EA Lost More Money In Three Months Than You'll Ever Make

[mjc0961]

Yeah, like many others here my first thought was "Probably that Star Wars MMO Bioware has been making for years."

Also, part of me can't help but think "Haha, that's what you get for your nasty PC DRM and for ruining Command and Conquer 4 you bastards!"

But yeah, seriously. Comparing EA to Activision is like comparing Scrooge McDuck to plain ol' Ebenezer Scrooge. They're both money-hoarding entrepreneurs, but at least McDuck's a decent guy. Scrooge was pretty much the devil as a businessman before his little trip with the ghosts.

I don't think it's fair to call EA a "decent guy." Their CEO comes out and says things that are just as stupid as what Bobby Kotick spews from his piehole. They buy out and then shut down plenty of studios. And they do plenty of milking as well (Activision poops out yearly Call of Duties, EA poops out multiple yearly sports titles). And EA is also constantly screwing over any customers that buy their games for PC with increasingly obnoxious DRM schemes. They may be taking somewhat different paths to get there, but EA and Activision are both easily carving their way to hell with all the evil things they do to the industry.

Really? Nobody's posted this yet?

*sigh* fine, here you go. [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/11/5/]

Why would anyone want to post that? It's not funny and it's not relevant (EA is losing money because of poor decisions, not because they "stopped pumping out crap").

 

[DTWolfwood]

does that seem like the amount of money thats rumored to have been spent on SW:TOR? XD

 

[reachforthesky]

Maybe this wouldn't happen if they weren't constantly pushing towards the bleeding edge of technology, attempting to ring their customers of every last cent with DLC, and dumping all their resources into making the next big thing in mediocre shooters and shovelware. Maybe if they put an ounce of effort into introducing actual innovation in their games, more people would be interested in buying them.

Also, it helps to not pour money into an ad campaign specifically designed to appeal to the hardcore crowd (read: the people who are going to buy your game regardless) while isolating everyone else.

 

[Sartan0]

I am going to guess they are mismanaging things internally.

 

[vxicepickxv]

Now mind you I'm no math genius but if all the game they mentioned alone sold over 5 mil copies each (as it is mentioned in the article )without even considering all the other titles they released that is much more then $1.053 billion, at least about 50% more and that's without even considering the other games they published so ... tax evasion much ?

You make it sound like EA gets everything. They see 12 dollars of each game sold. That means that 5 million in, is 60 million in return, before taxes.

A large portion of the costs are shipping, assembly, packaging, retail space for gaming(which is why digital distribution SHOULD be cheaper).

That's not counting developers, lawyers, mailroom staff, janitors, and executives. Everybody's got to get paid, so they can eat, so they can work.

 

[godofallu]

Idiots, do some product research. MoH has never been anything more than a wanabe CoD

Umm, are you serious? Medal of Honor has always tried to be a Call of Duty? You're kidding, right?

It has always tried to be a top tier FPS, competing directly with CoD in the WW2 shooter market. It has never achieved review scores, player bases, or sales figures of equal level to CoD. It has always been that "other" WW2 series that frankly isn't as good.

 

[Vaer]

You make it sound like EA gets everything. They see 12 dollars of each game sold. That means that 5 million in, is 60 million in return, before taxes.

A large portion of the costs are shipping, assembly, packaging, retail space for gaming(which is why digital distribution SHOULD be cheaper).

That's not counting developers, lawyers, mailroom staff, janitors, and executives. Everybody's got to get paid, so they can eat, so they can work.

Read the article first and then comment, they said that total sales were 1.053 bil not the profit (aka what remains after all the payments you mentioned), do you think they would cry this much about it if they had made 1.053 bil profit ? ...

 

[(LK)]

Are you being sincere when you ask how sales of a luxury item can decline during a recession, as if it's some kind of surprise?

Entertainment is somewhat insulated from recessions, yes, as people turn to it to escape the gloom of reality. It does eventually hit those companies, though... especially when companies are attempting to find ways to sell less content for higher prices, at the exact same time their customers are forced to focus on getting the most content for the least prices.

Too much nickel-and-dime B.S. has made some publishers into the moron selling winter coats in hell.