What is EA doing wrong?

[DirtyP2002]

Hey guys,

I just asked myself, why EA is losing money. In 2008 EA lost 454 million USD, in 2007 they made a small 72 million USD profit, in 2006 a 242 million USD  profit.

So I asked myself, what did EA wrong. Their results decreased for 3 years in a row and I doubt 2009 will look any better. EA owns some of the best selling IPs in this industry and they manage to sell them every year. Here are some cash cows owned by EA:

• Madden NFL 09
  • Xbox360: 2.32 million copies sold
  • PS3: 1.61 million copies sold
  • Wii: 0.85 million copies sold
  • --> 4.9 million copies sold combined
• Fifa Soccer 09
  • Xbox360: 1.94 million copies sold
  • PS3: 2.27 million copies sold
  • Wii: 0.68 million copies sold
  • PSP: 0.85 million copies sold
  • DS: 0,38 million copies sold
  • --> 6 million copies sold combined
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09
  • Xbox360: 0.58 million copies sold
  • PS3: 0.5 million copies sold
  • Wii: 1.17 million copies sold
  • PS2: 0,28 million copies sold
  • --> 2.53 million copies combined

Those games see yearly releases and 2010 will probably be bigger than 2009 or at least get the same sales. So EA has three yearly cash cows. But that is not all. They published "The Sims" on PC and it sold like 10 million units. They also have other franchises like "Command & Conquer", "Dead Space", "Medal of Honor" or "Spore" in their library.

And they got this EA Partner-thing going on. So they were involved in the great success called "Left 4 Dead". "Mass Effect 2" will be published by EA as well, same for "Left 4 Dead 2".

Now EA finally made its way to the casual market with "EA Sports Active" on the Wii. This game already crossed the million mark and it shows no signs to slow down. 3 million might be very possible for this one.

So, why is EA losing money? They have tons of great selling games, lots of games they can milk every single year. I just don't get it.

 

Thanks for your input.