth and Beyond." The space role-playing game will debut this fall, and the basic per-month fee for players will be $12.99, but three- and six-month subscriptions can also be purchased at increasingly larger discounts for longer commitments. The Game Time cards will allow players without credit cards to purchase three-month subscriptions for $39.99 -- slightly more than the online three-month subscriptions -- through such game-oriented retailers as Electronics Boutique and GameStop.
"Our goal is to offer players as many options as possible when sub-scribing to the game," said exec producer Craig Alexander. "Earth & Beyond" is one of the most prominent of a few dozen massive multiplayer titles expected to roll out in the latter part of this year and 2003, along with games based on EA's "The Sims," "Star Wars," "Star Trek" and Viacom unit Simon & Schuster Interactive's "Eve Online." They are following on the durable success the past few years of Sony Online Entertainment's "EverQuest," Microsoft's "Asheron's Call" and EA's "Ultima Online."
