Economy Hitting EA Hard
Unless you've managed to shut yourself off from all forms of communication (including semaphore and smoke signals), you've probably heard that the economy isn't doing too hot right now. Surprisingly, the videogame industry has remained fairly strong, with each of the major three consoles' Black Friday sales topping last year's performance. But unfortunately, while the hardware is selling strong, the software isn't as fortunate, and it has caused some companies, even industry giants, to start cutting back, big time.
When I say industry giants, I mean EA. EA has been hit hard due to lower than expected sales of games like Need for Speed: Undercover, Mirror's Edge, and Rock Band 2. Gamasutra reports that analysts are suggesting that EA might need to make even more cutbacks, either by costs or possibly by actually cutting franchises that underperformed. Need for Speed seems like a prime candidate for the cutting room floor, but I'm worried about whether EA will be as bold venturing into new IPs in the future thanks to Mirror's Edge.
The cutbacks would be in addition to the 600 employees EA already cut back in October and the game Tiberium that was canceled earlier this year. All is not grim for the industry giant though, as strong sales are still being reported for Left 4 Dead, Dead Space, and Fifa 09. So what can save EA next year? Well, if we look at what's selling well for them right now we have zombies, mutant aliens, and sports. Hmmm, if only EA had a franchise they could tap into that combined all of those things together....
Come on EA, bring back the Mutant League sports games. Because the only way you're going to get me to play football (American or actual football) is if I can play as a skeleton hacking robots and mutants apart with a chainsaw.
NaviFairy
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 9 December 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: bad economy, bad sales, EA, mutant league
I remember that game! Didn't they also make a cartoon about mutant football?
Mutant League rocked so hard. I remember wasting ... errr playing a whole summer of that with my best friend.
Common EA! You know you want to.
What can save EA? Three Words.
The Sims 3.