EA has published its latest financial results today, with the news not looking good for over 1,100 members of staff. The company announced 12 EA facilities worldwide are to close as part of the publisher's latest round of cost-cutting measures.
Downturns are never fun to report on (unless you are an evil misanthrope that takes pleasure in other's misfortunes) yet there is one aspect of this particular story about EA's latest financial woes that many news outlets are perhaps overlooking.
"One of the issues that I have not seen many talk about is the transition that EA has steadily been making over the last few years from a company heavily dependent on third-party licences to one whose fortunes rest more on its own IP [intellectual property]," says analyst Nick Gibson, from Games Investor Consulting.
Hollywood investment in games
"All of the major Hollywood studios have been ramping up their investment in the games sector over the last few years, steadily moving up the value chain and claiming parts of the pie that their licensees (such as EA, THQ, Activision, etc) have spent years making money from."
What many commentators have failed to note, as Gibson points out, is that "EA recognised this early on and pre-empted it by refocusing its investment on original IP."
EA's decision to take a long-term strategy, as opposed to sticking to what it knew with its traditional licensed cash cows to fill up the coffers in the short-term should certainly be applauded.
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weezer
February 5th
2. It's ironic that for a decade gamers have slagged off EA and its licensed sequels. So EA risks it all on a bunch of new IPs that no-one buys and makes the biggest loss in its history.
So much for listening to gamers...
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dreamhunk
February 4th
1. If dice is smart they would make battle field 3. I think dice is taking another huge risk with production costs on consoles. Dice's core fanbase is not on console but on the pc. AMD and IBM are not looking to healthy for hardware companies these days. I wouldn't tust too much in nintendo, hardware companies could really break down in this ression.Not only that some retailers may go bankuprt or reduce on self space, as well as cut down on price of games. If this ression lasts along time people will get bored, But for now it's a good income.
If I was EA I would invest in small companies and game devs because it's less of a resk for new titles. In fact take a look at the best indie game devs and pc moders games. hunt for those types of games devs. slowly back them if their games are popular or sell well.
Trust comapnies such as vavle and bio-ware they know what they are doing. Even more so in a ression.
Improve on your currnet mmo war hammer online.
Need of speed open up forums for pc gamers to help you give ideas. Oh max out the tech on the pc like crysis for need for speed. push cutting edge gaming and go back to your roots for need for speed.
lastly push free online games! Have a good repuation with your fan base. Take a good look at companies such as blizzard,vavle,anet and bio-ware.
Oh one more thing for bio-ware never make promise that you can't keep. I am talking about your dead line on the pc verion. Next time don't give out a dead line date for when the game should be made.
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