And to think with all that you still couldn't get them out the red

EA's problem is that they switched philosophies at the wrong time. They used to be known for really bad yearly sequels and losing money. And now they're known for really great original new IPs that get really great scores on Metacritic but don't make them a dime and they lose even more money than they usually did. They jumped on this alleged "hardcore market that buys tons of new IPs and tons of yearly sequels" and then realized it didn't exist.

Good read, indeed.

Their attitude is better than it used to be, they just bet on the wrong horse. Dead Space and Mirrors Edge seem like well made, fun and innovative games, they're even the kind of games that could hit it off with the PS360 userbase. But there's a lot of big expensive games fighting for that same market. Not only were the two games competing with eachother, they were also competing with Call of Duty 5, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, Star Wars TFU etc.

You know what they say about too many supertrawlers fishing from the same river. Some of the big, expensive HD multiplats had to lose out, and that year it was EA's games.

(I actually can hardly get over the fact that they put them both out to compete against eachother)

I have to disagree with all the naysayers, EA is heading in the right direction at the right time. Activision will be in " trouble" next, and the only reason the effects on recession are milder in their case is because of Blizzard and the fact that WoW mints more money than the US Treasury dept.

In fact, EA focus on quality is arguably the reason things are not worse for them. If they were still putting out mostly garbage, they may have gone the way of Midway already. As is, witha couple small exceptions, like trying to make a mature game on Wii, even if all of their games have not been mega hits most have had sales likely to make profits, just not mega profits.

What seems to be happening to me is crap games and "me-too" games seem to be doing something of a decline, games on PS360 and PC need to reach a certain quality mark to even have a chance at being sucessful, though we all know that quality has never ensured success.

I highly question the motives and insight of the author of the article.

It takes time to create games, and it takes time to build IP. Assassins creed and MW are both cases in point, where in the former a quality but slightly lacking new IP improved itself and went on to make real bank with the second installment, and the latter - well it actually took the CoD franchise many games to find the "Sweet spot" and make the big bank, then mega bank with MW2.

Conversely, heavily marketed tie in games like Avatar are doing crap. 5 years ago, Avatar "the game" would have scored 1m plus easily due to movie-tie in, and pretty screen shots. These days, not so much... because due to the unprecedented levels of social networking, everyone knows the game is crap.

EA is also moving quickly toward the digital DL market, and making the right moves in figuring out how best to monetize all the opportunity there. They are also making plenty of headway in figuring out how to bring in the dollars from PC gamers, with high focus on DDL and their aquisition of Playfish, and upcoming integrating of existing franchises into the casual and social areas. The execution may or may not end up being flawed, but I think the principle has enormous possibility.

JR knows what he is doing, I think he has seen the trends extremely well, and as long as nothing stupid happens with an impatient board, EA will be much stronger in 2 years and beyond whereas their previous path would possibly already have them on the door of bankruptcy.

I never bought an EA game for myself and don't planned on buying any. My niece has Boom Blox and I have to admit its a great game.

I rarely buy EA games; the only ones i bought for this gen was The Godfather: Blackhand edition and Medal of Honor Hereos 2.

Honestly EA has been the company delivering the better games these last 2 years but they have made some blunder in term of picking the release time for some games and the marketing going with them.

There's no way a game like DA:origins should have sales as average as it is getting right now.

Despite all the claims of DICE Battlefiled Bad Company ain't going to be the MW killer either...

//I've just realised I never bought EA published game in my entire life.

I think JR has the right approach. However, EA is a damn supertanker and it takes a long time to turn around. If EA continued with yearly sequels of declining franchises like it had it'd be dead for sure. With JR they have brought a lot of great new IPs into the market (which they can now start milking).

However, there are some long standing fundimental problems with EA as it hasn't made a dime in many years and it's amazing investors have been as patient as they have been. I don't know if they are all hoping for a turn around, hoping for a buy-out or just plain hoping for a miracle. But it's a precarious situation. It probably wouldn't take much to spook EA's investors and EA could quickly become worthless (and then bought, chopped up and resold).

Also, you have to question buying and closing Pandemic. What a waste.