Electronic Arts is being hit by the credit crunch too it seems, with company CEO John Riccitiello saying that he is disappointed with Christmas sales so far and that the mega-publisher will have to take efforts to reduce costs next year as a result.
EA, which laid off 6 percent of its global staff earlier of this year, has long had a reputation for producing games mainly in established, safe franchises. This year however the company has sought to bring more innovation to its line-up by buying outside developers like BioWare and making more innovative games, like Mirror's Edge.
These innovations haven't performed as well as the company expected however, with John Riccitiello saying that the company didn't manage to meet sales expectations for many titles.
"While we saw significant improvement in the overall quality of our key products this year, we are disappointed that our holiday slate is not meeting our sales expectations," Riccitiello said in a statement, claiming the reduced sales were the result of an "uncertain economic environment."
The company has said that it will now take measures to streamline the structure and profitability of the company, which is corporate-speak for firing people and cancelling games, we think.
According to analysts the reduced sales are mainly due to the under-performance of certain key titles, namely Mirror's Edge, Rock Band 2 and Need for Speed Undercover.
Did you try any of those games? Let us know what you think of them in the forums.
EA, which laid off 6 percent of its global staff earlier of this year, has long had a reputation for producing games mainly in established, safe franchises. This year however the company has sought to bring more innovation to its line-up by buying outside developers like BioWare and making more innovative games, like Mirror's Edge.
These innovations haven't performed as well as the company expected however, with John Riccitiello saying that the company didn't manage to meet sales expectations for many titles.
"While we saw significant improvement in the overall quality of our key products this year, we are disappointed that our holiday slate is not meeting our sales expectations," Riccitiello said in a statement, claiming the reduced sales were the result of an "uncertain economic environment."
The company has said that it will now take measures to streamline the structure and profitability of the company, which is corporate-speak for firing people and cancelling games, we think.
According to analysts the reduced sales are mainly due to the under-performance of certain key titles, namely Mirror's Edge, Rock Band 2 and Need for Speed Undercover.
Did you try any of those games? Let us know what you think of them in the forums.
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