GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - Who here knows anything about games? Electronic Arts

Tempest · 12-10-2008, 06:57 PM

EA is driven by the stockmarket.. i.e. the number one thing at EA is to meet it's quarterly numbers regardless of anything else. The schedule on developing the next version of games is so tight that many end up shipping before they should just to meet the quarterly numbers. It's worse for the PC versions of the games as they don't have to be tested and approved by Sony etc. EA is risk averse because they are so driven by the stock performance. Thus they aren't willing to develop all that many new games internally. This leads to them becoming stagnent.

The EA Sports line is the cash cow for EA. If they put out a game in those series that doesn't perform well, they take a hit.

Consumer spending will impact EA's revenue numbers hugely...

When new platforms come out, EA "bets" on which one will be the money maker and puts their development dollars into more stuff for that platform. I haven't been following what they've done, but if they bet on the PS3 (which I would expect they did) and it hasn't performed to expectations in terms of sales, then they would take a hit as well. I seriously doubt they bet on the Wii and are probably hurting because of that.. They're also not good at developing games for multiple platforms at the same time in which those games have features specific to the platform (as would be the requirement for Wii games). i.e. they use the same core code on all platforms to keep the development costs down.

Piracy IS an issue they are activly fighting.. In fact they are part of a group that includes Microcrap etc. and they work with authorities in Japan, China etc. to get lots of places shut down. But we all know they just pop up somewhere else.

EAs growth for a number of years was fueled by purchasing smaller companies with successful games and then milking it until it's dead (typically)... eg: Westwood.. Bullfrog... Origin Systems (anyone remember Ultima, Privateer, Wing Commander) etc. etc. etc. There are a lot fewer small companies out there these days due to the cost of development skyrocketing. In addition, it's much harder for small startups to get shelf space in Wallmart etc. Thus, there's no one for EA to buy in order to fuel growth and give them more games to "milk"

12-10-2008, 06:57 PM
Tempest Too lazy to set a custom title Industry Role: Join Date: May 2004 Location: West Coast, Canada. Posts: 10,217	EA is driven by the stockmarket.. i.e. the number one thing at EA is to meet it's quarterly numbers regardless of anything else. The schedule on developing the next version of games is so tight that many end up shipping before they should just to meet the quarterly numbers. It's worse for the PC versions of the games as they don't have to be tested and approved by Sony etc. EA is risk averse because they are so driven by the stock performance. Thus they aren't willing to develop all that many new games internally. This leads to them becoming stagnent. The EA Sports line is the cash cow for EA. If they put out a game in those series that doesn't perform well, they take a hit. Consumer spending will impact EA's revenue numbers hugely... When new platforms come out, EA "bets" on which one will be the money maker and puts their development dollars into more stuff for that platform. I haven't been following what they've done, but if they bet on the PS3 (which I would expect they did) and it hasn't performed to expectations in terms of sales, then they would take a hit as well. I seriously doubt they bet on the Wii and are probably hurting because of that.. They're also not good at developing games for multiple platforms at the same time in which those games have features specific to the platform (as would be the requirement for Wii games). i.e. they use the same core code on all platforms to keep the development costs down. Piracy IS an issue they are activly fighting.. In fact they are part of a group that includes Microcrap etc. and they work with authorities in Japan, China etc. to get lots of places shut down. But we all know they just pop up somewhere else. EAs growth for a number of years was fueled by purchasing smaller companies with successful games and then milking it until it's dead (typically)... eg: Westwood.. Bullfrog... Origin Systems (anyone remember Ultima, Privateer, Wing Commander) etc. etc. etc. There are a lot fewer small companies out there these days due to the cost of development skyrocketing. In addition, it's much harder for small startups to get shelf space in Wallmart etc. Thus, there's no one for EA to buy in order to fuel growth and give them more games to "milk"