EA lays down some smack on the sports game market.

[Shockeye]

I caught this over at gamesindustry.biz earlier today.

Publishing giant Electronic Arts has reported a decline in its revenues and profits for the quarter ended September 30th, but the markets have responded positively to the news that the firm's figures were better than analysts had expected.

Net revenue for the quarter was $675 million, with profits of $51 million - a fairly major drop from last year's profit of $97 million on revenues of $716 million, but analysts had been expecting revenues of under $640 million.

EA is a monster no matter how you look at it. But later on in the article this caught my eye.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that line-up of titles, EA achieved its largest market dominance ever in the sports category during the quarter - with 75 per cent of all sports titles purchased carrying an EA logo.

75% of the sports games sold were EA games. How long before they have an exclusive NBA, NHL and Nascar* license? I can see that number hitting 80-85% in the next few years.

* Yes I know Nascar isn't really a sport but for arguments sake we will consider it a sport.

[HaemishM]

Considering they are the only motherfuckers who can make a football game, I'm not surprised they have that kind of dominance.

[Moaner]

* Yes I know Nascar isn't really a sport but for arguments sake we will consider it a sport.

Blasphemy!  Go Smoke!

I'd have to agree with Haemish.  It'd be interesting to see what percentage of sports games sold was the newest iteration of Madden.  I've got to imagine it's a large slice of the pie.

I guess I just expected this shit after hearing about the NFL license deal last year (or whenever it was).

[Miasma]

Considering they are the only motherfuckers who can make a football game, I'm not surprised they have that kind of dominance.

And now they have The Simpsons too!   

Has anyone ever played a Simpson's game, let alone a good one?

[Shockeye]

Has anyone ever played a Simpson's game, let alone a good one?

Does a pinball machine count?

[Lum]

The latest Simpsons one (the name escapes me) was actually an excellent free-form driving/carnage game a la GTA.

[Shockeye]

The latest Simpsons one (the name escapes me) was actually an excellent free-form driving/carnage game a la GTA.

Hit & Run, I think it was. I encountered some really annoying clipping issues on the Xbox version. Didn't play it more than an hour.

[Merusk]

Has anyone ever played a Simpson's game, let alone a good one?

The original game on the NES wasn't too horrible.  Of course, I was 14 or so at the time, so my memory is probably playing tricks.

[tazelbain]

Hit & Run
Its an ok GTA, but lots of giggles to keep a Simpson fan happy.  I think its worth the 20 buck greatest hits price for a Simpsons fan.

[stray]

Has anyone ever played a Simpson's game, let alone a good one?

The original game on the NES wasn't too horrible.  Of course, I was 14 or so at the time, so my memory is probably playing tricks.

Ah yes, side scroller beat 'em ups. We didn't have enough of those back then, did we? 

[Azazel]

I got a friend to buy me the crazy taxi one when I first got a cube. that and Rogue Squadron 2 were on sale for $20 each at the time, and so was the cube. Really, the SW game sold the cube to me, and the Crazy Taxi game was also a bit of a laugh for the money. It was also nicely girlfriend-friendly, which is always a plus to me. I can't even remember it's proper name. But getting the cube was a good investment, as she loves playing the Mario Party series..

I also got Hit and Run, again discounted though it was reasonably new at the time. Didn't get too far into it, but it was fun in an unpolished-GTA-type-way. It's still sitting here on my HDD, and if I ever get back into GTA-type gaming, I should finish it. Probably. In theory.


I bet EA would dearly love to get the WWE licence as well. Didn't they just pick up the TNA wrestling licence? Whatever that sells, I bet the WWE-branded games sell a fuckton more units...

[dEOS]

Considering they are the only motherfuckers who can make a football game, I'm not surprised they have that kind of dominance.

Football game like in american football ?
You know that american football is a minor thing in the world compared to soccer, right?

Soccer game is where the competition is at.

[shiznitz]

But it is (american) football season right now so I imagine that sport had a disproportionate share of the recent quarter's sports titles.

[HaemishM]

Considering they are the only motherfuckers who can make a football game, I'm not surprised they have that kind of dominance.

Football game like in american football ?
You know that american football is a minor thing in the world compared to soccer, right?

Soccer game is where the competition is at.

I'm talking about America here. Where American football games outsell socceer games by a shitton.

[Bunk]

* Yes I know Nascar isn't really a sport but for arguments sake we will consider it a sport.

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