Halloween is a scary time of year, no less when you’re posting a $310 million net loss. EA CEO John Riccitiello sees “weakness” at retail in October and we’re betting this isn’t the end of the road of sorrow for game publishers around the globe.
Electronic Arts isn’t unfamiliar with bad times and we’re sure to see them make constant adjustments to their headcount, game releases and press as the economy goes into a bit of a slump. Although the game industry won’t see as big a hit as the financial market, everyone is going to watch their spending during slower economic times.
That slowness is a red flag for the mega-publisher, which says it’s “proactively making cost adjustments now.” One of those adjustments is the axing of some 600 EA employees across the globe. (Kotaku)
Last year Electronic Arts lost a “small” $195 million during the same time, not exactly a gold star on the financial records but it sure looks better than this loss. A few games may crumble under the economic pressures, Tiberium for example, but let us not forget the good times! EA posted some nice figures for Spore, Madden NFL 09, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.
So, they mixed a few sequels with a few new franchise hits and gave gamers some pretty hot titles for the year. Of course, hot titles in our hand do not always translate to positive revenue in theirs.
Don’t feel bad guys, I listen every week. Even though its a bit hit/miss when one of you starts on a rant it’s still a good listen and a good place to get in depth gaming news 🙂
I’ll try to keep this one more brief then my last post, hopefully bullet pointing will help.
* I’m sorry to hear about your foot, I don’t know what could do that but I guess the one silver lining is you can say you will be a Cyborg now or training up to be the Six Million Dollar man.
* The Bobba Fett game: All I can say is Ouch, that would have made many a SW fan happy. I am in the camp of “meh” about Bobba Fett, I agree with Jordan’s assessment on him.
* Dying Light: I certainly hope that it isn’t another DI, I found that game to be boring very quickly. Just the unending swarm of Zombies can get tedious.
* Watch Dogs: If it requires the install, might as well get it for PC.
* This episode pretty much confirmed my decision to stick with PC and get 3ds for the family to play together. If Atari and Sega can survive on software sales so can Nintendo. I feel that Nintendo has been behind the hardware race really since N64.
* It just seems like a lack of foresight to try to make their previous libraries available on PSN (and same with Microsoft) If they make more money on software then they are losing money from this potential customer that wants to buy games they refuse to have on digital stores. I end up having to buy PC versions or emulate them on PC.
Okay I think I managed to keep that shorter, great episode guys lots of laughs and I told Dan to write you.
Oh and the guy with “yo-yo” weapon was Rygar. he has one of the best themes ever.
I considered using only consonants to shorten the post but then I decided to simply write less 😉
* Shout out to Red Letter Media. I love those guys. Mr. Plinkett reviews are awesome and their other shows – Half in the Bag and Best of the Worst are very entertaining.
* Shout out to Dying Light – Polish guys know how to develop great games – remember Robbo?
* Anti-shout out to Ubisoft – at least I’m getting that 1TB drive for the PS4. Maybe it will be enough for Watch Dogs. I’m really looking forward to that game.
http://www.gametrailers.com/side-mission/63162/gabriel-knight-returns-interview-with-jane-jensen
Jane Jensen is getting the license to remake the GK1 game Sins of the Fathers. According to that article it’s because of all the adventure games being crowd funded on Kickstarter. The Adventure series of GK may be getting new life if this remake does well. I’m excited not just for this game but for the fact that Kickstarter games seem to be making a difference now in giving Adventure genre another chance.