Maxis' Lucy Bradshaw

I think you'll see us working on a number of different fronts. Bringing the player the full game with an extended online offering, whether that's an extension that we previously might have marketed in a box and now we're really just delivering it in another fashion, is one of those. But this is just about being in front of the customer, having that relationship, if you call it monetisation because we're doing something digitally that we used to put in a package and sell through retail - to me it's not a whole lot different.

Digital is a new space, it's something that Electronic Arts has actually really been investing in - how are we expanding game experiences? Whether we give upfront demos so people can have a taste of something or whether we give extended play after the fact with a new game mechanic. Again, that's just opening up different avenues in which we're getting in front of the people that play our games.

Launching new IP at anytime is always risky. It takes a lot to make sure you get that message out. When Electronic Arts does it we really work on the quality to make sure it has innovation and delivers a new experience. There's something exciting in the industry today with new avenues to launch new IP. You can take the route of going via XBLA or PSN and coming out with something smaller, get a following and build on it. And look at what we do with EA Partners, which is another way we can team with companies to deliver new IP, and invest in them and seed some new experiences. Right now for a developer there's a lot of different choices there.

What we've done with The Sims 3 for console is an interpretation for consoles that is just beautiful. For the very first time we have everything running, and with the strength of The Sims behind it and all the development knowledge and experience that the team has, we've really bought something exceptional there.

They've always been there visually but to be able to do all of the computation and all the simulation aspects for what is alarmingly a real life simulator - the complexity of what's going on in The Sims would probably surprise a lot of people. I've always said about The Sims that it's the most compelling when they do something that surprises the player. That autonomy is there now on the consoles.

There's absolutely an opportunity. The EA Games label, their titles are also heavily involved in that with. And we're looking at it in the exact same way. What's important for people to realise is the kind of experience you get from an online initiative like that really needs to be focused on the consumers that are excited about that opportunity. With the Play label we have great franchises in the kids space and family space, so what we have to do is make sure we're delivering the best experiences that we can.

Online Pass is a great way to deliver that. That might not be the same for the kids audience with something like The Littlest Pet Shop. For us it's important from a label perspective to recognise that's a great opportunity because consumers are excited about what Online Pass offers. We need to make sure we're tailoring the approach that we take specific to our different franchises.

The one thing about Will is that he's a very collaborative person. We've had a lot of people who have worked at Maxis for sometime who really brought a lot to Will's design. They have simulation in their blood, they've got that sense of tinkering working towards quality. I think that was part of the culture of Maxis and remains so. We have a great working relationship with Will still, he's experimenting with Stupid Fun Club and doing some really interesting things in a different space. Maxis is really strong and doing lots of interesting developments.

That may very well be the case but right now Will's got some crazy stuff going on. He is just so mind-blowingly amazing in terms of coming up with new ways to look at something and I've always loved working with him. Working with Will has just been one of the most amazing experiences.