EA's Weak Boxed Game Sales: All Games in 2011 to Have Online

Electronic Art's revenues for the financial quarter ending December 31st 2009 were... "$1.346 billion, down 23 percent as compared with $1.742 billion for the prior year. The decline is due to several factors, including fewer titles this holiday quarter versus the 2008 holiday quarter, and a weak overall packaged goods sector in Europe."

"Sales were driven by the launches of Dragon Age: Origins, Left 4 Dead 2, and NBA Live, and catalog (sic) sales of FIFA 10, Madden NFL 10, and The Sims 3."

This lead EA CFO Eric Brown to explain that the company would release only 36 packaged games in the 12 months ending March 2011. Only? Yes, that's fewer than the 54 released in fiscal 2010.

Where's the money coming from then? COO John Schappert has the answer, "In fiscal 2011, every one of EA’s releases will have an online component, both downloadable content and online play."

Does retail need to fear EA moving away from bricks'n'mortar? Or is this simply the reaction of a management team under pressure?

Source: Electronic Arts and EA again.