14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts is not in great shape. It is slimming down as a company, with 1,500 employees on their way out until April 2010 and is reducing the number of videogames it plans to release during the coming year.
But there are also positive elements. The entity is seeking to expand into more casual social gaming titles, as indicated by the acquisition of Playfish. The review scores of most of its titles are creeping higher. But the company is not in the position Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello wanted it when he took over the reigns.
In a conference call, which followed the announcement that the videogame publisher would be getting less revenue than expected during the coming quarter and would see the loss per share figure increase to about 2.24 dollars, John Riccitiello said, “I think we've made good progress - in fact, very good progress - on these. Our view of the sector has been proven right, and we've done a good job of executing the right strategies.” He admitted that “What we've described as a two-year comeback is clearly taking longer. Part of that has to do with the dynamism in the sector.” Electronic Arts has high hopes for 2010. During the coming months, it has a pretty impressive line up of new releases, like: Army of Two: The 40th Day, Dante's Inferno, Mass Effect 2, Battlefield Bad Company 2, and Command & Conquer 4. It expects all of them to be retail successes while also serving as platforms for downloadable content sales down the road.
The company will also ship its revival of the Medal of Honor franchise later in the year, taking place in Afghanistan, hoping to compete with the inevitable release of a new Call of Duty title from Activision, probably set in Vietnam. There are also holiday 2010 titles, which have not yet been announced.