Not content with simply having a presence in the lucrative Asian gaming market, Electronic Arts is looking at everything from Pachinko parlors to arcades in an effort to spread its influence across the Far East. GamesIndustry.biz spoke with EA regional boss Joe Niermann at E3 to get an idea of how the top game publisher is shifting its consoles-centric strategy overseas. The former Disney Asia executive cites online development, mobile projects, and localized content as being the "three pillars" that will help the gaming giant's future growth across the Asian markets.According to Niermann, "Our strategy is really build to buy. We have to build the expertise, we have to build that ability to make the games locally, to publish the games ourselves, to operate the games if it's online. We can bring in great tools, great technology, great IP, great management - but we need the other half of the equation, which is somebody that has actually built a game in the local market. I think together, that makes us much more powerful."
To that end, EA is teaming with Korean developer NeoWiz for an online version of the popular FIFA franchise. Time will tell if the Shandas and Webzens of the world agree to play along with EA's plan for global domination.
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(Page 1) Reader Comments
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We can bring medicore tools, average technology, mediocre IPs and horrendous management.
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Yup, it seems EA is plannig to take over the world. The next thing they will do is make a game console and eventually tie up with M$ after they over throw Sony. Since these two (EA and M$) both seem to want to take over the world, the question is, Who will buy who?
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EA is a public company. They need to make their quarterly numbers. The US dollar is falling versus other currencies particularly Asian currencies and the U.S. game market is starting to saturate. They need to diversify their income to not only hedge the falling dollar but tap into the fastest growing markets in the world.
-Ashton
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EA having a monopoly? If it's hard to have a monopoly on consoles, it would be much harder to have a monopoly on games... especially considering that most EA titles suck.
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in order for them to have monopoly in Asia, they will need to sell their company to the japanese and change every single stuff to japanese..... and make japanese game....
i ve said this before ( and got a -1 star for it) and i will said it again - all american games look like crap!
(except guild war, but then the developers ripped off asian art style..)
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