f13.net

A tough year has turned even tougher for Electronic Arts, the video game maker, which told Wall Street on Tuesday that its fiscal year-end sales and profit would be significantly lower than it projected just six weeks ago.

The company said it had lowered its projections because of changes in the behavior of consumers and retailers.

Electronic Arts said consumers appeared to be buying a few hit games, rather than spreading out their spending. That has hurt Electronic Arts, which had only one game — the space epic Dead Space — among the 10 best sellers in October, according to NPD, a market research firm.

At the same time, some retailers are cutting back on video game inventory and also focusing on the hits, according to John Riccitiello, chief executive of Electronic Arts, which is based in Redwood City, Calif.

Mr. Riccitiello argued that the quality of games at Electronic Arts had been on the rise, but that the market was not buying them.

“Our lead titles are not selling through as much as we’d hoped,” he said, adding that the narrowed appetite from some major retailers was aggravating the problem: “Retailers are trying to expend less cash and end up with less inventory.”

This is the second time Electronic Arts has lowered its forecast in the last six weeks. On Oct. 30, it estimated that for its 2009 fiscal year, which ends in March, it would have sales of $5 billion to $5.3 billion and earnings of $1 to $1.40 a share.

That profit estimate was down from an earlier projection of $1.30 to $1.70 a share.

On Tuesday, Electronic Arts declined to provide investors with new figures, other than to say they would fall below the earlier forecast. That would give Electronic Arts lower profit than in fiscal 2008, when it earned $1.06 a share, said Evan Wilson, an industry analyst with Pacific Crest Securities.

That would be considered a sharp blow in an industry that, over all, has been in the middle of a growth cycle.

While Electronic Arts continues to have strong sports titles, like Madden football, it has struggled to develop new hit games.

Shares of Electronic Arts closed Tuesday at $19.35, down 11.5 percent, and fell another 9.9 percent after hours.

Electronic Arts said Tuesday that it planned to reduce the number of games it makes and sells, and would focus on those with the biggest hit potential as well as games with an online component.

Since I don't play any EA games, can someone tell me a well-made EA title to release in the last 5 years?  All I can recall is rehash/repackaged derivative stuff. 

Since I don't play any EA games, can someone tell me a well-made EA title to release in the last 5 years?  All I can recall is rehash/repackaged derivative stuff. 

The Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142 were good EA Games. Well, EA Dice, but still EA. Tiger Woods 09 for the Wii is decent as well, and the FIFA franchise is a good series of the same game (except on the Wii).

Since I don't play any EA games, can someone tell me a well-made EA title to release in the last 5 years?  All I can recall is rehash/repackaged derivative stuff. 

...Good games if you got past their problems but not stand out polished front and center hallmarks of what gaming should be an example of...

From what I read having not paid/pirated Mirror's edge....it has many problems to, Its a great idea needed another 6months-1year refinement to become a stellar game.

In the commentary to analysts, EA is blaming the stores for only stocking the premium/popular titles in volume. The rest of their games - the catalogue titles - are losing shelf space.  EA says it is an industry phenomenon.

Only crazy Fanatics do that.  Most of the guys I know bought Madden the year they bought their console, then, perhaps, a later copy if their team had done well that year.   I can't say that I know anyone who actually has more than 2 copies of any sports games.

Well. Fuck. This better not affect Bioware.

I've seen a lot of resumes with "Mercenaries 2" and "Star Wars: Battlefront" on them recently.

It seems to me that the problem at EA is not low sales but high costs. I've heard horror stories about the ratio of managers to productive workers.

That said they've made some rather obvious mistakes. FaceBeaker is a perfect example of not getting an audience and confusing "casual games" with "shit games." They are constantly coming up with new strategies then abandoning them, creating new divisions then closing them before they'd had a chance to succeed or fail. The way the company is structured they need lots of mega-hits to offset tremendous costs. The amount of value they get per dollar spent is very low.

As BioWare is owned by EA, I don't think that's a reasonable expectation.

I suspect the DA team is feeling quite a bit of pressure right now.

It seems to me that the problem at EA is not low sales but high costs. I've heard horror stories about the ratio of managers to productive workers.

In the commentary to analysts, EA is blaming the stores for only stocking the premium/popular titles in volume. The rest of their games - the catalogue titles - are losing shelf space.  EA says it is an industry phenomenon.

Big LOL to that...  Perhaps they should rethink their launch approach (let's release a bunch of games at the same time so they'll not only have to compete with the better titles of the year but also compete with each other!) or raise the bar on their "catalogue" titles.  They'll bitch and moan but they'll still put out crap like NFS:Undercover, which takes advantage of it's title and fans.

EA is too busy filing trademarks on obscure things like "Dante's Inferno" to bother with profits.

EA is too busy filing trademarks on obscure things like "Dante's Inferno" to bother with profits.

that will not see 2010.

Looked pretty far along to me.