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Three EA execs unload stocks as publisher hits five-year high
Two senior members of Electronic Arts sold off the entirety of their shares in the publisher late last week when the company hit the highest share price it's seen in well over five years. SEC filings revealed that Patrick Soderlund, executive vice president of EA Games and EA senior vice president and General Counsel Stephen Bene dumped their stocks after the company's shares traded at roughly $34.53 and $33.40, respectively. Soderlund unloaded 36,133 shares, while Bene sold 7,771. EA's shares opened at $35.31 today, the highest price per share the company has traded at since September 2008. Another high-ranking executive at EA disposed of stocks as well: Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore sold nearly half (100,000) of the shares he owned at $34.53 as well. This follows EA's fiscal 2014 earnings report last week, in which it revealed a 5.79 percent decrease in net revenue year over year ($3.58 billion). [Image: Electronic Arts]
Need for Speed can 'learn a lot' from EA Sports
When Andrew Wilson became CEO of Electronic Arts in September, he named Patrick Soderlund as his replacement as head of EA Sports. The company immediately made structural changes in how it handles its EA Labels, shuffling its games under the EA Studios brand. Along with that change, the Need for Speed series became part of EA Sports, a decision that Soderlund thinks will have a positive impact on the racing property. "I think that we can learn a lot from the sports games and what they've done," Soderlund told Polygon. "When you play a sports game, the controller in your hand will dictate how good the game is. It's all about player control and input and how it feels. It's a feeling, right? I think that focus on pure gameplay, is something that can benefit the Need for Speed brand in a very positive way." EA Sports-branded games have shared assets and design philosophies over the years, such as the NHL team at EA Canada adapting FIFA's Player Impact physics engine to bolster collisions between players in NHL 14. Soderlund noted that the change doesn't necessarily indicate a sudden move away from the sandbox-style action seen in Need For Speed Rivals. "It's a way for us to push innovation and push a different creative brain or mindset onto Need for Speed," Soderlund said. Need for Speed Rivals is now a launch game for PS4, and will arrive on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on November 19, launching with the Xbox One on November 22.
EA CEO Wilson puts Gibeau in charge of mobile, Soderlund on sports
Andrew Wilson has made his first big move as CEO of EA, re-establishing managerial roles and clarifying that all senior staff now report to him directly, an internal memo hosted on GamesBeat reveals. Frank Gibeau, formerly president of EA Labels, is now in charge of EA Mobile. Patrick Soderlund is still executive VP of EA Games Label, but he's now also head of EA Sports, the role that Wilson left to take over as CEO. Peter Moore remains brand president and Lucy Bradshaw keeps her role as head of EA Maxis, the developer of SimCity. Rajat Tenaja is still Chief Technology Officer, Blake Jorgensen is still Chief Financial Officer, Joel Linzner is still senior VP of legal and business affairs, and Gabrielle Toledano remains executive VP of HR. "Our priorities right now are simple – we must deliver on our FY14 plan, continue the transformation of our organization for our digital future, create amazing games and services, have a ruthless focus and execute," Wilson writes. "I will work closely with my senior management team to help drive these priorities through the organization. Each of these leaders will report directly to me in their roles."
Battlefield won't give up until it's 'number one'
Ahead of the game's October 29 launch, EA Games executive VP Patrick Soderlund recently talked up Battlefield 4, discussing the series' competition with Activision's Call of Duty. "Competition is good. It brings the best out of people. If there was only Battlefield or only Call of Duty, then the development teams might have been a little bit more content," Soderlund told MCV. He added that the developer doesn't mimic Activision's efforts on the Call of Duty series. "Maybe they weren't thinking about us much when we made Battlefield 3, but I can tell you, they are thinking about us now. They need to," Soderlund said. "We made a dent in the FPS market and we took share from them. And I am not going to give up until I'm No.1 and I am going to make sure I'm No.1."
EA working on new IPs to avoid 'life support' scenario
EA is working on an indeterminate number of new intellectual properties, EA Games executive VP Patrick Söderlund told MVCUK. "We have six to eight completely new IPs in the works," Söderlund said. "The day we stop making new IP is when we go onto life support." EA's definition of a "new IP," however, may be a bit more liberal than what that term implies at first blush. "We are working on a new Mirror's Edge game, and although that's not a new IP, it is a revival done in a new way," Söderlund said. "We are developing Star Wars: Battlefront, which to us is a new IP, even though it isn't technically." So by "new," EA doesn't necessarily mean new new, but rather new-ish, or new enough, perhaps. In any case, it does make us wonder what that other handful of fresh IPs are all about. The sky is practically the limit! In fact, there are so many incalculable variables to consider when predicting that sort of thing that we're just going to stop thinking about it. Ah, that's better.
Battlefield 3 won't have any mod tools at launch
Don't expect any authoring tools for Battlefield 3 when it launches on October 25. During an interview, EA senior VP Patrick Soderlund explains that it's due to the complexity of the Frostbite engine. "Well, as of now, we're not going to make any modding tools, no. If you look at the Frostbite Engine and how complex it is, it's going to be very difficult to mod the game," he said. "Because of the nature of the setup of levels, the destruction and all those things, it's quite tricky. So we think it's going to be too big of a challenge for people to make a mod." Sounds like a dare to us! Of course, that's not to say DICE won't release mod tools down the line -- just that, as of launch, it looks like you'll have to simply settle for the game you bought.
EA VP admits access to PSP2, but won't talk about it
At this point, we can probably all safely believe that developers are already working on games for the next generation of Sony handhelds, much like we can be pretty confident that a PlayStation mobile phone device is real. The Mortal Kombat team has already claimed to have a PSP2 development system, and EA senior vice president Patrick Soderlund recently told CVG that EA has had contact with the as-yet unannounced device as well. "Well, obviously as a developer we have had that" -- referring to "exposure" with the PSP2 -- "but I'm not allowed to talk about it." He refused to offer anything more specific, saying that "We can't talk about it because of our relationship with Sony obviously, which is ... That's just the way it is." Not that we're complaining, but we're pretty sure Sony wouldn't want Soderlund blithely acknowledging the existence of something he's not supposed to talk about.
Bad Company 2 'F.R.A.G.S.' video continues Modern Warfare mockery
Hey, you remember when Infinity Ward released that unbelievably offensive "Fight Against Grenade Spam" video starring Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels to promote Modern Warfare 2? Yeah, we were trying to forget it too (sorry to remind you!), but Battlefield developer DICE just released its own variation of the video (found after the break) starring New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia to explain why grenade spam isn't so much of an issue in Bad Company 2. According to CC, due to the variety of other gameplay options (destructible environments, a handful of different vehicles and "adrenaline pumping weapons"), grenade spam isn't the same problem that it is in "competing games of this particular genre." (It probably helps that each class only starts with one grenade too, huh?) Rather than being sponsored by the notorious acronym that closed out Infinity Ward's ad, this one ends with: "Friends Really Against Grenade Spam." Oh, and for those of you playing along at home, this is at least the second advertisement for Bad Company 2 that directly parodies Modern Warfare 2 promos. We're still holding out hope that all this culminates in a cage match between Robert Bowling and Patrick Söderlund.
Criterion thinks if you've maxed out the 360, you're not trying hard enough
Apparently the company that owns Criterion (EA -- duh!) and the company itself don't agree on whether or not the Xbox 360 has been "maxed out." Speaking to Eurogamer, Criterion's technical director Richard Parr said, "That's proof that you're not the best ... it means you're out of ideas." Dedicated Joystiq Biomass™ members will remember when, just three days ago, vice president of EA Europe Patrick Soderlund said, "I think that we've maxed out the 360 but we haven't maxed out the PS3." So, what is it, folks? Is the 360 already meeting its limits? Will the rumored new Xbox console of Fall 2010 help to assuage Mr. Soderlund's claims? Will Criterion get in a slapfight with EA Europe? We'll just have to wait and see.
EA VP says the Xbox 360 is "maxed out"
Microsoft might be busy extending and building on the Xbox 360's capabilities with Project Natal and all manner of NXE and Live updates, but it sounds like some of their third-party devs think they're running out of headroom -- in an interview with the Official Xbox Magazine, EA senior VP Patrick Soderlund said that "we've maxed out the 360 but we haven't maxed out the PS3." That's an interesting parallel to what Miyamoto was just saying about the Wii, of course, but it doesn't seem like the situation is entirely dire: Soderlund also said that he's "truly impressed" with the 360 and that he "would have a headache" if he were running Sony. Still, that doesn't bode well for Microsoft's planned 10-year 360 lifecycle if it's true -- we'll see if Redmond has something new for us before 2015 after all.
