Analyst: EA's lost its luster

42 Comments by Alexander Sliwinski Mar 14th 2008 4:05PM
Filed under: Business

Deutsche Bank analyst Jeetil Patel isn't a fan of Electronic Arts. On numerous occasions the analyst has questioned EA Sports' direction and the financial situation at the company. In his latest report, Patel keeps the tom-toms of war going against EA by suggestion that the company continues to artificially boost its market share through distribution partnerships with games like MTV's Rock Band or Valve's Orange Box.

Patel points out that without the Rock Band distribution deal, EA would have had a decline in market share this past year. He believes that EA's titles lack diverse quality and that its current catalog will continue to underperform and lose market share for at least another year. In Patel's world, it looks like EA needs to acquire Take-Two with the quickness.

Tags: deutsche-bank, ea, ea-sports, jeetil-patel, patel

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Martez: Mar 14th 2008; 4:10PM

Activision took it's luster.

Neon Jebus: Mar 14th 2008; 4:15PM

They might have but they'll leave their sticky residue on everything soon enough. Just look at Guitar Hero.

samfish: Mar 14th 2008; 4:22PM

Are you saying Activision bukkaked Judy Nails?

Neon Jebus: Mar 14th 2008; 4:26PM

Well I didn't mean to put it that way but considering I basically said MS gave everyone a Cleveland Steamer with the HDD prices on the 360 perhaps I need to get my mind out of the gutter.

KeenCommander: Mar 14th 2008; 4:29PM

@samfish: That was disgusting, yet the image still won't go away.

AnonyMack: Mar 14th 2008; 7:24PM

I'll ask the obvious question everyone is thinking:
EA had luster?

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo): Mar 14th 2008; 4:10PM

hmmm. I don't know if I agree with that. Normally, EA games sell pretty damn well, so I don't think they are losing their luster.

AnonyMack: Mar 14th 2008; 7:25PM

I don't think game sales reflect quality.

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo): Mar 14th 2008; 10:01PM

I never said that, nor is it what the analyst is talking about. That's why I said that I disagreed with the analyst. Most of EA's products have been selling well.

Rollins: Mar 14th 2008; 4:12PM

So, without a runaway hit that contributed to their market share, they would have lost market share.

o rly?

Burritoclock: Mar 14th 2008; 4:13PM

I hate comments like "Patel points out that without the Rock Band distribution deal, EA would have had a decline in market share this past year."

Well, yeah, that's why they made the deal idiot!

You know, if Microsoft had not gotten Halo exclusive to the xbox they would have lost alot of money, dur dur dur dee...

ill trooper: Mar 14th 2008; 4:17PM

Exactly!

Neon Jebus: Mar 14th 2008; 4:18PM

Spot on Burrito! You mean growth into new markets and new business is a BAD thing?

Boy I better let the President of my company know that right away we are about to make a few HUGE mistakes!

ill trooper: Mar 14th 2008; 4:16PM

It's funny when people say things like "without ROCK BAND, EA woulda..." or "without the iPod, Apple never woulda..."

Well, there is no hypothetical fun world where that didn't happen. EA is responding to change by distributing Rock Band. There is no 'without Rock Band' at this point.

samfish: Mar 14th 2008; 4:24PM

"Well, there is no hypothetical fun world where that didn't happen."

Actually, there are some theories about that...

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo): Mar 14th 2008; 4:36PM

Sure there is, it's called Bizarro world.

ill trooper: Mar 14th 2008; 4:59PM

I forgot about Spock with that goatee...

Burritoclock: Mar 14th 2008; 5:44PM

As my Dad used to say all the time:

"IF a frog had wings he wouldn't bump his ass every time her hopped"

or something like that...

JakubK666: Mar 14th 2008; 6:49PM

There's some evidence too. Look what the scientists have found in some meteorite remains (warning extremely shitty photoshopping skills :p)

http://img401.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rockbandcovercopyee5.jpg

BPM is Ready to Brawl! 5026 4120 1186: Mar 14th 2008; 9:50PM

What about the What-If Machine?

samfish: Mar 14th 2008; 11:15PM

How would you turn such a device on without a Finglonger?

Mills and Boom: Mar 14th 2008; 4:20PM

What? Now? Is it official this time?

DefDealer: Mar 14th 2008; 4:22PM

Hah...there is a God after all. You fuck up Westwood and Bullfrog and they fuck you back.

Mills and Boom: Mar 14th 2008; 4:40PM

Well done you reminded me about Bullfrog :(

dextro: Mar 14th 2008; 5:11PM

R.I.P. Bullfrog =(

Neon Jebus: Mar 14th 2008; 4:24PM

If they didn't do things like Rock Band, they would just be focused on old brands and established titles. "If it weren't for Madden they would dead."

If they do make an effort they only succeed because of the new markets/IP's.

Some crackpot analyst always thinks what you do is wrong. You just can't seem to win. But somehow this dbag analyst still get paid.

JonFitt: Mar 14th 2008; 4:27PM

If anything I would say that EA is back on track wrt the games it's outputting. It went through a horrible phase of really shovelling out the licensed turds while borging studios left right and centre.
I think EA is returning to its roots in that the quality of games is now higher priority.

Can't speak for EA Sports though: don't play sports games. Never have, never will.

grapejoos: Mar 14th 2008; 4:47PM

What's amazing is that EA Sports games were actually much BETTER in the past year than any other year in the recent past. Madden 06 for the 360 was an unfinished product, plain and simple. Their 08 titles are much better by comparison (NHL 08 is hands down the best hockey game ever), though that doesn't excuse the crapfest it followed. I think years of releasing roster updates and putting out unfinished titles on new platforms is finally starting to catch up with EA Sports, despite the fact that the quality actually is improving.

Dustin: Mar 14th 2008; 4:32PM

EA lost it all right with the 30FPS and lack of support on most PS3 titles (Orange Box, NHL 08). Activision took it, but then lost it with the whole bitching about using the guitars on Rock Band. I used to love EA games, but now. ehh. I'll still buy the NHL series cause NHL 2kX just blows. Atleast they did well with Rock Band support

XGM: Mar 14th 2008; 4:34PM

In other news rain is wet.

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo): Mar 14th 2008; 4:36PM

and the sun is hot,

Stay tuned for more news from Faux network.

π: Mar 14th 2008; 5:22PM

Why do we even listen to these analysts in the first place? Either we already what they're saying is true, or they're wrong.

warlock7: Mar 14th 2008; 5:32PM

Now who wouldn't buy Madden if it was less expensive and you could download new rosters as DLC each year for a nominal fee rather than re-releasing the same old sh|t?

EA needs a new business model in order to remain relevant.

Squirrel3D: Mar 14th 2008; 5:48PM

Not me. I refuse to play Madden in protest because both EA and the NFL killed the NFL2K series.

You can call me closed minded and anything else, but it's how I feel and you can't do anything about it.

Chase: Mar 14th 2008; 7:41PM

I agree and do the same, S3D.

Youthinized: Mar 14th 2008; 9:07PM

I've told my friends that if they released Madden ever other year or something and have DLC roster updates it would be better and they would have more time to develop a better installment.

x silence x: Mar 14th 2008; 5:33PM

People will continue buying EA's games for decades to come...

LaughingTarget: Mar 14th 2008; 6:14PM

EA is still a little bit shiny to me. They got Spore coming after all.

koehler83: Mar 14th 2008; 7:35PM

If this "analyst" thinks that taking over T2 would be a wise financial decision for EA.. their credibility is garbage.

Obviously the GTA4 is far enough along and close enough to launch that pretty much nothing will stop it from being a gold mine.. but after that, EA is 100% guaranteed to run the name into the ground. Probably as quickly as the next title.

Is it really worth paying $2 billion for a single title? Obviously they'll get the T2 sports brand.. but they'll just turn it into the EA sports brand.. so whats the point?

Its so frustrating.

Spin44: Mar 15th 2008; 5:32AM

EA has always sucked. Same old crappy sports game year after year.

MasterCKO: Mar 16th 2008; 6:14PM

I always start to tune out when analysts/commenters/the peanut gallery say stuff like "if not for such and such product, this company would suck."

It happened in the next gen HDM war a lot ("If not for the PS3, Blu-ray would have lost") and this analysts is full of that kind of anti-wishful thinking. "If not for Rock Band, EA's line-up sucks"? Wow, a company struck a deal to get a good product in order to improve their product offering. Shocking.

hvnlysoldr: Mar 30th 2008; 3:06PM

I think EA is heading in the right direction. Well at least a better direction than before.

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