The company has had to pay for its mistakes, caused by an overextended organization that had lost focus. The firm is in the process of laying off a grand total of 1,100 workers, and closing or consolidating studios.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco on Thursday, EA COO John Pleasants spoke about key areas that EA will be focusing on in the year ahead, with a strong emphasis on marketing, online service-based business models and hooking onto Wii’s rising star.
EA won’t cut marketing
Key 2008 titles like Mirror’s Edge didn’t perform to expectations for EA. Substandard marketing was partly to blame, Pleasants said, and the company is making the appropriate adjustments. Amidst the cuts, the marketing budget will not suffer.
“If you take those first-week sales, backtrack to pre-orders, then backtrack to buzz, there’s no question that as we go back and look at that, we see an opportunity for improvement in the way that we do marketing,” he said. “We were waiting too long to get the word out.”
This year EA’s marketing with have a “much longer” lead time prior to a game’s launch, giving consumers more time to familiarize themselves with the product.
Pleasants also described how EA is exploring ways to more closely align itself with the Wii as a brand. “For the first time, the idea that EA and Wii are two powerful companies that support each other is something we can market,” he said, adding that his company can position itself as one that is “unlocking the power of the Wii.”
Currently, EA has around 25 Wii SKUs in development that are not ports, but made specifically for the platform, according to Pleasants.
Expanding online
Bringing products online will be key for EA. Mythic Entertainment-developed Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, launched in 2008, currently has 300K subscribers, with over 1 million copies sold. “MMOs have long legs and can be very profitable over time,” he explained. “They’re ongoing services.”
Case in point, according to Pleasants, is Ultima Online, which is over 10 years old, and “still very profitable” for EA.
The exec is also understandably “bullish” on Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO, which is currently in development by internal studio BioWare.
But Pleasants hesitates to say that the MMO has a chance to outperform Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. “To say that we’re going out to take WoW down would be hubris.”
In addition, Pleasants described how EA is looking to expand its efforts in other areas of online, particularly within the sports genre, with games that are more like “live services.”
“This year we’re coming out with a dedicated online Tiger product,” he said. “So we’re really bullish on that genre” and its online potential.
EA also plans on “more than doubling” the amount of digitally distributed games in Asia this year.
“We need to be having a dialog with the audience” instead of working on a game for 24 months, spending $30 million, creating a little buzz, boxing it up and hoping it works, he said.
Music games
The music game genre has had some growing pains, but the category is still strong, and its future is safe, Pleasants told attendees. EA distributes MTV Games’ Rock Band.
“Personally, I think the music category is here forever,” he said, “But it’s going to change.” The exec said that the current idea of music games—scrolling notes and punching buttons in time—will change dramatically in five years. There’s still “much more” that can be done within the genre.
While EA is a major player in the music category, it is in the area as a distributor, not a content creator. Asked if EA would be entering the business at a development level, Pleasants said, “We’re not in any position to announce anything.”