[News] EA Sharpens its Axe

EA, in my eyes, have had a good year. I’ve been impressed with the quality of alot of their titles this year, not to mention impressive new IPs (Dead Space and Mirrors Edge more so). However, quality comes at a cost, with EA reporting poor Quarter 4 results.

EA’s John Riccitiello had this to say to UK trade magazine MCV

While we saw significant improvement in the overall quality of our key products this year, we are disappointed that our holiday slate is not meeting our sales expectations

So, what does this all mean? Back in October, they already announced that 6% of its workforce was to be laid off in an effort to cut costs.

Now it seems some of their current IPs are facing a similar chop. Poor sales and reviews from the likes of the new Need for Speed Undercover suggest that we may not see a new Need for Speed game in the near future.

However, in a separate interview, again with John Riccitiello, he had this to say on the effort to reduce SKUs

We’re very pleased with a lot of our new franchises this year. Spore looks like an ongoing franchise, Dead Space looks like a long-term big winner for us, Warhammer will continue to perform very well, Mirror’s Edge was very strongly reviewed. We’ll be looking at some issues around the design to make sure that strong IP is married with strong business

Personally, I’d like to see a break from some of the current IPs. Games like Need for Speed need to be re-approached, and have more time dedicated to its design. It’ll be interesting to see where EA goes with this, and which titles will be shelved for the time being. But I think its safe to say, watch this space for new Dead Space, Mirrors Edge and Spore titles

And on a more personally note, this is infact my first blog post on Gamers Unite, and would like to thank Commander for having me as a blogger on there. I look forward to helping them to progress their site, and hearing their comments and views on all blog posts and message board topics.

With thanks: MCV - EA to reduce SKUs