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Mythic reassures customers of stability in face of firings

by Justin McElroy { Nov 11th 2009 at 5:00PM }

With massive layoffs at EA (some of which are rumored to be at Mythic) it's a troubling time to be a fan of one of the MMO developer's properties. Executive producer Jeff Hickman took fan worries as an opportunity to cradle users of Ultima Online, Warhammer Online and Dark Age of Camelot in his arms, stroke their hair and whisper in their ears that everything's gonna be OK.

While Hickman's not making any specific promises in his open letter to the community, it's nice to see that Mythic cares enough to put on a brave face (whether it's warranted or unwarranted) for its fans.

Dante's Inferno concept was greenlit immediately

by JC Fletcher { Nov 11th 2009 at 4:31PM }

The Dante's Inferno game concept -- a totally brutal action-adventure based on Dante Alighieri's epic poem -- seems like a hard sell to us, but it was no problem getting EA on board. As it turns out, EA was all in from the very beginning, according to Visceral creative director Jonathan Knight's recollection during a PlayStation Blog interview (that you can watch after the break). He got the go-ahead "pretty much right away," as EA executives apparently saw "the potential in the mythology" glowing green before their very eyes.

"Nobody's really taken on that kind of medieval Christian notion of the afterlife as a very real place that you go to, you know, just under the ground, and there's monsters and demons and rivers," Knight said. "It's just a crazy, fantastical, incredible vision that Dante Alighieri had for Hell, and my execs immediately saw the potential there for a real game."

In addition to the appeal of Hell -- a concept that "everybody has some knowledge of" -- we can imagine that EA appreciated what is basically a licensed game based on a public domain property, especially these days.

Gallery: Dante's Inferno

Continued →

EA says Wii software performance weaker than anticipated

by Andrew Yoon { Nov 11th 2009 at 3:02PM }

EndSights

EA's John Riccitiello has got some 'splainin to do. Investors are bound to be frustrated with the video game publisher, which recently reported a net loss of $391 million, spurring a layoffs that affected more than a thousand employees. EA's decision to not be evil has seemingly backfired, with the company forced to focus on "core slate" games that can be iterated over and over again.

The CEO is also blaming poor sales of the publisher's Wii titles. "I think the Wii platform has been a little weaker than we had certainly anticipated," Riccitiello told investors during a conference call this week. "And there is no lack of frustration to be doing that at precisely the time where we have the strongest third-party share. We are building the products that I think the most highly rated on the platform and at this point in time, generating the most revenue of any third-party platform."

Certainly, no one can say EA hasn't been trying. Dead Space Extraction was praised by most critics, but managed a mere 9,000 units in first-month sales. "I really do think that the opportunity exists to find different ways to partner with first party in this case to sort of help establish in the minds of the consumer legitimacy of some of these other brands when they are going out," Riccitiello suggested, seeminlgy urging Nintendo to offer better support to third-parties that have been languishing on the Wii platform. Certainly, Nintendo can afford to share the wealth.

[Via gi.biz]

Source – Electronic Arts Q2 2010 Earnings Conference Call [PDF]

Rumor: EA cuts targeting Maxis, Pandemic, C&C staff

by Justin McElroy { Nov 11th 2009 at 9:10AM }

We already knew the announced cuts coming to EA's workforce (totaling some 1,500 jobs lost) would be deep but, if a recent Kotaku report is to be believed, we're starting to get an idea of just where the gashes will come. For starters, the site says it's been told by unnamed sources that almost every member of the Command and Conquer 4 team would be let go after the game's completion, which is the very last Halo Wars feature we wanted to see copied in C&C.

More cuts are rumored to be hitting Pandemic (the house behind Mercenaries and The Saboteur) and Maxis. We'll keep reaching out to EA to get the official story. In the meantime, our thoughts are with those affected.

Brutal Legend gets papercrafted

by Justin McElroy { Nov 11th 2009 at 12:29AM }

Our grandmother had this saying, "Handicrafts make for strange bedfellows." In fact, she believed in it so much she once stitched the saying into a pillow she made from the skin of drifters she had lured into her home and killed. True, you don't normally think "drifter murder" and "decorative pillows" as a pairing, so she had made her point. But we tried (and are still trying) to convince her that there are ways of stating her case that are both less illegal and involve less risk of contracting hepatitis C.

... So we guess what we're saying is that our grandmother would probably be way into these Brutal Legend papercrafts.

Madden 10 has shipped 3.9 million copies

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 10th 2009 at 8:30PM }

EA may be hurting, but there are still some bright spots, like when it announced Madden NFL 10's sales figures during its quarterly conference call with investors. The publisher revealed that the company "sold" 3.9 million copies globally, which isn't entirely accurate, as we've learned those are "sell-in" figures -- a fancy way of saying "shipped."

EA's John Schappert stated that Madden had a rough start in August, with sales down 19 percent from the prior year, but that it rallied up eight percent year-over-year in September, thanks to the PS3 price drop. The company claims that Madden 10 has sold five percent more than last year's iteration on PS3 and Xbox 360 combined, as of the end of September. Not shabby for a down economy!

New Saboteur screens show heartless, blimp-hating hero

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 10th 2009 at 7:30PM }

Okay, Mr. Saboteur. You're not going to listen to reason, are you? We asked nicely -- so very nicely -- that you stop blowing up those beautiful, elegant and endangered dirigibles. However, the latest batch of screenshots from your self-titled game have revealed that you haven't heeded our advice, and continue to detonate airships at the drop of your dusty, brown flat cap. That's how you want to do this, huh? Well, you can expect our harshly worded petition to surface within the next few days. Nope, sorry pal. Too late for apologies. This just got real, sir.

Gallery: The Saboteur (11-10-09)

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 looking to catch MW2-jaded PC gamers on the rebound

by Christopher Grant { Nov 10th 2009 at 7:00PM }

Perhaps detecting a dedicated server-shaped weakness in the competition's defenses, Electronic Arts is beginning to position next year's Battlefield: Bad Company 2 as a legitimate heir to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare throne. On yesterday's Q2 earnings call, EA Games label prez Frank Gibeau said that, in addition to other things, Bad Company 2's "deep new online play with dedicated server support ... will put Battlefield in head-to-head competition with Call of Duty for quality and online gameplay." EA CEO John Riccitiello later said, "Battlefield: Bad Company 2 ... has every right to see itself as a rival to the #1 FPS game that one of our competitors is releasing next week." (Note: We presume Riccitiello misspoke and meant "this" week and not "next" week ... unless he thinks Left 4 Dead 2 is the #1 FPS game and that EA is its own competition).

Continuing to pour gasoline on the dedicated server fire, Gordon Van Dyke from Bad Company 2's DICE tells IncGamers, "On the PC, it's a PC version, which is getting that same treatment, and then also a little bit more as PC users are generally used to a different type of experience than console users are, and we recognize that and we want to make sure that we give that to the PC market and give the console market more." He was less committal when discussing modding tools, offering, "Once we start getting there and the engine gets to a level where we can release tools that are easy for our own guys to use, and then easy for people publicly, then we'll get into that and we'll really start to focus on it."

Though the first Battlefield: Bad Company never made its way to the PC, with promised support for the platform and a PC beta hitting this December -- just a few weeks after the PS3-exclusive console beta gets underway -- it's clear EA and DICE are making up for lost time.

Source – Electronic Arts Q2 2010 Earnings Conference Call [PDF link]
Source – DICE: Bad Company 2 PC Gets A "Little Bit More" [IncGamers]

Dante's Inferno demo burning up Xbox 360 and PS3 next month

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 10th 2009 at 11:30AM }

Though Visceral Games' video game adaptation of the classic parable known as Dante's Inferno (which, fun fact, was actually a book adaptation of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey) won't see the light of day until next February, we'll be getting our dirty, sin-soaked hands on a demo for the game in December. In 'The Gates of Hell,' players will be able to traverse the entire first level of the game, taking them from the surface world to the titular portcullis, where they must battle (and presumably kill) Death himself.

We imagine the game gets much easier after, you know, there's no more Death.

Games on Demand has a high-price Monopoly

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 10th 2009 at 10:45AM }

The electronic incarnation of board game classic Monopoly is now available on Games on Demand for ... $30?! Sweet mercy, does that have luxury and income tax on it? The board game costs less than $20 and many electronic versions can be found for even less than that.

As is our standard obligation, we'll mention that a used copy of the title can currently be found at GameStop for $25, which is still overpriced. Shouldn't this be a simple XBLA title, if anything? A $10 Xbox version of Monopoly would be lovely.

Add Monopoly to your download queue

EA trims its 2010 lineup, focuses on high-profit games

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 10th 2009 at 10:05AM }

As the mushroom cloud still hangs in the air after Electronic Art's devastating quarterly report, which also brought with it 1,500 layoffs, the publisher plans to focus on games that are sure bets. MCV notes EA CEO John Riccitiello's statement, made during an investor conference call yesterday, that the company will release approximately 30 titles in its 2010 fiscal year, a 50 percent cut from fiscal year 2008.

Develop picked up on the executive going on to say that EA has a "core slate" that it will "iterate on an either annual or bi-annual basis ... all of them are selling or have sold in their most recent edition two million units or more." He continued that any game that can't be expected to be a "very high profit contributor and high unit seller" is out from "this point going forward." What a difference a year makes.

It sounds like the "old EA" might be making an unwelcome, albeit economically enforced, return. We can hate it as much as we want, but EA's accountants, stockholders and surviving employees probably prefer the security.

Source -- EA slashes release slate in half [MCV]
Source -- EA going cold on new IP [Develop]

Criterion-developed Need for Speed coming 'next year'

by Christopher Grant { Nov 9th 2009 at 8:10PM }

"In recent years, we failed to put adequate resources behind the franchise and, as a result, quality suffered," EA Games label president Frank Gibeau said of the Need for Speed franchise, currently in the midst of a reboot with the well received Need for Speed: Shift, the recently released Need for Speed: Nitro, and the we're-not-sure-that's-going-to-work Need for Speed: World Online. But there's a fourth post-reboot Need for Speed title in development at Criterion Games, the devs behind the excellent Burnout series.

Removing any doubt that the series will miss an opportunity for annual exploitation (again, the massively multilpayer online racing of World Online doesn't count!) Gibeau said "Next year's Need for Speed has been under development now for some time at our award-winning Criterion Studio." We're not sure what type of Need for Speed Criterion is creating, but we wouldn't be surprised if it was heavy on the crashing.

EA: Medal of Honor being revitalized, details 'in the months ahead'

by Christopher Grant { Nov 9th 2009 at 7:50PM }

After relaying the company's success in revitalizing the long-abused Need for Speed franchise with this year's well-received Need for Speed: Shift during this afternoon's Q2 conference call, EA Games label president Frank Gibeau revealed, "In the months ahead, you'll hear more about our plans to revitalize core IP, including the Medal of Honor franchise."

The long-established war series – whose Allied Assault team led to the creation of Infinity Ward and the now dominant Call of Duty series at competitor Activision – has been absent since 2007's triple showing of the poorly received Medal of Honor: Airborne, the poorly received Medal of Honor: Hereos 2, and the even more poorly received Medal of Honor: Vanguard. Yeah, a reboot seems in order.

Army of Two: The 40th Day co-op video is fist bump free

by Richard Mitchell { Nov 9th 2009 at 7:31PM }

While we must absolutely stress that the above headline is true, it's also misleading. It's true that the video above contains no fist bumps whatsoever; the bulk is comprised of the various co-op tactics that can be performed in Army of Two: The 40th Day, including back-to-back gun play, lifting, hostage grabbing and -- our personal favorite -- mock surrender. That said, there is bumping in the video, specifically the bumping of forearms.

So why the change? What is the social significance of the forearm bump? Is it a sign of greater manliness, or are the characters in Army of Two simply trying to fight the spread of deadly germs? Please, contribute your theories in the comments.

Losses, layoffs in EA's Q2 earnings report

by JC Fletcher { Nov 9th 2009 at 5:50PM }

EA announced a net loss of $391 million in its Q2 2010, which ended September 2009. The losses have increased from last year's $310 million. In addition, sales, at $788 million, are down $106 million in Q2 2010 from the same period last year. EA CEO John Riccitiello remains positive about EA's outlook, explaining, "EA is performing well, with quality, sales and segment share up so far this year." CFO Eric Brown echoed Riccitiello with his own confusingly half-upbeat statement, saying "We met our second quarter expectations and delivered a record quarter for revenue. Today we are announcing a significant cut in our operating expenses and the acquisition of a leader in social games, Playfish."

Those cuts, revealed earlier today, will result in the loss of around 1,500 jobs by March 31, 2010. Last year's restructuring planned only 1,000 layoffs. EA estimates that the restructuring plan will save around $100 million after about $130 - 150 million of restructuring costs. We hope that, this time, the company arrives at a structure that works.