jrutz

Being a stockholder of EA, I recieved their annual report in the mail this week. Normally these things aren't too interesting but there were some parts worth mentioning:

* In terms of console sales, PS2 accounted for 37% of EA sales; Xbox 9%, Gamecube 7%
* There was mention of the lack of support for Xbox Live, saying right now it is undetermined if they will support it in the future. Their reason was they didn't think adding support would increase sales enough to make up for the added development.

That's about it, except the latest news from today's newswire which states Need for Speed: Underground, which was originally slated for 2004, will be released this fall.

Jeremy

Groucho

Where's the rest (47%) of the sales going?

Only 7% for Gamecube. Seems to me that Nintendo is going the way of Sega.

madcougar

They are!?! What other financial business savy do you have to share with us Mr. Groucho?!? Do you think I should invest in Enron?!? I mean you seem to have all the answers.

[homer]In case you didn't realize it, I was being sarcastic[/homer]

Draven

I think he was too

I read a really interesting article about Xbox Live/EA stuff in the latest XBN (I have no idea why this magazine shows up at my doorstep either.)

Basically it said that Microsoft wasn't willing to share any of the subscription fee revenue with EA. Sony was willing to let EA deal with all of the revenue. So from a business standpoint, EA hasn't wanted to commit to Xbox live, since there is NO incentive for them to do so. Which is probably true, since I think EA sports games will sell regardless of Xbox live content.

Trigger

The unaccounted for percentage would be mostly PC games and "other"...

EA announced they weren't gonna support Xbox Live at E3... not really "breaking news" but I hadn't seen the percentage breakdown - interesting.

Groucho

But I thought PC gaming was far less popular than console gaming...this seems to suggest otherwise?

I guess "Other" would be GBA games and toys.

jrutz

Well, I would agree the Gamecube seems to be going the way of the Dreamcast. Losing 3rd party support for one. The other seems to be the glut of clearance titles I haven't seen since the days of the DC (which was awesome, BTW). It seems a Gamecube title has a shelf life of about four weeks, after which it is severely discounted.

I don't have it in front of me but the rest is most likely PC software sales, since THQ handles all EA properties for the GBA. Makes sense when you have the biggest selling game of all time in your PC portfolio (Sims).

Jeremy

Trigger

Yeah - stick a fork in PC gaming - it's done - nobody plays PC games anymore. PC gaming is gonna go the way of Dreamcast.

Captain Harlock

I imagine it's split between the GameBoy Advance and PC with a few percentage points still going to the PS1 even. EA does makes alot of PC titles. I picked up Freedom Force this week ( on the recomendation from a few DVDtalkers) and that was an EA title. So is Shogun Total War I believe.

Remember those are just EA's sales figures. Another company would have a different sales breakdown regarding where the focus is.

Trigger

Their booth at E3 was mostly PC games I think. Battlefield and Medal of Honor and Sims 2 and a bunch of other stuff.

cheapskate

That 47% is for The Sims Expansion Packs alone...

darkside

Thats true.

DJ_Longfellow

Bull*****...I really really really want to buy NCAA 2004 and/or Madden 2004, but I highly doubt it since it is not XBOX Live. I had to convert myself to NFL 2K3. I think it's a decent game, but i always liked the Madden series....but I really like online play. So, the only way i get MAdden is if it's cheap i suppose....

oh well, my 2 cents

Trigger

The reason EA dropped Live support is because they wanted a special deal from MS. MS gives every developer the same deal, but Sony kisses the ass of certain key developers giving them special deals while Nintendo buttrapes developers. That's why Sony has the best support and MS has average support and Nintendo has crappy support from 3rd parties. I think MS should be kissing asses in the beginning here... following Sony's lead on such things. Then, once they own everything - they can go back to the "same deal for everyone" thing.

jekbrown

or alternatively, MS could just buy EA and kank all ps2 on-line developement (or developement period!). :-)

gc is becoming very dc-like... but thats ok, I have been out of the gaming scene for a lil while and it'll allow me to pick up all the stuff i want dirt cheap. Some people cry when it happens, but I love it when a system starts to go belly up. cheap games/accessories for every1! :-)

j

effigy

Uh huh.

I know of a few people trying to spread the word on boycotting EA because of no online play for the Xbox. :\

Static Cling

I had heard that MS has a much stricter control over what gets put over Live, and they want to approve every little thing, while Sony is a little less restrictive about what goes over their network. Just what I heard, though... could be completely wrong.

Gallant Pig

I thought the reason was EA has plans for their own Pay-to-Play network, and they thought it was unrealistic that consumers will pay for their online games on top of the MS fees.

Trigger

That wasn't the problem EA had with MS on this deal. My friend who works for MS gave me this info at E3 right after coming from the meeting. MS is a little bit anal about their Live service - but none of the developers seem to have a problem with it - EA is being babies about the fact that MS won't cut them special consessions and discounts. I think MS should cave in a little to pick up key developers and I also think EA should stop acting like babies.

Josh H

I don't think EA is being "babies." If the X-box only accounts for 9% of their sales, they have no reason to support live without MS giving them some extra incentive. As stated in a post above, they probably wouldn't sell enough copies to recoup the costs of implementing Live in their games.

Both MS and Nintendo should be bending over backwards to please third parties, yet both continue to shoot themselves in the foot and let Sony get further and further ahead (or at least lose no ground).

darkside

I think Nintendo has been bending over backwards for EA. EA could have easily dropped Cube support (at least sports), but they have stayed aboard like they did with the N64. Nintendo must have a heck of a relationship with EA.

EA was the company that declared the Dreamcast a dead console before it was ever launched and declared they would never support it. They have the opposite attitude about the Cube even though its in much the same boat.

Josh H

True. I was mainly refering to Nintendo still charging the highest of the three companies in licensing fees to third parties (assuming that this is true, I've never seen actual numbers for this generation).

They must have some special deal with EA though, either lower fees or no fees etc.

al_bundy

I heard the problem with EA and Live was that they wanted to run their own servers and not have MS between them and their customers.

Jack Welch from GE said that you never let anyone come between your company and your customers. And he is one person that almost every other business leader listens to.

jekbrown

if you're not getting the sales you want, chopping yourself off at the knees probably isn't the best way to improve the situation. Fact is, pretty soon all the other major sports franchises on xbox will be live compatible and the ea ones won't. This clearly puts the ea sports titles at a significant disadvantage, especially as the xbl base grows larger and larger. Like I said, intentionally putting your self at a disadvantage is not the best way to get higher sales numbers.

j

jekbrown

yeah, thats pretty much the lamest thing a developer has done in the history of consoles. I don't buy much EA stuff... and their attitude towards the dc and the xbox is one of the big reasons why.

j