Did the Beatles bomb with the video game generation?
The Fab Four did not set the video game world on fire with the launch of The Beatles Rock Band. The game was one of the most overhyped in game history, with a buildup that was similar to last year’s Spore, which sold millions of units but was still a disappointment.
The Beatles Rock Band sold just 595,000 units across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii, according to market researcher NPD Group. That made… Continue Reading
No. 2 Electronic Arts exec John Pleasants on his defection to hot startup Playdom
A couple of weeks ago, Electronic Arts executive John Pleasants told me how excited he was to help that giant video game company adjust the age of the Internet.
Now he’s bolted from Electronic Arts and joined one of the hottest social gaming startups, Playdom.
That’s sort of like Joe Biden quitting his job as Vice President of the United States to become the mayor of Las Vegas. EA has 9,000 employees, while Playdom has 65. In… Continue Reading
Electronic Arts exec foresees shift to digital game distribution
John Pleasants has stayed behind the scenes at Electronic Arts as its No. 2 executive. He is president of the global publishing organization and chief operating officer, running everything except EA’s game development studios themselves. Recruited by EA chief executive John Riccitiello, Pleasants joined in 2008 with the mandate to make EA embrace new business models and services as the Internet rips apart the old ways of selling games. We caught up with him at… Continue Reading
The top 10 children’s video games coming your way
At this year’s E3 show, it was difficult to ignore publishers’ acknowledgment of the growing children’s market, including indie-influenced titles (such as Scribblenauts and Drawn to Life), a broadening scope of LEGO titles (LEGO Rock Band, LEGO Indiana Jones 2, and LEGO Harry Potter), and publishers’ return to the Mario Kart-influenced racing genre (Need for Speed Nitro, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing). Here are my picks for the best children’s titles of the show.
1. Scribblenauts (developer:… Continue Reading
The coolest video from the first day of the E3 video game show
The coolest video on Monday at the E3 games conference — one of the video game industry’s biggest gatherings — was this cinematic video of Star Wars: The Old Republic.
The Old Republic is a massively multiplayer online game that is being built by BioWare and LucasArts.
Shown at the Electronic Arts press conference, the video isn’t a game itself. It’s a preview meant to get people excited about playing the game, which is set in the… Continue Reading
After 25 years, Tetris has sold 125 million copies
Twenty five years ago, a 29-year-old Russian mathematician loosed Tetris upon the world. Now the game has sold more than 125 million copies — an astounding average of 5 million per year. Now the two men who are responsible for turning it into a worldwide phenomenon are trying to take it to even higher sales through online tournaments and matches.
Tetris is the seminal computer game — where you manipulate falling blocks to match colors —… Continue Reading
Electronic Arts hits extremes with cute games for girls and hardcore violent titles with brothels
[Updated with video of the Old Republic game]
Game maker Electronic Arts is showing off 12 games at the E3 conference today, and they range all the way from cute and cuddly Littlest Pet Shop Online titles to the dark and hellish Dante’s Inferno.
The company is focused on making more games for the Wii, producing high quality games, and reaching a global audience, said John Riccitiello, chief executive of the Redwood City, Calif.-based company. He said EA had… Continue Reading
EA’s Sims 3 game could be critical for company’s future
The Sims 3 game launch today is likely to be critical to the future of Electronic Arts. And we’re not just talking about the company’s performance in the current quarter.
The Sims 3 for the PC and Mac is the latest edition in a nine-year-old franchise that has become the best-selling game series of all time, with more than 100 million units sold. It’s an open question whether EA can still innovate in this franchise, which… Continue Reading
Anticipating E3: the video game giants prepare to show their cards
The E3 video game trade show gets under way Monday, and is expected to draw more than 40,000 people with a new grandiose format.
Held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, it will be much more like a Las Vegas extravaganza than the boring, press-focused shows that drew 4,000 or so people last year. And yes, those booth babes (below) will be back, as well as 3,500 journalists.
(Listen to my NPR Weekend Edition interview on E3).
There will be… Continue Reading
Does game quality translate into better financial performance?
John Riccitiello, chief executive of Electronic Arts, came into EA a couple of years ago with the commitment to improve the quality of the big company’s games. During his calls with financial analysts, Riccitiello regularly cited average review scores for the company’s games.
That raises the question of whether there is a direct relationship between the quality of a game to the bottom line. Metacritic, which aggregates review scores by a bunch of established game reviewers, has… Continue Reading
EA pulls out the stops for launch of Sims 3 iPhone game
Electronic Arts is launching its Sims 3 game across as many platforms as it can next week. But one of the most interesting to watch will be the game’s debut on the iPhone. That’s because the game represents a big effort inside EA to get the game right on the fast-growing platform.
While most iPhone games are built by tiny teams in a few months, EA has had its team working on the title since November,… Continue Reading
Ubisoft closes a year of expansion and profits for game business
Ubisoft reported fiscal year results with good sales growth and a decent profit despite the recession. For the year ended March 31, the French game publisher reported sales of $1.47 billion, up 18.4 percent from $1.3 billion a year earlier.
Net income was $95.6 million, down 37 percent from $152 million a year earlier. The Paris-based company reported the strong growth in the face of economic headwinds and its own aggressive expansion. One of the strongest… Continue Reading
The top 12 trends of the video game industry
It’s good to step back and get a good look at the various cross-currents in the games landscape. Over the last few weeks I’ve been surrounded by game developers at the Login online games conference in Seattle and the Quo Vadis game developers event in Berlin, both events where I was invited to speak, and have seen several trends emerging — some good, some bad. Here they are:
1. Game startup financings have slowed from last year. Everyone… Continue Reading
Can Harry Potter save the day (and quarter) for EA?
Electronic Arts and Warner Bros. Interactive announced that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince video game will be in stores worldwide on June 30.
The long-awaited launch should be a big deal for EA’s fiscal quarter that ends June 30, and the launch will be just ahead of the July debut of Warner Bros. Pictures film based on the sixth novel in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
In the game, Harry Potter will return to Hogwarts to… Continue Reading
WonderHill raises $7 million for online casual games company
WonderHill is announcing today that it has raised $7 million for its first round of funding for its web-based casual games.
Its games include Green Spot, where you save the rain forest, and Dog World, where you rescue pets. Both are on MySpace, while Dog World is also on Facebook. The investors in the current round include Charles River Ventures and Shasta Ventures. Previously, the company raised $750,000 in seed money from Ooga Labs, which spun… Continue Reading
Electronic Arts reports lower loss than expected, readies huge Sims 3 launch
Electronic Arts posted a smaller loss than expected in part because it cut back on expenses much faster than it previously indicated.
A bellwether for the console game industry, EA is one of the largest video game publishers, and its attempt to turn its financial fortunes around is being closely watched. Critical to EA’s future is the June 2 launch of The Sims 3, the latest incarnation in a series of people simulators that have sold… Continue Reading
EA’s Spore game creature uploads strong, but game sales now on the decline
Electronic Arts announced today that the number of creatures created for its Spore game has passed 100 million.
That sounds wildly successful, and it certainly means that some fans love the fact that the game lets them create their own creature and then upload it to the Sporepedia web site. But the intense love that some users have for Spore doesn’t mean the game will be as successful as EA might have hoped.
EEDAR, a game market… Continue Reading
Roundup: Wright sticks with Spore, Zango folds, Texas gives solar a boost and more
Wright still on board with Spore — Despite his departure from Electronic Arts, the Sims creator says he will still pitch in on Spore’s sequels.
Game runs apocalypse drills — A report on crisis response has been released based on the game Superstruct, a program that crowdsources people’s reactions to disaster scenarios. CNet has more.
Cybersecurity no easy fix — A study conducted on cybersecurity for president Barack Obama suggests that U.S. networks are vulnerable to external threats, but that… Continue Reading
Can casual game Virtual Families take a chunk out of The Sims?
Last Day of Work is launching a new casual web game dubbed Virtual Families today. It’s a family simulation game that hopes to carve out a market in the shadow of the giant Electronic Arts franchise, The Sims, which has sold more than 100 million copies and which launches its third version in June.
Arthur Humphrey, co-founder and lead designer of Last Day of Work, says he isn’t intimidated by the comparison because Virtual Families also… Continue Reading
John Madden retires, but EA Sports will keep him on signature football game
Longtime NFL broadcaster John Madden retired today, but Electronic Arts said it will keep him as the lead celebrity on its top-selling game, Madden NFL Football.
The 73-year-old Madden will step away from his announcer’s role immediately. The former coach of the Oakland Raiders became legendary for his instant analysis during games and his sense of humor.
EA founder Trip Hawkins signed up Madden in 1984 and the first game came out on the Apple II in… Continue Reading