I feel like posting this now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-LE0ycgkBQ

Focus Group, the new online rpg from EA. Create your corporate avatar, assign points in skills such as brown-nosing and pigeon-holing, take perks such as 'Alien Blue Sky Thinking', 'Water Cooler Savant' and 'Out of the Box, but Still In-Field'. Meet your buddies in our graphically stunning virtual boardroom. Can you get the ultimate achievement, 'Please All Demographics'?

No words can describe my pain or Ea intelligence for that matter.

I can play Devil's Advocate if necessary.

From a financial standpoint it'll probably be a good move. Most of the fans of series will still buy the next in the series as long as it has some single player content, and it will open series up to large casual markets the originals haven't tapped.
A focus on multiplayer can greatly extend the life of a game.
Social connection through multiplayer and Facebook can open up competition between friends, with scores posted instantly online for others to see.
Mass Effect 3 had multiplayer and it was still a good game.

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see anything about every EA game including multiplayer. It seems like what they are referring to is online social networking, and shared leaderboards, and crap like that.

Didn't Dragon Age already have some sort of online profile that tied to your characters? I could have sworn it did, I'll have to go back and check. But that is what it seems to be talking about. Not co-op gaming or 16 player deathmatches or whatever.

I wonder how long they'll even support the multiplayer of these new titles a couple of months after their release. For instance how active is Dead Space 2's multiplayer nowadays?

If they put actual effort into the multiplayer content, it could be well supported until the next sequel.

Hmmmmm I hope EA aren't the type to cut and run a month after a game's release especially on the multiplayer otherwise this multiplayer required strategy might backfire. Badly.

In regards to supporting after release. EA would be foolish to not toss out map packs and reskins all the way up until the next sequel. It's easy money and thats what it's all about.

Way to logical and coherent to be our classic mr jona. *shakes head* I expected better devil's advocating of you Frodo, you did carry that ring with me all the way to Mt. Doom.