What The Cuts Could Mean for EA Sports

by pastapadre
Posted November 14th, 2009 at 2:31 pm

The recent job cuts at EA are unlikely to have much if any effect on the majority of the yearly sports titles but one aspect of the company’s new strategy could very well change the landscape of sports gaming. EA is cutting the bottom third of their software lineup based on potential profitability. While that mostly applies other divisions of EA there are some games under the EA Sports label which could be reevaluated based on current sales and future prospects.

EA has already gotten rid of Nascar from the slate and experiments like NFL Head Coach are not going to return. We’ve also seen the arcade offerings shift to the downloadable only method and that is likely to continue. There is the possibility of the WWE license being picked up and in a couple years EA will be back with an MLB game. The yearly sports titles are very lucrative with EA going out of their way to state that they are protecting them and most are going to be just fine but clearly there are some changes on the way.

Safe
Madden
FIFA
NCAA Football
EA Sports MMA
NHL
Tiger Woods
EA Sports Active

In Danger

NCAA Basketball – College basketball games have never sold well, thus why 2K Sports dropped their College Hoops franchise. The question now becomes whether there is enough support for even one game. NCAA Basketball is probably the most likely of these titles to get cut after this year unless the sales come in and are encouraging. Support for NCAA 10 in areas such as marketing have been weak and it almost feels like it has been sent out to die. That is not a good sign and the resources put into the game have clearly been limited. There is a legit chance that there will be no college basketball game out next year.

NBA Live – The top 20 NPD was released and NBA Live 10 did not even chart with the 360 version. That means the 360 sold about 100K leaving it to finish behind Madden 10′s third month and FIFA 10 on the PS3. Essentially it has gained little to nothing in sales while falling considerably farther behind the competition and now owns just 32% of the NBA gaming market. The cost of the NBA license and the money invested in this franchise has been heavy the last couple years.

If Live survives to have a Live 11, which indications right now are that it will, that will probably be the make-or-break year for the franchise. After gaining some ground this year in customer perception if it does not start to show significant progress in sales it will quite possibly be gone or there may be a reinvention to offer something totally different than the competition.

Fight Night – The first three iterations of Fight Night were huge. Then came FNR4 which never got any positive momentum and disappointed in sales. Signing boxers individually is costly. Sharing some resources with MMA will save some in development costs. Fight Night will probably not see a big revamp the next time around like it received for Round 4 to try and turn more of a profit. I don’t think Fight Night will go away as it will keep the every other year rotation with MMA but the resources may be regulated better next time around.

Madden Wii – No matter what EA does with Madden on the Wii it just can’t gain any traction. Despite the console continuing to sell at extraordinary rates Madden actually dropped from a meager 150K-ish opening month for every year of the Wii to just 60K in the first month this year. The NFL license may require that EA produces a game on the Wii and if they continue to force that look for the game to try something completely new yet again. It could just end up being a collection of mini-games which is about all that sells for 3rd party companies on the Wii.

Likely Cut

Grand Slam Tennis – Was originally planned to come to the 360 and PS3 but after a lukewarm reception on the Wii the momentum stalled and it was indefinitely delayed. Based on their comments a game like this would not make sense.

Tags:

http://www.rodenburgfilms.com/ Pablo

Something really bad would have to happen there for Madden not to be safe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyeemtS1jII
http://www.rodenburgfilms.com Pablo

Something really bad would have to happen there for Madden not to be safe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyeemtS1jII
NELL86

Hey Pasta,
Dont you think for Live 11, they should put Mo Williams on the cover? He is an unstoppable force in Live 10. With Marcus Stephenson getting moved off of Live, to there lackluster sales. Facebreaker 2 shouldnt even be made at this point.

Oh to T Daley — you said Live made improvements every year this gen. Please go back and play Live 06, then play Live 07 and tell me if you still think Live 07 is better than 06.

Loser

Forgot to add, that the 1st Live patch didnt really fix the 3pt bombers, and messed a few more things up. And whats up with Maddens 2nd patch…they have time to develop Madden Arcade before fixing Franchise? Yeah I know another team did the Madden Arcade but still? That means this patch isnt coming out till after Thanksgiving.

NELL86

Hey Pasta,
Dont you think for Live 11, they should put Mo Williams on the cover? He is an unstoppable force in Live 10. With Marcus Stephenson getting moved off of Live, to there lackluster sales. Facebreaker 2 shouldnt even be made at this point.

Oh to T Daley — you said Live made improvements every year this gen. Please go back and play Live 06, then play Live 07 and tell me if you still think Live 07 is better than 06.

Loser

Forgot to add, that the 1st Live patch didnt really fix the 3pt bombers, and messed a few more things up. And whats up with Maddens 2nd patch…they have time to develop Madden Arcade before fixing Franchise? Yeah I know another team did the Madden Arcade but still? That means this patch isnt coming out till after Thanksgiving.

Bryan

EA is doing this to themselves (poor sales). Take FNR4. They took out the option of using the face buttons and as a result lost a lot of sales. Then look at Madden and NCAA football. They keep adding fancy features and ignoring the basic gameplay. So although Madden and NCAA look nice and and are gaining features, it doesn't provide the user with a solid game of football. The cpu play calling and play execution are simply horrible.
Bryan

EA is doing this to themselves (poor sales). Take FNR4. They took out the option of using the face buttons and as a result lost a lot of sales. Then look at Madden and NCAA football. They keep adding fancy features and ignoring the basic gameplay. So although Madden and NCAA look nice and and are gaining features, it doesn't provide the user with a solid game of football. The cpu play calling and play execution are simply horrible.
Robert

hey does anybody know when this patch for madden is coming out????

Pasta? Do you??

JJJoes

he posted a little while back that it was in certification. so hopefully this week

Robert

hey does anybody know when this patch for madden is coming out????

Pasta? Do you??

JJJoes

he posted a little while back that it was in certification. so hopefully this week

Madden patch or die

WHERE is THEEEE MADDEN PAtch I'M TIRED OF WAITING ONCE THIS PATCH COMES OUT THE GAME IS GONNA BE SICK…AS LONG AS THEY ACTUALLY DO WHAT THEY SAID THEY WOULD

N/A

when has EA ever done what they said they would on a consistent basis? Never. They fail every time. It's time for us to stand up and show them that they MUST be consistent with their loyal fan base. How do we do this? One way is to BOYCOTT pre-orders next year for Madden 11. It will cripple their sales expectations and make them worried about meeting fiscal goals. They will get back on track once they see end-users are smarter than they are. Do it! BOYCOTT MADDEN 11 PRE-ORDERS!!

Madden patch or die

WHERE is THEEEE MADDEN PAtch I'M TIRED OF WAITING ONCE THIS PATCH COMES OUT THE GAME IS GONNA BE SICK…AS LONG AS THEY ACTUALLY DO WHAT THEY SAID THEY WOULD

N/A

when has EA ever done what they said they would on a consistent basis? Never. They fail every time. It's time for us to stand up and show them that they MUST be consistent with their loyal fan base. How do we do this? One way is to BOYCOTT pre-orders next year for Madden 11. It will cripple their sales expectations and make them worried about meeting fiscal goals. They will get back on track once they see end-users are smarter than they are. Do it! BOYCOTT MADDEN 11 PRE-ORDERS!!

NoFro904

Haha Live haha hahahahaha.

anyways..
hopefully that means other people can make a college basketball game now (2k)
if not then i hope EA can keep making them cuz i love me some college basketball.

People that plan on buying a Wii or Own one dont usually have madden on there mind so its a waste of time trying to make a good madden game for that system anyway

also..i hope the madden creator people hop on ncaa to make that games graphics better..cuz they suck

Ricky

2k can make a college game if they want. they just dont want to

http://intensedebate.com/people/AfroMANIA NoFro904 (Theron)

Haha Live haha hahahahaha.

anyways..
hopefully that means other people can make a college basketball game now (2k)
if not then i hope EA can keep making them cuz i love me some college basketball.

People that plan on buying a Wii or Own one dont usually have madden on there mind so its a waste of time trying to make a good madden game for that system anyway

also..i hope the madden creator people hop on ncaa to make that games graphics better..cuz they suck

Ricky

2k can make a college game if they want. they just dont want to

bhurst99

I'm wondering how EA Sports non-sim titles do in comparsion to it's "sim" titles. I'm talking about titles like Facebreaker, NHL Arcade, the Nascar game on the Wii. It seems like the time spent on those products has been wasted but maybe sales are better than I believe

Ricky

well like nhl arcade was cheap to make since it used assets from nhl 10 and didnt have to go through the production stage

bhurst99

I'm wondering how EA Sports non-sim titles do in comparsion to it's "sim" titles. I'm talking about titles like Facebreaker, NHL Arcade, the Nascar game on the Wii. It seems like the time spent on those products has been wasted but maybe sales are better than I believe

Ricky

well like nhl arcade was cheap to make since it used assets from nhl 10 and didnt have to go through the production stage

eric

jus bring college hoops back 2k pleeeeassee
eric

jus bring college hoops back 2k pleeeeassee
N/A

PS THIS THREAD is about EA making cuts because they are LOSING money aka not sustaining profitability. The economy typically does not affect HUGE corporations with THIS big of an impact. The reason they are losing profits is because end-users are not happy with EA. My point, could be one reason why end-users are not happy with them, and so my point was to drive this home to EA. Maybe they have some employee's with business acumen on staff.

http://twitter.com/DiPrismatico @DiPrismatico

They are losing money due to shovelware on the bottom of their developmental spectrum. People aren't going to buy poor quality or experimental new IP games with no name recognition. Madden sales were actually up 5% this year.

N/A

Madden was up this year, but hopefully PROJECTED to be down next year if we boycott pre-orders. Point is, EA is declining across all EA games, but in particular its practices with Madden are being implemented in their other games.

Madden will be one of those games that will NEVER go away, and how can I blame customers, it's overall a great game. However, EA should not be allowed to get away with misleadings its end-users. Our only course of action that is realistic shot at waking up EA is to boycott Pre-Orders alone, because we all know at the end of the day next year most people will purchase Madden 11.

But, EA's business practices as a whole are starting to show, and it's starting to create hole's in their other games such as NCAA. Two games that should never decline are COD and Madden. But, if end-users want to make a statement, our most attainable recourse is to bypass PRE-ORDERS next year and put a little scare into EA.

N/A

PS THIS THREAD is about EA making cuts because they are LOSING money aka not sustaining profitability. The economy typically does not affect HUGE corporations with THIS big of an impact. The reason they are losing profits is because end-users are not happy with EA. My point, could be one reason why end-users are not happy with them, and so my point was to drive this home to EA. Maybe they have some employee's with business acumen on staff.

http://twitter.com/DiPrismatico @DiPrismatico

They are losing money due to shovelware on the bottom of their developmental spectrum. People aren't going to buy poor quality or experimental new IP games with no name recognition. Madden sales were actually up 5% this year.

N/A

Madden was up this year, but hopefully PROJECTED to be down next year if we boycott pre-orders. Point is, EA is declining across all EA games, but in particular its practices with Madden are being implemented in their other games.

Madden will be one of those games that will NEVER go away, and how can I blame customers, it's overall a great game. However, EA should not be allowed to get away with misleadings its end-users. Our only course of action that is realistic shot at waking up EA is to boycott Pre-Orders alone, because we all know at the end of the day next year most people will purchase Madden 11.

But, EA's business practices as a whole are starting to show, and it's starting to create hole's in their other games such as NCAA. Two games that should never decline are COD and Madden. But, if end-users want to make a statement, our most attainable recourse is to bypass PRE-ORDERS next year and put a little scare into EA.

N/A

BOYCOTT MADDEN 11 PRE-ORDERS!!!
N/A

BOYCOTT MADDEN 11 PRE-ORDERS!!!
t daley

Seriously there is just no accounting for the stupidity of 2kfanboy. It would be a shame if the Live series were to fade largely b/c they are the only title that actually makes improvements every year. 2k continues to dupe their fanbase with unfinished, rehashed products each year and yet the fans seem indifferent to it. The same goes for 2k's MLB franchise. Being the only game in town for the 360, fanboys still bought the game even though 2k8 was a complete unplayable mess and 2k9 wasn't much better. There is just no accounting for stupidity and it looks as if the stupid people will control the fate of the LIVE series.

cavs23win

no, live did this to themselves. its sad, but they should have thought about this when they made 06, 07, and 08, on next gen. all were complete trash. they took a big dump on there consumers. what goes around comes around….

t daley

Seriously there is just no accounting for the stupidity of 2kfanboy. It would be a shame if the Live series were to fade largely b/c they are the only title that actually makes improvements every year. 2k continues to dupe their fanbase with unfinished, rehashed products each year and yet the fans seem indifferent to it. The same goes for 2k's MLB franchise. Being the only game in town for the 360, fanboys still bought the game even though 2k8 was a complete unplayable mess and 2k9 wasn't much better. There is just no accounting for stupidity and it looks as if the stupid people will control the fate of the LIVE series.

cavs23win

no, live did this to themselves. its sad, but they should have thought about this when they made 06, 07, and 08, on next gen. all were complete trash. they took a big dump on there consumers. what goes around comes around….

zach

To me NBA Live and 2K10 suck, but 2K10 sucks a lot less than Live. I just hope this leads to developers getting the chance to make football games. I think its easy to create a great sim football game than any other sport. Just becaues EA has been around forever dosen't mean another company can't come along a take the number one spot, 2K Sports proved that. Football would be the gateway for that to happen, a company could use a football game to open the door to creating more sports titles. So hopefully EA's poor sales will make them lose their exclusivity contracts.
zach

To me NBA Live and 2K10 suck, but 2K10 sucks a lot less than Live. I just hope this leads to developers getting the chance to make football games. I think its easy to create a great sim football game than any other sport. Just becaues EA has been around forever dosen't mean another company can't come along a take the number one spot, 2K Sports proved that. Football would be the gateway for that to happen, a company could use a football game to open the door to creating more sports titles. So hopefully EA's poor sales will make them lose their exclusivity contracts.
MIGUEL CUNT

GOTTA CUT SOME OF THESE GAMES SO THEIR EXECUTIVES CAN KEEP THEIR 20 MILLION DOLLAR CHRISTMAS PARTY! F*CK YOU EA!
MIGUEL CUNT

GOTTA CUT SOME OF THESE GAMES SO THEIR EXECUTIVES CAN KEEP THEIR 20 MILLION DOLLAR CHRISTMAS PARTY! F*CK YOU EA!
t daley

Only a certified moron would make the statement that 2k10 is better than live. The only real difference between the two games is its control scheme and its broadcast team. Other than that both games represent the game of basketball faithfully.
t daley

Only a certified moron would make the statement that 2k10 is better than live. The only real difference between the two games is its control scheme and its broadcast team. Other than that both games represent the game of basketball faithfully.
X2KFootballG0dX

Boycott Predorders???

How about not purchase Madden at all?

Madden is trash…It only sells because of the NFL license, the only game with a NFL license.

NBA Live is pure trash..No Overtime, Bombing threes like Double Dribble…its pure aracade cartoon trash!!! I hope it gets axed.

All EA Sports titles need to get axed….exclusive licenses forfeited…and then start from scratch…

2K Sports makes quality sport sims…many kiddies whine about the games because they have no skill….MLB for example..All the Playstation tards praise the SHOW because its pick up and play trash…unlike 2K where you must actually learn the game.

I’ve been calling for a boycott of EA Trash products for almost 6 years now…Join me!!!
X2KFootballG0dX

Boycott Predorders???

How about not purchase Madden at all?

Madden is trash…It only sells because of the NFL license, the only game with a NFL license.

NBA Live is pure trash..No Overtime, Bombing threes like Double Dribble…its pure aracade cartoon trash!!! I hope it gets axed.

All EA Sports titles need to get axed….exclusive licenses forfeited…and then start from scratch…

2K Sports makes quality sport sims…many kiddies whine about the games because they have no skill….MLB for example..All the Playstation tards praise the SHOW because its pick up and play trash…unlike 2K where you must actually learn the game.

I’ve been calling for a boycott of EA Trash products for almost 6 years now…Join me!!!