Folks will expend lots of air in the EA loss discussion, but there are a few facts that the gaming media seems to be ignoring in their breathless exposure of EA's latest report:
- a $25 million or so loss with revenues in excess of $3 billion-with-a-"B" is decidedly not catastrophic.
- Analysts are saying "EA missed the Wii." To be frank, everybody missed the Wii, and the first time any of us saw how cool it could have been, it was too late to steer toward a Wii launch strategy. There were some teams that went whole-hog into Gamecube port-mode after E3 2006, but to make a really good game for the Wii, you have to think like a Wii designer from the beginning.
Those are the parts that people seem to ignore. Nintendo may have been cautious, but they could have given publishers an earlier look at the coolness of the possible applications of the Wiimote and Nunchuk.
On the other hand:
- EA got married really early to PS3. And stuck by it when they were banking their Holiday 2006 fortunes on a new platform launch. With only 400k units. (You're know they're not taking stupid pills over there, so think of the gnashing of teeth at EA and ATVI when Sony made that announcement)
- Even if you find out too late that you're married to PS3, there's no law that says you can't switch all your TV, print and online advertising to focus on PS2 and 360. So Sony holds an axe over your head? Your axe is called "Madden," and it's bigger than theirs.
- This could have been avoided by canceling one game early in the process: Superman Returns. They did save a lot on advertising when it missed the movie launch, but what - $5 mil, tops? Take a look at those movie franchises and then take a look at your good game ideas. Don't marry the two. Don't kill Danger Girl because it's got to be Catwoman - Hollywood will always fail you. Don't kill whatever SuperGTA you were working on because it's got to be Superman - keep the two separate and make one crappy movie game and a revolutionary tech game.
See? Lots of hot air, some new facts. We're good for lots of stuff here at NakedGaming.
