I sometimes have a "that's what you get!" attitude about EA because they've become the Microsoft of the gaming industry. They've gobbled up a lot of smaller, innovative companies, crushed creativity and originality in many of those they acquired, and have put together exclusive deals (like their deals with NFL football) that shut out other companies. I think they've become a slothful behemoth that, as you said, is too big and bloated for its own good. Meanwhile, the Will--whose potential was underappreciated and underused--pointed the way to many aspects of gaming's future that should be examined, including going back to simple to play, fun games that don't break the bank, and a return to the more simple retro games that have done so well from Nintendo's game download site.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mr. Worf" <hellomahog...@gmail.com> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2010 6:28:35 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Outlook grim for gaming industry EA lost a lot of money with Spore over the last couple of years. They were trying to capitalize on the success of the Sims (1,2,3) franchise and turn it into aliens/exploration/space travel game. The problem that they made with the game was that you cannot please everyone with a G rated game when the gaming audience is mostly teens and adults. I think what also hurt them was the greed behind offering exclusive rights to games. So instead of having revenue stream from PS3, XBOX, and Wii gamers you may only get PS3 or XBOX. Instead of turning a profit you may only break even. Another problem is I think that EA is too massive for their own good. They had over 58,000 employees before they did layoffs a few months ago. That's huge for a game company. What could save some of the companies like EA is diversification. Why not come out with an innovative product that isn't a big overdeveloped game? Every game that EA makes goes into production like a $100 million dollar Hollywood movie. That is crazy! Spend it on the money makes like Sims, or Madden and not on titles that are not as good. On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 2:48 PM, Kelwyn < ravena...@yahoo.com > wrote: http://seekingalpha.com/article/172426-electronic-arts-job-cuts-grim-outlook-for-game-industry http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/08/05/why-electronics-arts-losses-doubled/ Electronic Arts (EA) have been making so many losses for so long that I am amazed that nobody has done anything about it. This time they have doubled their loss for their first quarter from $95 million to $234 million, massive figures, nearly $4 million every working day down the grid. They have been a prime takeover target for ages but still nobody has moved to buy them. Let's see what could be going wrong: -Boxed console games in this generation mostly make a loss. The business model is not very good. -The market is polarising into a small number of genre leading mega hits (GT, GTA, CoD etc) and a large number of underperforming "me too" titles. EA have too few of the former and too many of the latter. -There is still an emphasis on the misguided and self defeating practice of concentrating game releases in Q4 each year. Publishers got the Wii wrong. They came to it too late and with too much drossy shovelware. EA is starting to perform here, but over a year late. -MMOs are exploding. EA have massively underperformed in this market. EA were late at moving from licensed product to owning their own IP. It has been a painful transition. -It is possible to put in management targets and exception reporting systems that get rid of whole swathes of suits. So more people in a company are engaged in actually making and selling product. Marketing has changed from being TV advertising based to being fragmented engagement with communities. Many marketing departments have not moved with the times. ------------------------------------ Post your SciFiNoir Profile at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/app/peoplemap2/entry/add?fmvn=mapYahoo ! Groups Links -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/
