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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]
When executives apologize for April Fools potshots
EA Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore has tweeted a necessarily brief apology to Nintendo of America and its fans, distancing all parties from an unapproved, "unacceptable" and "stupid" joke that made the rounds earlier today. The handlers of an official Twitter account for Frostbite, the engine which powers many EA games like Battlefield 4, targeted Nintendo's Wii U console with now-deleted messages like, "our renderer is now optimized for Mario and Zelda" and "we have finally fixed and optimized our 'netcode'." The punchline, of course, is that Frostbite's current incarnation is not supported on Wii U, which is a step behind the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in terms of power. April Fools' Day is treated with contempt by many tech and gaming news outlets, and perhaps it's because the jovial nature of a pie in the face has been lost to the contemporary reality: console war jabs made from a Twitter account dedicated to a graphics engine. These comments are no more caustic than you might see on console forums, but those don't usually draw apologies from a COO. These are just awkward.
EA's Peter Moore: Digital revenue will overtake retail in two years
EA COO Peter Moore is betting on a dominating role for digital revenue in video games. Speaking at the Digital Entertainment World conference, Moore said (via GI.biz) he expects digital sales to fully eclipse retail numbers in two years. He likened the rising prominence of downloads as a type of "creative destruction," in which an industry is unable to regulate the evolving purchasing habits of its consumers. Moore compared the scenario to the music industry, which he says is still recovering from its shift away from relying primarily on physical disc sales for revenue to a more download-centric model. Moore relates that EA's "customers" used to be retailers but, in the global always-online environment of the modern era, those "customers" are now the players. This has caused EA to triple its customer service operations over the last five years and even affected the company's marketing efforts – TV advertising spend is down and online and social advertising is up. Social media is more important than ever to EA. EA just reported third-quarter earnings for its fiscal 2014. While the massive games publisher suffered an overall net loss of $308 million during the period, digital sales accounted for over half of all earnings. EA attributed this big upswing to a 60 percent increase in transactions in EA's lineup of collectible card-based simulations, FIFA Ultimate Team, Madden NFL Ultimate Team and NHL Ultimate Team. [Image: Wikimedia Commons]
EA's Origin Humble Bundle brings $1.65 million to American Cancer Society
Remember EA's Humble Origin Bundle and how the publisher vowed to donate its share of the proceeds to charity? EA COO Peter Moore tweeted the above picture this week of himself presenting a $1.65 million cut of the proceeds to the American Cancer Society. The Origin Bundle's launch followed Moore's insistence that EA could "do better" just before it won its second consecutive Golden Poo award. It would be interesting to see a full breakdown of the Humble Origin Bundle's revenue, but it's nice to at least see this sliver of the results, especially when EA isn't necessarily raking in cash for themselves.
EA: 140 million gameplay minutes logged on PS4 in five days
140 million gameplay minutes were logged on Electronic Arts-published PlayStation 4 games, the publisher revealed via Twitter yesterday. The data is spread across five days of EA's PS4 games being on store shelves. Across the same period of time, the publisher said that over five million online gaming sessions were logged as well. Likewise, EA president Peter Moore recently estimated that one in every three PS4 games sold are EA-branded products. EA's data comes from its five PS4 launch games: Battlefield 4, Need for Speed: Rivals, NBA Live 14, Madden NFL 25 and FIFA 14. Battlefield 4 has suffered a number of issues since its next-gen launch, including game crashes and loss of save files for the game's campaign. Given that the Xbox One launches tomorrow, the number of online games and minutes logged by players will certainly grow.
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."
Moore: Not every EA game will require online connection
Last week at Gamescom, Peter Moore made some statements to the effect that EA no longer ships offline games, but products that are enmeshed in online and social functionality. In a missive on the EA blog today, Moore added clarity to those statements, saying EA's approach does not mean all its games are required to be online. "Many, if not most, of our games include single-player, offline modes that you can play entirely without an Internet connection, if you so choose," Moore wrote. "We know that's something many of our players want, and we will continue to deliver it." Moore went on to address growing negative perceptions toward EA's free-to-play lineup, specifically Command & Conquer. "We will continue to explore new free-to-play experiences for our franchises when we believe there is gamer interest and a cool new game we can build. But of course we will continue to deliver award-winning core gaming experiences on ALL of these franchises." While many EA franchises offer free-to-play options, Moore said it is not a sweeping company mandate for all EA games moving forward.
EA named 'Worst Company in America' second year in a row
Gamers aren't letting up on Electronic Arts for its record and attitude. The games publisher was voted "Worst Company in America" for a second year in a row in The Consumerist's poll. EA trounced the other finalist, Bank of America, with 78% of the tallies. The Consumerist provided commentary as to why EA earned that reputation with customers and what it could be doing to not earn this title next year. The site identified EA's three main problems as failing to provide a product people want and like, failing to sell products at reasonable prices, and failing to support its products. EA COO Peter Moore posted a letter last week responding to the probable second win, admitting mistakes while attempting to refute popular complaints. His response to the poll? "We can do better. We will do better."
EA responds to 'Worst Company in America' poll: 'We can do better. We will do better.' [update]
Electronic Arts' Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore has responded to the company's commanding wins (losses?) in The Consumerist's "Worst Company in America" online poll to say EA will do better, while standing strong on a couple issues it refuses to take heat over."Let me cut to the chase: it appears EA is going to 'win.' Like the Yankees, Lakers and Manchester United, EA is one of those organizations that is defined by both a legacy of success, and a legion of critics," wrote Moore in an official post on the EA site. "Are we really the 'Worst Company in America?' I'll be the first to admit that we've made plenty of mistakes."He continued, "These include server shut downs too early, games that didn't meet expectations, missteps on new pricing models and most recently, severely fumbling the launch of SimCity. We owe gamers better performance than this."
EA's Digital EVP and Playfish co-founder departs
Kristian Segerstrale has left Electronic Arts, where he served as the head of the EA Digital team and was responsible for overseeing most of EA's games-as-services, including Sim City Social. Segerstrale had joined the company as a co-founder of Playfish, which EA picked up about four years ago for $300 million. The division has been leaking executives, with two of Playfish's other co-founders leaving last year.With Segerstrale's departure, EA Digital will be transferred under the direction of good old Peter Moore, who will now oversee all of EA's revenue groups, including Global Publishing, Global Media Solutions, Worldwide Customer Experience, and Mobile and Social Publishing. That's a lot of responsibility already, but you know Peter – he can always do Moore.
EA's Moore on SWTOR: 'Price was always the issue'
Wired has a new interview with Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore that touches on just about every facet of the games industry. The former Microsoft exec talks at length about his Xbox days, Zynga, mobile gaming, digital vs. retail, the PC renaissance and how it may affect both consoles and hand-held devices, and of course the impending free-to-play conversion for Star Wars: The Old Republic. "Price was always the issue," Moore says. Former customers often said "I just didn't want to pay $15 a month. I felt kind of locked in. I love the game, but I'm locked in, and for a lot of people 15 bucks a month is a lot of money."
EA COO maintains confidence in BioWare
Some gamers claim that EA has lost confidence in BioWare, citing the studio's difficult year that included the less-than-hoped-for performance of Star Wars: The Old Republic and that the move to free-to-play later this fall is a sign of failure. EA COO Peter Moore, however, directly refutes that, saying, "They're doing great." Moore gave EA's take on why SWTOR didn't do as well as expected, explaining that the world of gaming changed between the time that project started and now, making a shift from subscription-based to F2P. He pointed out that changing business models was directly related to the desires of the playerbase, stating, "We do exit interviews. When people say I'm churning out, I'm going to step away for a while, we ask them why. Forty percent of people said, I just don't want to pay $15 a month. I love the game, but I'm just not into the subscription business." EA President Frank Gibeau first revealed the 40% sub-related departure rate in a previous investor call.
EA's Peter Moore: Free-to-play is 'inevitable'
The writing is on the wall, and the hens are laying eggs of prophecy: Free-to-play is the inevitable future of all video games. This comes from EA COO Peter Moore, who thinks we'll be seeing the free product plus microtransaction business model trump the up-front cost of a retail box. In an interview with Kotaku, Moore laid it out: "I think there's an inevitability that happens five years from now, 10 years from now, that, let's call it the client, to use the term, [is free.] It is no different than... it's free to me to walk into The Gap in my local shopping mall. They don't charge me to walk in there. I can walk into The Gap, enjoy the music, look at the jeans and what have you, but if I want to buy something I have to pay for it." Moore says that free-to-play works in favor of the industry because it constantly brings in new players -- and new potential buyers. He acknowledged that some gamers might be entrenched in how business has always been done in the past, but it will change no matter what. He pointed to the downfall of Blockbuster and Tower Records as examples of companies that didn't adapt to a rapidly changing landscape, declaring that EA is determined not to stubbornly stick to the past.
EA delays unspecified social game based on 'major' EA IP
EA adjusted its earnings for the most recent quarter (its fiscal Q4) in part because of the delay of an "important social game." It just didn't say which one. In an investor conference call, CEO John Riccitiello broke the news that EA is moving the launch to Q1 of fiscal 2013 (January-March of this year).Later, during the Q&A portion, COO Peter Moore called it "a major title based on a major piece of the EA brand IP." EA recently acquired KlickNation, rebranding it BioWare Social, but that just happened last month -- likely not enough time to even think a game would be ready for this quarter. EA also releases social games through Playfish, EA Play, and EA Sports.
Peter Moore now COO at EA, more execs change jobs
In a year where EA has seen its business model shifting away from the physical to a greater reliance on digital dollars, some similarly massive changes are shaking up the company rolodex. As detailed by CEO John Riccitiello today: Peter Moore is now the Chief Operating Officer of the company, a role vacated by John Schappert in April Current EA Games label boss Frank Gibeau will serve as President of all the EA labels Bioware will become the fourth EA label, joining EA Games (DICE, Visceral, Criterion, EA Partners, etc.), EA Sports (Madden, FIFA, Fight Night) and EA Play (Maxis, The Sims, MySims) Barry Cottle moves from executive VP to of EA Interactive to heading the division, which now includes Playfish, Pogo, EA Mobile, EA's partnership with Hasbro, Asian mobile and online games and PopCap It's a big move, but it leaves plenty of unanswered questions for now. For starters, we're not sure who'll take over for pitchman Peter Moore at EA Sports. We're also curious if the BioWare label is a branding augmentation only, or something more substantive.
Four EA Sports games in 2011 to feature Kinect
Peter Moore just took to the stage at the Microsoft E3 2011 press conference to announce some new Kinect-compatible sports titles. Four upcoming games will sport Kinect functionality -- PGA, Madden, FIFA and "one we'll announce later." Moore did not reveal how Kinect would be utilized in these games, though he did hint at being able to physically call audibles in Madden.
South Park lampoons EA Sports, Peter Moore, athletic royalties and everything else
The latest episode of South Park is ... well, one of the stranger recent episodes of South Park, an observation you probably made after reading its title: "Crack Baby Athletic Association." In the show's typical fashion, the episode is a hyperbolic, metaphorical critique of the treatment of professional and collegiate athletes, and their complaints of being denied royalties for media which feature their likeness. One target of the show's scathing barbs was EA Sports, headed up by one "Mr. Peters," a mock-up (pictured above!) of real-life studio president Peter Moore. You can watch the full episode for free online over at South Park Studios. We've contacted EA Sports to see if it has any comment on the show -- considering it's South Park's second send-up of the developer, we imagine its hackles might be a little raised.
EA Sports planning 'persistent' gamer profiles across its titles, all of EA to follow
"Today we're looking at a seamless experience across all our franchises." EA Sports president Peter Moore made this remark while outlining the label's future today during the MI6 video game marketing conference in San Francisco. "Regardless of where you are, what platform you have, what game you're playing, that you're constantly connected," he said, adding that he sees EA Sports games of the future being "connected experiences that recognize users and reward them for playing multiple games." The concept itself certainly isn't new, but EA's take on "persistence" (aka cloud data) sounds promising. "We recognize [players] -- that's the persistence -- and their presence there gets its achievements and carries them from iteration to iteration," said Moore. "It's no longer 'buy Madden 11 and then buy Madden 12 and start from scratch,' it is 'take everything that you've done and migrate it and move it along.'" Moore stopped short of naming which titles will usher in this new dynamic for his brand, but did say it's not far off -- and doesn't just encompass EA's sports label. "It's not far away. It's certainly within [our] grasp," Moore said, explaining that "this is how we envision the future of our industry, and this is how we at EA Sports individualize and personalize this as the future of our brand and ultimately the future of what Electronic Arts as a whole is going to do across all of its titles."
Next EA basketball simulation game coming fall 2012
Buried at the bottom of a press release for NBA Jam: On Fire Edition -- a downloadable title coming this fall to PSN and XBLA -- is news that the next "real" basketball game from EA Sports won't be here until fall 2012. Nothing makes for a better distraction than (NBA Jam: On) Fire! "As planned, our next NBA simulation title is in development at our Tiburon Studio in Orlando," EA Sports president Peter Moore said in the announcement. "We have top talent on the game, and we're giving the new development team time to deliver a superior experience. We're making great strides and looking forward to launching a new game next year." That lesson about giving the team plenty of time was learned the hard way: through the near-release and scrapping of NBA Elite 11. This means it'll be three full years between EA basketball sims, during which time 2K Sports will enjoy its status as the Harlem Globetrotters of the basketball video game market.
Fox News uncovers NBA Jam's liberal agenda
At journalism camp, we all learned to ask "the hard questions." For your pals at Joystiq, given the opportunity to chat with Peter Moore following EA Sports' last-minute delay of NBA Elite 11 and the subsequent rush to make NBA Jam on Xbox 360 and PS3 a fully featured product in and of itself, we'd have had no shortage of questions. "How are you going to bring the HD versions of the game up to feature parity with the Wii this year?" "With NBA 2K 11 gathering accolades, are you concerned that changing the NBA Live formula and then delaying it is ceding ground to the competition?" And the list goes on. Fox News' Jenna Lee, given the same opportunity, asked the hard hitting question that we -- perhaps because of our single-minded focus on video games or perhaps because of our shortage of political acumen -- never thought to ask: "Is this a bipartisan game though, Peter?" You see, President Obama, in addition to actually playing basketball, not being ancient and being president of the country, has some special moves in the game, clearly illustrating political bias on the part of the liberal fat cats at EA. In the interest of defusing this tense political standoff, we'd like to point out that Ms. Palin appears to have her own special move: playing men's basketball. Watch the full clip after the break.
