The games industry has ”radically changed” at a pace that has ”accelerated dramatically.” EA will maintain ”about a dozen” IP franchises to stay in the game.
Riccitiello was speaking at a conference. ”The industry has radically changed and the pace of change has accelerated dramatically,” he said. ”Gone forever is the 4-to-5 year console cadence that gave developers ample time to invest and retool for the next big wave.”
”Consider that just 18 months ago there was no iPad, Google was experimenting with Android, and most big games were limited to a single revenue opportunity at launch. Consider that each of the major consoles now has a controller that encourages users to get off the couch and get into the action,” he continued, noting top apps are videogames.
”While the game industry has fundamentally changed, games are reaching a far larger audience base than ever before,” he added. The EA big cheese has three strategies to keep the publisher strong and healthy for the immediate future.
The first is maintaining and continuing to build up ”about a dozen” of their IPs. ”Each of these will be transformed into year-round businesses with major packaged goods launches, social launches, mobile launches, downloadable content and micro-transactions,” he said.
The second will be to push EA as a platform and keep close ties with their retail partners while also expanding their digital footprint with the likes of their new Origin service. GameStop’s 11.5 million digital users are ”proving to be one of our best partners in digital.”
Thirdly they’ll keep on the hunt for top developer talent. ”We recognize that creative and engineering talent is at the core of what we do, and we are making sure that EA is the best place to work for these industry leaders,” said Riccitiello at the conference call.
EA has a new studio in Austin where 300 job positions will be available. The publisher revealed strong digital revenue growth helped drive their fiscal quarter performance. Has EA managed to ‘change its ways’ from the old times of over-farming their IP franchises?
