14 DAY TRIAL // After announcing the financial results for the 2008 fiscal year, which has just ended on March 31, Electronic Arts has also presented a few of the ideas it has regarding 2008, which is actually part of fiscal year 2009 (it's a bit dizzying for us, too).
The gigantic videogames publisher and developer plans to launch no less than 55 games in 2008. The console spread is a bit odd. There will be 30 games that go ahead on both the consoles that are supposedly "at war", the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. The Nintendo Wii will get a slighter smaller line-up of 20 titles, while the Nintendo DS gets 18 releases during the course of the new year. Surprisingly, the PlayStation 2 also has 15 titles planned for release while the PlayStation Portable gets less that, with only 8 games released. The big surprise here is the fact that the PC, that a big part of the gaming world sees as being rather dead, is getting 30 game releases in the next year, which is on par with the number of releases planned for the Xbox 360 and PS3. So much for "dead" and a private "Thanks" to EA from a PC gamer.
John Riccitiello stated, regarding the PC market, that "Were it not for The Sims and the WoW box sales, it'd be a pretty dismal sector," but he also expressed a lot of hope by adding: "The fastest growing is subscription, microtransactions-based and casual games, many of which are pretty much centered on the PC. One of the things we try to look at at EA is the total business represented on PC game software, and we're seeing a growth in business there. It's been growing for several years... it's categorized wrongly by looking simply at the box side of the equation".
These comments seem a bit at odds with the game line-up, but it might be only a symptom of the CEO not having the full picture regarding the possibilities of the PC market. Riccitiello also stated that the company was going to continue to put quality ahead of everything else as they launch new games.