Interesting article on EA and the coming generation war

[Concept]

Link shamefully stolen from Rllmuk.

http://software.seekingalpha.com/article/26433

A detailed examination if EA is backing the wrong winner or not. Thoughts?

[charlesr]

I think it's his job to make predictions based on spin based on fact, so he can cleverly make any argument seem convincing. If he could really predict share prices he wouldn't be blogging about them. He'd be drinking cocktails in the bahamas. He probably wants to buy some EA shares on the cheap.

However, his arguments sound convincing.

[eastyy]

I do think this generation is going to be very interesting indeed

[Dirty Sanchez]

All very well but would Wii/DS players buy EA games?

[gaz@manc]

Pretty interesting article. EA owe a lot to the success of the PS2, and the success of the PS2 owes a lot to EA. It'll certainly be interesting to see how this gen plays out.

As for whether Wii/DS owners would play EA games? If more of their output was like Madden NFL 07, Theme Park DS and My Sims, and less like Need for Speed Carbon, then I guess they would.

[MattyD]

All very well but would Wii/DS players buy EA games?

You're kidding, right? If EA build it they will come. EA didn't support the GC very much and look how that ended up relative to the platforms they did support.

I hate to generalise but I think a large portion of EA's target audience would probably be inclined to buy the cheapest console that offered sports titles, and if that's the Wii then that's what they'll go for. If you only buy a handful of games a year and play them once or twice a week, or even less, you're not going to spend ?450 or even ?280 for the machine itself.

[CMcK]

EA's lack of support for the Dreamcast basically killed the system in US and Europe. While EA did support the Cube it was the runt of the litter and didn't even manage to surpass the Xbox in units sold.

EA on Wii / DS is a big deal. Madden and FIFA are BIG titles for the mainstream audience. The popularity of Need For Speed cannot be underestimated either. Just look how popular modified cars have become in the last few years.

Nintendo needs strong support from EA. Simple as that.

[Ajay1986]

Love them or hate them EA still rule the games industry. If they turned around one day and said oh we are only going to support MS or only Sony, that would be that the console war would be over. EA games sell consoles to the masses.

Just thought id add i think EA have been making some really good games recently and have many great looking titles on the way. I think they are really stomping on the old Lazy Bastards image they used to have.

[MattyD]

Just thought id add i think EA have been making some really good games recently and have many great looking titles on the way. I think they are really stomping on the old Lazy Bastards image they used to have.

Here here. Fight Night 3 was amazing and I'm really looking forward to Army of Two. EA have also been unusually brave in publishing niche or 'artsy' titles in the last couple of years - they published Freedom Fighters a while back and distributed Half Life 2 for Xbox and We Love Katamari in Europe, for which I am forever grateful.

[MikeRox]

All very well but would Wii/DS players buy EA games?

Depends on the games obviously, but they certainly lapped up the Sims2 Pets on DS >_<

[MikeRox]

We Love Katamari in Europe, for which I am forever grateful.

Should be greatful to em for 90% of Namco's titles making it to Europe lately

[stormbreak]

Apart from their rehashes, they do make some good games and publish some great games. The way they run the business is quite bad imo though.

[gossi the dog]

There's a good article in this week's Economist about EA. It basically covers a lot of the stuff in that article, ie how they're looking to develop more titles for the Wii etc. Apparently they're working on more original titles due to poor sales of expensive movie tie ins, the cost of licenses are increasing, and the fact that their staff would rather work on original games.

Still with EA's share price at over 40 times earnings, increasing development costs and growth in their core markets (Europe and N.America) slowing, as an investor I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

[gossi the dog]

The way they run the business is quite bad imo though.

What do you mean by that? I'm not a huge fan of EA's games, but I must admire the way they've managed to build up their brand and won a loyal fanbase.