Yves MakhoulEA beginning to feel the crunch
December 12th 2008 15:27
EA, the most profitable third party publisher, could one day find itself in the red
EA has been disappointing gamers for years. Being a self confessed cash cow, making minimal changes to its franchises and rebranding them for a subsequent year. Their sequels were plenty, their sales were millions.
Looks as though their brand has lost some of its lustre though, even with its casual audience that stood so firm in their support. EA has already laid off many of its staff and they confirmed earlier this week that they'll be laying off even more.
But something else was stated in this press release. EA is disappointed with their holiday sales. Now usually this would be a cause for celebration coming from the hardcore gamer's ranks, but something feels a little bitter-sweet with this announcement.
EA of late, has been trying a little harder to make better games. And their recent releases have actually been not too shabby (Mirror's Edge comes to mind). These games have called for deeper investments from the company, therefore it'll be looking for steeper gains. Unfortunately, those gains weren't as steep as they had projected.
Will this mean EA will go back to making average games with above average profits? Well hopefully they'll realize the only reason their sales have begun to dwindle is because of the "average" reputation they worked so hard to build. If they continue on this new path however, perhaps their old fans will come back to the party.
Or, they could just have Disney buy them out next year for USD$6 billion.
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