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Forums - Gaming - Has EA learned their lesson?

jammy2211 said:
redspear said:
jammy2211 said:
redspear said:
jammy2211 said:
Learnt their lesson from what? Not to release sequels to big selling PS360 games?

EA are supporting in the Wii in the way that'll print them the most dollar. I see no problem.

 

 Well no the lesson is adequate and proper support for the Wii. Which is something they stated. They had lost a fairly significant amount of money last year and they did blame a lot of it on that. But all I see out of  EA is hte same thing they did last year.

And what exactly isn't 'proper and adequate' about the support announced? A game every fortnight all catering to markets that have proven sellers on the console. Seems like they're being very sensible to me.

 I see no problem, EA financial problems stretch well beyond the games they're releasing and whether they're selling enough copies or not. Aside from the restructuring eating up a huge amount of money, we are in a recession, yanno.

Quick Cash ins are a problem on the Wii because many just aren't that good. They sell and they are neccessary to fund some riskier products but companies seem to be very imbalanced about risky projects(original IPs) and Quick Cash ins on the Wii.

 

And how exactly is any of that a problem for EA's finances? :/

Becasue eventual the market for those quick cash ins saturate. The Riskier projects actually bring in a ton of money and create new cash in oppurtinties down the line. They haven't shown any thing different even in the number of titles.

 

Last years releaeses included

1. Rock Band -- 1,034,800 units (standalone disc and Special Edition)
2. Madden NFL 09 All-Play -- 600,000
3. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 All-Play -- 493,500
4. NERF N-Strike -- 490,000
5. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 -- 455,000
6. Boom Blox -- 422,000
7. EA Playground -- 334,000
8. Rock Band 2 -- 284,000 (standalone disc and Special Edition)
9. MySims -- 255,000
10. Hasbro Family Game Night -- 227,000

MySims Kingdom -- 206,000
NCAA Football 09 All-Play -- 205,000
Monopoly -- 180,000
NBA Live 09 All-Play -- 130,000
Skate It -- 117,000
Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1 -- 117,000
SimCity Creator -- 101,700
Littlest Pet Shop -- 101,500
Need for Speed: Undercover -- 92,000
FIFA Soccer 09 All-Play -- 90,000
Boogie Superstar -- 85,500
Ninja Reflex -- 70,000
Rock Band Track Pack Volume 2 -- 55,700
Celebrity Sports Showdown -- 44,800
Facebreaker K.O. Party -- 44,700

 Pretty much the same gneres same titles and same number. The biggest release was Rock Band. Everything else a cheap cash in and they still lost 650 million last year.



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You're bellyaching because EA isn't releasing the games you want. But at this point 3rd parties have a ton of market research to go on.

They Know: A) Most 'core' gamers with Wii also own a PS3/360 and will buy core games on the HD systems first.
B) Most other Wii owners are non-traditional console owners and not interested in traditional console games

They are giving the Wii great support - however the lack of creativity is fair.

But I see it this way

Electronic Arts

TRIVIAL PURSUIT™ - March - Safe bet to make money.

MySims™ Party - March - Wii Sports clone (blah but might be fun)

EA SPORTS Active™ - May 19 - An excellent and progressive fitness game building on WiiFit's success and catering to the western audience more. Could be HUGE.

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 10 - June - With MW+ this is the version of TW to own and depending on how good WM+ really is could become a system seller.

BOOM BLOX™ Bash Party - Spring - Sequel to great game that focused too much on singleplayer puzzles and not enough on it's true strength - fun multiplayer. Could be big.

MySims™ Racing - Summer - Mario Kart clone (again,

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince™ - Summer - Last HP game was well received and sold strongly on Wii. This one uses the same engine and thanks to the movie being delayed a year should be the best Harry Potter game ever. Huge seller.

G.I. JOE™ The Rise of Cobra - Summer - Yeah, crap movie game

EA SPORTS Tennis (working title) - Summer - Wii timed exclusive of new major EA sports line. Uses WM+. I've no problem with that!

So aside from the clones and movie games, I think it's a solid line-up for EA and should serve them well.



 

I own a PS3 this doesn't really effect me. I am interested in games like I Am Alive and gave Mirror's Edge a shot(which was pretty decent despite the flak the big issue was it got too repetative).

What I am saying here is that EA stated a change in policy even hinted a little at and fizzled. So far their market research has fizzled and it is releasing stuff that is supposed to be a quick cash in into a crowded market.

Another potential issue is that they take money from the quick cash ins and than use that money to fund riskier products on the HD console(like Dead Space and Mirror's Edge) which seems a bit unbalanced to me.



I'm not sure we're seeing the necessary steps to get EA profitable, but let's wait and see...

Looks to me like they're still undervaluing the Wii.



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

NJ5 said:
I'm not sure we're seeing the necessary steps to get EA profitable, but let's wait and see...

Looks to me like they're still undervaluing the Wii.

 

 This is what I feel. But I also agree it may be too early to make any judgement yet.



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I doubt they'll learn their lesson anytime soon



   

They Know: A) Most 'core' gamers with Wii also own a PS3/360 and will buy core games on the HD systems first.
B) Most other Wii owners are non-traditional console owners and not interested in traditional console games


How and when did they/we find this out?



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

Out of the 50% of titles they are making for the Wii, some will be good (hopes).
And since they explicitly said they'd be using M+ more, let's see what they come up with.



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NJ5 said:
They Know: A) Most 'core' gamers with Wii also own a PS3/360 and will buy core games on the HD systems first.
B) Most other Wii owners are non-traditional console owners and not interested in traditional console games


How and when did they/we find this out?

 

 Any large company uses market research firms to study the likes and dislikes of it's intended audience.   EA / Ubisoft / Capcom even Nintendo have had 2 years now to establish what the audience on Wii looks like.

My point is EA isn't just guessing and tossing stuff out blindly - their choices (and Ubisoft's and Sega's etc) are based (at this point in the game) on market research and proven parallels in the industry.  So they know Kart racers and party games sell well (if made with quality and/or well branded) - based on sales of similar games - so their making more of those.  Stuff like Dead Space being an onrails shooter prequel or Wii getting a Silent Hills remake (while the HD systems get sequels) is because market research shows a large portion or possibly even a majority of Wii owners are not traditional game players so they don't know the franchises nor want to engage in the more complex controls that people on this site just take for granted because they grew up with it.

Can I give a link or proof?  No.  Companies never release that info.  They pay for it to give themselves a competitive advantage and they are sure not going to share it.  But it's common practise for all industries and especially when companies are dealing with a product or audience they are unfamilair with (like Wii's).  

EA is putting 50% of their games developed on Wii but don't expect it too look anything like the 50% that's going on the HD systems.  It won't.  Wii can't compete directly on multi-system core releases (look at Tomb Raider or CoDWaW - Wii sales are always well behind - even if profittably anyway) but it does have a huge and very diverse audience and while Ubisoft and Sega are targetting niches of that audience (girls and older males respectively) EA is trying to throw out as wide a net as possible with their games to catch as many different demographics as possible.



 

@Gamerace: I think you vastly overestimate gaming companies' market research and analysts. If it was so good, we wouldn't see so many companies with financial problems.

There's also that NPD statistic in which they said only 2-3% of current-gen console owners have more than one current-gen console. I don't think your theory is plausible.



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957