Electronic Arts has released details of its Fiscal Year 2010 Update Call. It's not cheery despite various attempts at spin. In attendance were John Riccitiello, Chief Executive Officer and Eric Brown, Chief Financial Officer.
First up, Mr Riccitiello pointed out that between between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011, we'd be seeing "a great new version of Medal of Honor, a revitalized Need for Speed, Sims on console, FIFA in a World Cup year, an innovative and new take on Madden, Dead Space 2, Crysis...an MMA game, and many others."
While that all looks impressive ("innovative" and Madden; and Crysis and Dead Space 2 mentions) it is all incredibly fuzzy. More importantly, it also says nothing actually concrete about the release dates within that 12 month period.
Next, Mr Brown, "While we are still closing our books and the results are preliminary, we now expect that our third quarter results will be short of our internal expectations and consensus. Two key contributing factors were: (1) a soft December for EA and the overall packaged goods sector in Europe, and (2) a product mix shift to lower margin distribution titles in the December quarter, primarily in North America."
When he says "soft" he means "bad". When he says "shift to lower margin distribution" he means "We sold games like Left 4 Dead 2 and The Beatles: Rock Band that sold but we didn't own all the rights to."
Getting away from the dry stuff, Riccitiello has some more release dates, saying, "Before we go to Q&A, I want to add that we are extremely proud of five titles that we plan to release in our fourth fiscal quarter:
"From our Montreal Studio: Army of Two: The 40th Day.
"From our Visceral Studio in Redwood Shores: Dante’s Inferno.
"From our BioWare Studio: Mass Effect 2.
"Our DICE Studio in Stockholm Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
"And finally, from our L.A. Studio, Command & Conquer 4."
So, all those games are out before March 31st this year... as we already knew.
Read the call transcript here.
First up, Mr Riccitiello pointed out that between between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011, we'd be seeing "a great new version of Medal of Honor, a revitalized Need for Speed, Sims on console, FIFA in a World Cup year, an innovative and new take on Madden, Dead Space 2, Crysis...an MMA game, and many others."
While that all looks impressive ("innovative" and Madden; and Crysis and Dead Space 2 mentions) it is all incredibly fuzzy. More importantly, it also says nothing actually concrete about the release dates within that 12 month period.
Next, Mr Brown, "While we are still closing our books and the results are preliminary, we now expect that our third quarter results will be short of our internal expectations and consensus. Two key contributing factors were: (1) a soft December for EA and the overall packaged goods sector in Europe, and (2) a product mix shift to lower margin distribution titles in the December quarter, primarily in North America."
When he says "soft" he means "bad". When he says "shift to lower margin distribution" he means "We sold games like Left 4 Dead 2 and The Beatles: Rock Band that sold but we didn't own all the rights to."
Getting away from the dry stuff, Riccitiello has some more release dates, saying, "Before we go to Q&A, I want to add that we are extremely proud of five titles that we plan to release in our fourth fiscal quarter:
"From our Montreal Studio: Army of Two: The 40th Day.
"From our Visceral Studio in Redwood Shores: Dante’s Inferno.
"From our BioWare Studio: Mass Effect 2.
"Our DICE Studio in Stockholm Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
"And finally, from our L.A. Studio, Command & Conquer 4."
So, all those games are out before March 31st this year... as we already knew.
Read the call transcript here.
Companies:
Electronic Arts
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