Their financial problems are caused by trying to give the core gamer what they want - more, more, more at ever decreasing profit margins.  GTA IV is a perfect example.  Sure it sold well but not GTA:SA well and it cost many times more to produce meaning their profit margin is crap compared to what they made on GTA:SA.   

According to Edge Magazine (an industry insider mag) a game that cost 40m to make needs to sell 2m copies to break even.   Which means few games are really big money makers this generation and because studios have become so large to accommodate HD needs the labour costs are horrendous.  If you start a project and then mossball it (which happens frequently) that's now millions in losses that'll never be recovered.

Nothing wrong with the market analysis.  They understand the core market well.  It's just becoming a money-lossing proposition to cater to them unless you get a CoD4 hit.

You can't do "market research" if the market doesn't exist, and Nintendo's current success is based on creating new markets. So if EA are basing their business on market research, it would be proof that they haven't learned their lesson.

I don't think there's anything wrong with releasing Dead Space as an on-rails game, or doing a sequel to Boom Blox, or making Wii the lead version for games like Tiger Woods and Harry Potter, but none of that is going to create the 5 or 10 million seller that EA used to create with some regularity and which they desperately need right now. The only thing they've announced which could be something of substance is EA Sports Active. There's plenty of room for it to differentiate from and improve upon Wii Fit, and everything else out there seems a little cheap right now.

 Umm... Where have you been the last 2 years??  Wii has a market of 40+m to do market research on.  And the fact that Nintendo is creating new markets is exactly why you can be sure companies like EA has invested in a lot of market research to study it and figure out how best to profit from it.

You're right about EA Sport Active - I think that's their best bets for a huge hit and from what I've seen they do seem to be treating it very seriously.   Unlike Ubisoft who is half-assing their exercise games and short changing themselves.

Otherwise EA is smartly trying to build brand awareness with this new market with Boom Blox and MySims in particular.

i don't really care, can't think of the last EA game i have bought or even shown interest in.

the thing about EA is that there are just so many damn alternatives to any of their games and usually always the alternative is better.

I honestly wish people would stop misusing the term "market."  Sadly, I don't believe many people here know the correct usage.

Anyway, EA probably has a reasonable idea of what their target audience and demographic look like for these games.

Could one issue be that EA had these games in the pipeline BEFORE it made its focus announcement.

It takes time to turn a ship.

Mike from Morgantown

 I suspect that myself after all it takes time to develop a game. However it seems to me if you make an announcement like that you would want to back it up shortly there after with at least a glimpse.

Not market research - but an insight into ownership none the less.
Results of a reader survey printed in Game Informer in August 2008.

Console ownership:
Xbox 360 -- 33.8%
PS3 -- 16.0%
Wii -- 18.6%
Xbox 360 & PS3 -- 6.7%
Xbox 360 & Wii -- 19.1%
PS3 & Wii -- 6.4%
All three -- 14.5%

Based upon these numbers, the readers of GI (thought to be more "hardcore" than most) -- 74.1% owned Xbox 360s, 58.6% owned Wiis, and 43.6% owned PS3s in the middle of last year.

Also, 68.2% of Wii owners also had at least one other console, compared to 54.4% of Xbox 360 owners and 62.6% of PS3 owners.

Related to this, 45.3% of Xbox 360 owners had a Wii and 47.9% of PS3 owners.

This somewhat backs up the claim made by Gamerace.

It is my opinion that most Wii owners want unique experiences, not something they can find elsewhere. That can be done by type of game or type of control scheme. What is not wise is to "wedge a game" to fit to the Wii.

Mike from Morgantown

 All they announced is fully half the games they release would be out on Wii.   Doesn't mean more or better Wii games.  Could mean fewer 360/PS3 games due to lay-offs...

I didn't see EA blame on the Wii. Their CEO did complain about the sales of Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, both being on Xbox 360 and PS3.

Looking at EA's lineup of 2009, it's clear that they have already understood the gaming market - they're supporting mainly the PC, which is the fastest growing market (according to EA's CEO), followed by the Wii, followed by the rest.