EA Post Loss, Close Studios
If it wasn't for those pesky Americans selling houses to people who would never pay it back...Published 04/02/2009 at 8:50 by nofi
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You’ve got to feel sorry for EA, they’re one of our favourite publishers here at TSA, with some stellar games, but even they’re struggling in the current financial climate, according to Reuters. Apparently the software giant has posted a Q3 loss of $641 million, with shares down $2 each, forcing 1,100 job cuts across 11 studios, delays of some key titles and a “narrowed” portfolio in the future.
EA, who publish massively popular franchises like Need for Speed and Madden NFL (13 of EA’s games averaged 80% or above on popular review aggregate sites) and enjoy a 20% share in the US videogame market did however post encouraging 2010 earnings, which pushed shares back up 6.7% yesterday. FIFA 09 was EA’s best selling title with nearly 8 million copies sold across all formats. Need for Speed Undercover, despite not being great, sold 5.2 million.
Lets hope EA’s AAA titles due out this year help their recovery.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
Pixl1983 | 04/02/2009 08:59
Member
491 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Please don’t stop with the new and inventive IPs. There IS gold in them thar hills. You will find it!
But not with a yearly rehash with a couple of new bullet points to stick on the back of the box.
cc_star | 04/02/2009 10:14
Team TSA: Writer
7897 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
They realise they have a missed opportunity with the Wii.
The PlayStation brand however, made a good chunk of their revenue, it’s a shame they couldn’t turn a profit out that revenue.
Dead Space was amazing, and Mirrors Edge extremely promising, I hope they don’t think that investing in new IPs is a worthless strategy
Hodgi92 | 04/02/2009 10:16
The Thumb
1059 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
hahaha. When I read the title I thought their postman was being a nob.
But nio, it is sad.
LiquescentShadow | 04/02/2009 10:23
Member
1577 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Not a fan of EA, but it’s never nice to hear about jobs being cut. I guess it just goes to show that if you rely just on the ‘yearly update’ method to games developing then it will come back to bite you in the ass one day.
DoucheVader | 04/02/2009 17:18
Member
0 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Actually this was the year that EA took the most risks with new IPs. So one could argue their change of plans resulted in this mess (coupled with the rough economy).
YOURMUMANDME | 04/02/2009 11:02
Member
1166 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Separating the wheat from the chaff or narrowing our choices ?
Is this what our future holds ? All I know is my £40 should be going to the same developers it has been , none of the struggling companies mentioned over the past few months have had a direct affect on me ….. Yet . It’s the indirect affect I’m thinking may produce a ‘Microsoft’ equivalent in the game developers world , we certainly don’t want an ‘ Über-fish ‘ ruling the pond !
Paragonknight | 04/02/2009 11:22
Member
3 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Hope this doesn’t affect Burnout.
Severn2j | 04/02/2009 12:43
Member
1553 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Hopefully they wont fall back on their tried and tested yearly franchise updates as a way to fix this. Dead Space and Mirrors Edge were two great games, they need to keep moving in this direction and away from the NFS-style production lines..