Last week, Capcom showed everyone just what kind of magic went into successful games sent out into retail. The time it really took for a game to be successful was not just critical acclaim or commercials, but shelf life: A limited amount of time – try just a week to sink or swim. Pretty rough, huh? But, this is Capcom; they have been around for many, many years, with millions of titles sold and more franchises than you’d like to remember. Certainly their predication has some truth to it, if not already pulling weight?

So does Electronic Arts! Except, they don’t agree with Capcom. Speaking to the same MTV Multiplayer Blog. EA not only disagreed with Capcom, but provided their own analysis into determing a game’s success - and the conclusions were nothing short of just the opposite.

Jeff Karp, EA’s head of North American publishing, says that the life cycle [of games] is actually increasing in most respects.

 Prolonging the life of products is something EA has been doing for years. Just look at The Sims series. An expansion seems to be released every other month, and continues to bring people back to the game. Micro-transactions only further propagate this future; sure, EA offers DLC like every other publisher. DLC continues to keep games like Rock Band around… but micro-transactions are another story. A story of untapped profit, if you will. With Micro-transactions, there comes the idea of spending a cents to a few dollars on additional content. Content as small as a new set of weapons, or maybe adding some traits to your character (sets of clothes, hair styles, etc…) for more customization.

Maybe, just maybe, EA is on to something afterall? Time, and where our pocket-change goes, will help us find out.