Early year rebound

Dec 11, 2009 09:19 GMT  ·  By

Electronic Arts has been having a tough time this year, with continued financial losses and with more personal cuts in its future. But Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello seems to be convinced that his company will bounce back soon and that the first signs will be the releases of Mass Effect 2, the role playing space-based title from BioWare, and Bad Company 2.

Riccitiello said, at the Global Media and Communications Conference organized by UBS, that he expects “Mass Effect 2 to be one of the biggest games in the industry in 2010” mainly because it is a better title than the original game, which already is the “largest-selling RPG in the year that it shipped.”

The CEO even believes the game might get the same critical ratings and sales as Gears of War, a title that managed to cement the lead of the Xbox 360 in term of shooters when it was released by Epic.

The company’s front man has talked about Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the DICE made shooter that is also set for early 2010, “Battlefield represents our best opportunity of taking the first-person business back from Activision. Call of Duty started as a million-unit franchise of a good business, and was built to be more than 10 million.”

His comments are interesting considering that the recently reborn Medal of Honor, which is set to arrive later in 2010 and will also have a modern setting, is the more natural competitor to Modern Warfare, while Battlefield 2 takes a more light-hearted approach to the atrocities of war.

Riccitiello is also talking about how Electronic Arts will continue to release titles in long running franchises like Madden NFL, FIFA, The Sims, and Need for Speed while working to expand the appeal of newer hits such as Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Army of Two, Dead Space, and Skate.