14 DAY TRIAL // The upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is being worked on by BioWare and should launch in the second half of the year, will be one of the biggest launches of the year for publisher Electronic Arts, but one analyst believes that an MMO based around the Mass Effect series could be an even greater success.
In a note to investors, Mike Hickey, who is an analyst watching the video game industry for Janco Partners, has written, “Looking forward, we believe BioWare could develop an MMO based on their highly successful Mass Effect franchise, which should have a considerably better (relative StarWars MMO) margin profile, given the dilutive nature of the LucasArts royalty.”
Both The Old Republic and the Mass Effect series are being developed by BioWare, a developer that EA acquired in 2007 and has since been busy delivering hits for the publisher.
Looking at other important Electronic Arts franchises, Hickey added that the publisher is probably working to make sure that it has enough teams working on Battlefield to get a new installment out each fall.
He says, “We suspect they could release a Battlefield franchise game annually, switching between Battlefield and Bad Company versions, similar to how Activision manages their Call of Duty franchise.”
The leader of Electronic Arts, John Riccitiello, has repeatedly said that he believes that his company and their line up of first-person shooters can take control of the genre back from Activision Blizzard and its Call of Duty franchise.
During the fall of this year, EA will be launching the DICE created Battlefield 3, which has impressed via early video demos, aiming to sell better and receive a warmer critical reception than the next Call of Duty.
EA's last attempt to dethrone Call of Duty, using a revived Medal of Honor, did not go too well in the fall of 2010.