EA COO expresses game plan going forward
EA COO John Pleasants expressed at a recent conference that the company will focus on better marketing and online products going forward. With 1,100 employees being cut loose, EA has little choice but to refocus its business -- unless the company want to go back to its dark ways.
Pleasants didn't expect the publisher to cut the marketing budget for its games, but does foresee games having "much longer" lead times to build consumer hype. Although he didn't mention any titles, Mirror's Edge and Dead Space would probably be fine examples, as neither had its coming out party until E3 2008 and both released to relatively low sales just a few months later.
EA will be releasing more titles for Wii and sees great change coming to the rhythm game genre. The publisher is also looking to expand its online offerings, as Pleasants is "bullish" about Star Wars: The Old Republic's potential, but blessedly notes that it would be "hubris" to posit is as a World of Warcraft killer.
