EA Admits Not Making Hits In 2008

[Pe-Killer]

Electronic Arts has performed relatively bad in 2008 and its stock price fell to its lowest point in seven years. The company's COO, John Pleasants, gave the attendants of Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference a thorough explanation for the reasons behind that.

"The biggest thing was that we didn’t make hits," he said.

Facing the economic crisis as well as an increasingly tough competition from Activision-Blizzard, EA plans to trim jobs in almost all divisions, with the notable exception of marketing.

"The game-development process has evolved, so the marketing should as well," he said. "It's less about 'We have an idea, we go away for 24 months and spend USD 30 million working on a game, then put a little buzz out there and hope it works.' We need to have a dialogue with the audience, take a longer lead time and make sure we have the right mix of digital and traditional."

EA also plans to cut down the number of titles released annually by around 20% because "you can lose your way on basic execution when you have too many games."

http://www.megagames.com/news/html/pc/eaadmitsnotmakinghitsin2008.shtml

Am not surprised at all.EA failed last year badly.

 

[Solidus]

They actually published 2 quality games last year Dead Space and Mirror's Edge, some of the best I've seen from them in a long time. But unfortuantely they were new IP's and not to everyones liking. Need for Speed their real moneymaker has gone down the toilet, FIFA was probably their best seller.

 

[Keeper]

Mirror's edge...hmm....should try that - is it a long game?

 

[medicnick83]

EA pumped too many games out last year and all those games felt 'incomplete' (IMO)

And I know for a fact that alot of completed games were RUSHED.

They need to chill and actually release good games and they'll be fine, this rushing out games is not working for them.

 

[killadoob]

If EA had developed a New bf 2 game they would had the biggest hit of the year.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

What about a proper Dungeon Keeper then?

 

[foozball3000]

What about a proper Dungeon Keeper then?

Classic!

 

[Bludd.]

serves them right for putting profit before gamers.

 

[Pe-Killer]

If EA had developed a New bf 2 game they would had the biggest hit of the year.

I agree they should do the same thing blizzard does with Diablo 3 and starcraft 2 take there sweet time.
The reward at the end of the day will be well worth it.

 

[LazyLion]

so they are refunding people's money???

... and they wonder why people download games in order to try them before buying.

There are several games I downloaded that I went out and bought recently.. but there are quite a few that I just deleted. Quite a few of those were EA games.

 

[Dr@g0nic]

Well at least EA is admitting to their faults hey?
Not something anyone will do.

 

[Endev8003]

Admitting a mistake is one thing. Fixing it is another.

A lot of companies these days will admit that they have made mistakes. Microsoft admits that Vista is a flop. EA admits that they didnt make any hits and that DRM isn't working. But they still do the same thing over and over.

 

[FarligOpptreden]

Wasn't BF: Bad Company a 2008-game? That was pretty good...