RSSEA game sales weak, company adjusts outlook
By Tim Conneally | Published December 10, 2008, 11:57 AM
Recession spending continues to take its toll on Electronic Arts. The software company yesterday announced its guidance for fiscal 2009 would be adjusted downward as a result of weaker-than-expected sales.
EA's earnings have diminished despite a strong 2008 portfolio of video game releases.
The layoffs and consolidations which EA announced in October, will continue as planned, according to the company. The workforce reduction plan is estimated to save Electronic Arts around $50 million per year through international cuts. Despite posting a 20% higher revenue last quarter, the company suffered from excessive operating costs.
Changes in consumer spending are to blame for the weakened year-end outlook. EA's CEO John Riccitiello's official statement said, "We are disappointed that our holiday slate is not meeting our sales expectations." EA is responsible for some of video gaming's most popular franchises, like The Sims, Need For Speed, Madden NFL, FIFA, and Command and Conquer. The company's 2008 distribution roster was especially promising including such titles as Mirror's Edge, Left 4 Dead, Rock Band 2, and Spore.
The company anticipates a reduced product portfolio for fiscal 2010, which begins next October.
I wonder if its EA's lack of quality because of pushing developers to make more games (with add on packs) faster instead of making one great game. Maybe the over over abundance of DRM? Or maybe its things like not releaseing a Demo of Need for Speed because the last demo showed off how low a quality game that is was. Maybe EA should think of its customers (those are the ones that buy your product) and build products for them instead of building products for the board of directors pockets.
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|All good points, and I agree with you on all of them.
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|they need to reassess each member of their team. The invisible curbs in Need for speed; barb wire that takes out tanks.
Another thing EA is taking undue credit for left 4 dead when its very very apparent they didn't have anything to do with this outside of shipping! Thats Valve's baby and the only reason they are in bed together is EA's aquisition of Sierra.
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|Sony bring down EA.. that is lame.. Only if EA would have focused on the Wii platform they would enjoying the success of the most successful platform today..
And why does the stockholders alway let the CEO off the hook??
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|Bleak game titles will get you the bottom. When you pay attention to details and improve the games guess what you'll sell games. Your standpoint is to release before taking the time to add to experience and details!
The people currently running the show are either getting kick backs from sales or are just complete idiots. Perhaps you need to revamp / retire and look at putting heart into these titles as you once did.
On that note you may want to start with the CEO! Its apparent he lacks the experience or the direction to move you forward.
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|That's what the company gets for having such an arrogant ph*** for a CEO
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|**** indeed.
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|What? You mean all that DRM they added to Spore didn't save them despite angering masses of customers? Oh no wait, Spore was the most pirated game of 2008!
http://torrentfreak.com/...ed-games-of-2008-081204/
Nevermind, all that DRM they added to The Sims 2 despite angering their customers must have saved them, right? Oh no wait, The Sims 2 was the second most pirated game of 2008!
Okay okay.. Crysis? DRM? 4th most pirated of 2008?! WTF! There has to be something wrong with the DRM!!
Okay, what about Command & Conquer 3? They relaxed the DRM restrictions on that title. The piracy must be terrible! Wait, what? It's less pirated than all of the above?!
Heh ;)
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|Maybe it's BECAUSE these were the most pirated games of all time is why they are struggling.
You are comparing Command & Conquer 3 with Spore? Dude, nobody wants CC3.
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|That's another way to look at it.
Here's something that's hard to dispute though: Actual prevention of piracy thanks to Spore's DRM? Zilch.
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|i dont know that Gina chick is pretty damn hot.. .. if there was a chance of some nudity Im sure those sales would sky rocket.
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|I suspect upsetting your customers did not help matters either.
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