14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher Electronic Arts has reiterated its position that the industry should focus on releasing fewer but better quality titles with comments also aimed at the possible National Football League strike and the effect that it could have on its wildly popular Madden series of video games.
The most recent example of the “fever but better” philosophy is the recently launched Dead Space 2 third-person shooter, which managed to ship close to two million units to retailers, which is nearly double the number of the first game in the series.
Electronic Arts says actual revenue for each title it launches is up by a quarter and the statistics could improve in 2011.
Electronic Arts went through a touch patch in early 2010, when the company launched a restructuring plan that required employees to be fired and the structure of the company to be streamlined.
The financial position is much better now, with the company strong enough to absorb the losses linked to a possible strike of NFL players
The NFL issues were addressed by Chief Operation Officer John Schappert, who said, “We, like you, are looking forward to the NFL and the resolving their differences and starting the season on time this year but in terms of a planning assumption ... we've baked in the most conservative assumption, meaning no season. We're optimistic it can be better than that, so there's an upside.”
Madden NFL 11 managed to sell more than 5 million units worldwide and performed well in the NPD Group numbers for North America even in December.
A follow up should be released at some point during August of this year.
Electronic Arts also expressed a strong interest in the rapidly growing mobile phone based gaming market, saying that there are opportunities to take its console and PC based properties and create specialized experiences that can sell well on their own and also promote the main products.