EA $ Angst

[Soln]

Tip meet iceberg.

EA is on the front page of the business section of the NY Times yesterday/today.  They have lost nearly 25% of their value in trading in the last 36 hours.  Currently -13.02% at 2:30EDT and closed -11.52% yesterday (DOW is only -0.13% today).

Electronic Arts Forecasts Weaker Profit in 2009 ]

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.

[Nebu]

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. 

[Riggswolfe]

Well. Fuck. This better not affect Bioware.

[NiX]

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. 

Dead Space and Mirror's Edge were good games.

I begin to wonder if publishing for Valve helps or hurts them.

[HaemishM]

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).

[Reg]

Bioware is fucked. There really is no escaping the curse of being bought out by EA.

[Rasix]

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. 

skate

[Strazos]

The new NHL games actually try ot make big improvements.

[Amarr HM]

Tiger woods was the only EA game I played avidly though I haven't played any version since 2006 it's an excellent game especially multiplayer. I saw reviews of the latest John Maddens it looks like it has some really nice features added in and the latest FIFA the put in stuff like Become a Pro, though I don't know how well they are implemented. It seems correct a lot of these games seem to have been improved or revamped considerably and consumers are dropping off.

[AngryGumball]

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).

I'm suprised you would call Battlefrield 2142 a good game, when it was released with game stopping bug that to my understanding was never fixed.

Plus knowing full well that the Lobby/UI was barely functional in Battlefield 2 where that was such an important integral part of the smoothness of the game.

Not to sure I'd call either of those quality releases. 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.

Good games yes(actually never bought 2142), if you got beyond those problems which did hamper many things, and quite shows the lack of polish that say World of Warcraft from Blizzard shows.


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.


Edit: first post in close to a month on f13.

[Montague]

Won't buy EA sports games. They're done pretty well, look good and all that but as soon as the "catch-up" AI kicks in, I just throw down the controller in disgust and never play it again.

[Ingmar]

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. 

Do Bioware games count?

[Nebu]

It appears I know nothing about EA's recent offerings.  I should probably just shut up. 

[NiX]

...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...

Wait, wat? You smokin' something?

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.

It was stellar, but had some hitches along the way. For what DICE set out to do, they did an amazing job. I don't think 6 months to a year would have done anything for the game, because it boiled down to peoples play style interfering with the experience, which is the case with every game and how people like the game. You're not really touching on the matter here, which is that EA is completely turning their business strategy around and not doing it with safe bets.

[shiznitz]

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.

[kERRA]

On the bright side, maybe they'll be too poor now to afford SecuROM licensing.

[Azazel]

Mirror's Edge is getting pretty mixed reviews. They seem to me to indicate that it need not be touched with a 12-foot pole. Burnout series is good as well, though they bought it out from Acclaim if memory serves.

[HaemishM]

What game-stopping bug that has never been fixed is in Battlefield 2142?

Yes, both games have SHITTY SHIT SHIT SHIT menu systems. Painfully bad matchmaking capabilities (though 2142 is much better than 2 in that sense because of the friends list). But the games themselves are still great FPS games unless you just hate the style of play they provide. If you haven't played 2142, I'm not sure you can comment on how bad of a game it is. Yes, DICE games are usually buggy on release. That's why you wait until they drop in price and get patched. Then they are damn fun.

[Lantyssa]

I wonder if this might get them to rethink their strategy of releasing everything in the fall.  Pushing out all your games at the time of year when merchants want to reduce inventory to avoid taxes seems counter-productive.

[HaemishM]

Well, typically the fall is when the merchants up their stock levels because of Christmas. This Xmas season sucking giant shiny Santa balls because the economy is shitting itself might have something to do with it. Also, lots of their tried and true cash cow franchises are getting really old (Madden anyone?) and maybe people are getting tired of paying full price for the same fucking game every year.

[Merusk]

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.

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.

Those damn stores, only stocking things that are currently selling instead of holding on to thousands of square feet of 3 and 4 year old games on the off chance someone will want them! Damn them all to hell! 

[schild]

They would've been making a better argument solely blaming used games. The sports games - despite my hatred for them - really, really get the shaft when it comes to used game pricing.

[HaemishM]

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.

You do now. When I get FIFA 09 for the PS2, I will have bought 3 straight FIFA games in a row (and actually bought FIFA 07 2 times because my X-Box died and I needed it on the GameCube). Technically I bought FIFA 08 twice, because I originally got the Wii version and it blew monkeys so I traded it in and got the PS2 version. Of course, I don't OWN 3 copies of the game anymore - I almost always trade it in for a few dollars when I get the new version.

[Sky]

Yeah, when I actually used my xbox and 2k was actually making football games, I used to get the new version every year. Updated roster, slightly better graphics, sometimes some decent gameplay tweaks. For the playtime you get out of a football game, it's worth the dough imo.

I haven't bought a football game since EA cocked the genre. Also, EA pulled the pc version of Madden, so it's not like I could buy it if I wanted to. Burn, bitches.

[Stormwaltz]

Well. Fuck. This better not affect Bioware.

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.

[WindupAtheist]

I still seriously want to slap someone in the mouth for naming a game something as painfully generic as Dragon Age.

[KallDrexx]

Pandemic (both US and AU) lost a good amount of people in the last set of layoffs.  Hope they don't have another one :(

[Margalis]

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.

[Triforcer]

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.

You know what game would be perfect for your strategy?  Secret of Evermore 2.  You mentioned it once jokingly here, and now it haunts my dreams and caused me to boot up the first one.  Get on it, plz. 

[Riggswolfe]

Well. Fuck. This better not affect Bioware.

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.

I won't lie Stormwaltz. I'm not a rabid hater of all things EA, but I was quite upset when they bought Bioware. If Bioware dies from the EA curse, I'm left with Bethesda as the only good NA RPG makers. (I'm not counting companies that translate Japanese games like Atlus USA here.)

[Cylus]

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.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20462
The comments on that story were entertaining, I guess.  Buddy was a sound designer on it but haven't had a chance to talk to him since so not sure as to the validity of it all.  One of their producers used to work here and knew his shit, according to my roomy, so I guess that it can go without saying that they're not all worthless.

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.

[Velorath]

In EA related news, they've been revealed as the new publisher for Brutal Legend.

[Azazel]

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.

Beyond that, what's the point of Releasing NFS: Undercover while expecting retailers to use shelf space on "platinum" versions of NFS: Carbon, NFS: Most Wanted, NFS: Prostreet, et-fucking-cetera. How many of the stupid things do they think people are going to pick up?

[rattran]

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

[Sky]

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

NFS: Dante's Inferno


You heard it here first! Also, NFS: Madden's Turduckenmobile