the problem with EA isnt that their games are too big, but that they suck: they lack the quality of Valve, the wit of Rockstar and the innovation that smaller companies have.

All their games specially the maddem series, are boring and tired.

EA moved to release more casual versions of its sports franchises (All-Play, Skate It) and initiated Wii-specific new IP (Boom Blox, Playground, Active). All largely flopped, even critical favorites. Their Rock Band-as-DLC platform strategy outperformed Guitar Hero on per-copy downloads but was crushed in retail sales, as EA faceplanted on the Wii versions of both the first and second games in that franchise.

Meanwhile, games like Braid (two-person development team) and World of Goo (two-person development team) come out, sell thousands of copies in the low-cost, high-margin download space and make their creators lots of money, most of which goes to the developers and the digital distribution channels – owned by Microsoft and Nintendo, respectively.

The key isn’t necessarily to focus on the mobile market or the Wii market. It’s to focus on easily portable, well-designed, lightweight games that are low-priced and travel well. Games that are as easy to release for the 360 as the Wii as the DS as the PSP as the PC, and can be distributed through downloadable channels. Games like Puzzle Quest, Peggle, Lumines. Those are the games that sold best. The problem for EA (and Activision, and to a lesser extent Ubisoft) is that launching many small projects instead of a few large projects requires a large, expensive workforce – right at a time when they need to cut costs the most.

In other words, they followed the strategy you call for this year. Its early failures, compounded by the economy’s bottoming out and compared to Activision’s relative (but perhaps more unstable) success relying on its core franchises, killed shareholders’ desires to experiment and diversify.

EA should’ve done this when the Wii came out, and they’ve said as much. But the only strategy that’d work now is to build a time machine, go back to the Wii launch, and start focusing on the Wii.

if you look at EA stock from year-to-date perspective with complete disregard to the stability of the stock over past four years then you have a right to say it is an irresponsible statement. if not, then your allegation isn’t quite responsible either.

A lot of companies — EA included — are using the economy as an excuse for long term problems that plague. Them. Over past 6 quarters just check out the number of quarters EA has missed its revenue estimates.

I’d say that’s a fairly irresponsible statement. If you take the stock fall of all the game companies and look at it, EA is averaging out to be somewhere in the middle of the losses over the last year. It’s the whole US economy falling, not investors shying away from EA in particular.

Disclaimer: I am an EA slave laborer.

I guess people just want the latest regurgitation of Madden after all. :(