Even if they weren't responsible for delaying Spore, I still don't like them. They offer nothing truly new or innovative. Furthermore, that means it might not make it until fiscal 09, which starts in 2008, apparently.
"Analysts believe the company's sales dipped because the publisher didn't give enough support to Nintendo's Wii. "The hot console was the Wii, and they weren't in alignment in producing software," Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey told Bloomberg.com. EA had two games available at the Wii's launch last November and the publisher specifically purchased Headgate Studios last year to boost its Wii development capabilities. EA now plans to have about a dozen Wii titles by the end of this year."
Source; (
http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=16083)
"EA has also struggled to gain a bigger stake in the lucrative Asian market, dominated by Nintendo Co. (other-otc: NTDOY.PK - news - people ) Last quarter the company collected 53 percent of revenue from North America, 41 percent from Europe and only 6 percent from Asia.
The company is under intense criticism from gamers upset that EA has very few titles for "next generation" consoles that debuted late last year. Last quarter EA sold a negligible number of titles for the Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) PlayStation 3 and popular Nintendo Wii.
A third of the company's revenue in the quarter came from titles for the older PlayStation 2, and another fifth from titles for Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people )'s Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles.
Problems ranging from the Spore delay to the paucity of PS3 and Wii titles indicate that the company is "innovation challenged," said David Gardner, co-founder of investment group The Motley Fool.
"Next gen is here now. Sony's late to the party, and EA is too," said Gardner, an avid gamer. "The best-case scenario is that Riccitiello brings his same past level of professionalism and savvy to this enterprise and turns it around in 2008.""
Source; (
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/...ap3700002.html)
And even a rant (
http://arstechnica.com/journals/thum...-is-quite-nice) (though later retracted) from a Maxis man. Albeit sympathetic to the 360 and PS3