Games developer and publisher EA will this year reduce its cost base and streamline its releases, writes STEVEN CARROLL
VIDEO GAME takes of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, the French resistance movement during the second World War and sporting titles featuring Mike Tyson and John McEnroe are all set for console releases this year.
New instalments of the popular Need for Speed, Rock Band, Spore and Tiger Woods series were also among the 14 titles previewed at the Electronic Arts (EA) showcase for 2009, which was unveiled to the Irish and British media in London this week.
Following below-forecast trading in late 2008, in which EA posted a loss of $641 million on sales of $1.65 billion for the final quarter, the developer and publisher has moved to reduce its cost base by cutting 1,100 job and streamline its releases for the year ahead.
“This year we are in a much better place in that we are launching, at the appropriate time, the right content,” said Keith Ramsdale, vice-president of EA publishing in Ireland and the UK.
“That’s a bit of a sweeping statement, but we have a rationalised line-up and each of the titles released here we would expect to hit or exceed our internal expectations.”
Mr Ramsdale said EA last year released “a few too many titles” and that as the economy faltered, especially around the traditionally busy Christmas period, the company found consumers were less willing to buy into newly-launched games franchises.
However, in spite of the difficult economic climate, Mr Ramsdale is confident EA can record good results in 2009.
“We’re involved in an industry where on revenue terms we’re bigger than film box office and we’re about to overtake home video and Blu-Ray combined.
“At that point we’re going to be the biggest standalone entertainment media, and we are on a dramatic growth curve.
“The UK market grew 21 points year-on-year between 2007 and 2008, and the forecasts for this year vary but they show double-digit growth, which you won’t see in the other media.”
Among the new titles that EA hopes will help it buck the trends of consumer attitude this year are Grand Slam Tennis, Dante’s Inferno and Saboteur.
The tennis title, which will initially be released on the Nintendo Wii and later on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, features current stars Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, as well as old favourite John McEnroe.
The game is to be packaged along with a new Wii development called motion plus, which provides gamers with increased accuracy and control over their strokes.
Dante’s Inferno, an interesting take on the dark 14th century Divine Comedy, puts gamers on a gory mission of absolution and vengeance as its main character moves through the nine circles of hell, including worlds of lust, anger and violence.
One of the standout titles unveiled, The Saboteur, is a free- flowing game with film noir-styled graphics. It follows an Irish character named Sean Devlin, a mix between Indiana Jones and Steve McQueen, as he attempts to hamper Nazi efforts to control Paris during the second World War.
The visually-impressive boxing title Fight Night Round 4, which is to be released on PS3 and Xbox in July, allows gamers to use pictures of themselves to create a self-styled character which they can then pit against famed sluggers such as Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson.
Other new titles include Dragon Age, Brutal Legend and Dead Space Extraction.
EA also previewed its plans to enter the video gaming fitness market through EA Sports Active, a western fitness programme focusing on running, skating and boxing, which is to be released on the Nintendo Wii next month.
“It’s an entirely new experience for us as a label,” said Dave McCarthy of EA Sports. “It’s exciting for us to be treating games in a whole new way.
“We brought in personal trainers to the team and instead of it being about gaming and having fun it’s about training and focusing on different areas of the body.”
