EA (and others) underestimated Wii's popularity

[Thorin]

Turns out the biggest video game publisher in the world misjudged the popularity of the Wii (we *still* haven't found any on the shelves to buy for friends...), and has lost out on sales because of it:

http://wii.qj.net/The-popularity-of-Nintendo-s-Wii-causes-game-developers-to-play-catch-up-/pg/49/aid/88938

According to a recent report by Bloomberg, a lot of game publishers had underestimated the impact Nintendo's Wii would have on the market and are now playing "catch-up" because of it. Electronic Arts (EA), the biggest game manufacturer in the world, experienced a 25% drop in sales last February because of a shortage of Wii games according to Todd Greenwald, an analyst at Nollenberger Capital Partners. This is surprising since video game industry sales rose by 28% that month.

I have six Wii games, three of them made by Ubisoft.  Two of them (Wario Ware: Smooth Moves and Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII) are great fun and use the controller well; the third, Monster 4x4, uses the controller decently to drive the trucks, but the game is sorta bland.  And sure enough, Ubisoft's investment is paying off:

Ubisoft, the makers of Rayman and the Tom Clancy series of games supported the Wii and is reaping the rewards right now. It have reported increase sales for the December quarter by 24% to $405 million. This January, the company raised its 2007 revenue growth forecast (from 10% to 12%) up to 16%. The company has released seven games for the Wii already. Tony Key, vice president of marketing, spoke on the Nintendo Wii saying "It's not really a bet anymore, it's a viable system that's going to make us money."

[Darren Dirt]

Carson Daly is *almost* funny in this Wii-related clip...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkrvIfJeqN0

[Thorin]

Okay, so some EA employees quit and formed their own company to make Wii games?  I'm guessing they first suggested it to management and that management shot it down...  http://wii.ign.com/articles/781/781155p1.html

Former games industry veterans from Electronic Arts Canada have set up a new development studio called Jet Black Games and will concentrate on developing original and licensed intellectual properties for Wii and DS.

Roger Freddi, co-founder and CEO of Jet Black Games, has previously worked on big EA titles such as the FIFA series and 007: Nightfire. Speaking about the new venture, Freddi revealed: "With the launch of our new studio, we've brought together all the key elements to develop top games: proven experience and talent, the desire to push the creative envelope [and] commitment to making games we ourselves want to play."

Emphasis mine.

[Lazybones]

- Cheap development kits
- Lower artwork / graphics expectations
- HUGE install base

Seems like an ideal platform to develop for as a small developer.

[Darren Dirt]

http://www.jetblackgames.com/

Total "Ninja" theme to their website. Nice!

[Cova]

Ironic that the most recent newspost @ jetblackgames.com is about the 360.

Jet Black Games delivers on XBOX 360
Jet Black impresses with a slick PC-to-XBOX 360 port of Acronym Games 3rd person shooter rendering engine and pipeline. The engine will be used to power a yet to be announced XBOX Live Arcade game coming in mid 2007.

[Thorin]

Yeah.  They haven't been around for very long, but I'll bet they'll be coming out with announcements about Wii games soon enough.

Combined experience of 5 Need For Speed titles, 5 FIFA titles, 3 James Bond titles - they're not altogether newbs, it seems.  And based in Vancouver, so one of us could move out there and go work for them

[Lazybones]

Combined experience of 5 Need For Speed titles, 5 FIFA titles, 3 James Bond titles - they're not altogether newbs, it seems.

They must be DIEING to work on something NEW.. LOL

Programmer: So what is my next project?
EA manager: We want you to turn out a new version of Blaa X, don't take to long adding any new features, just update the engine and graphics mmK.
Programmer: SOB ;(

[Thorin]

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSWEN784620070508?pageNumber=1

The seller of games like "Madden," "Need for Speed" and "The Sims" said its net loss widened to $25 million, or 8 cents per share, for the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31, from $16 million, or 5 cents, in the year-earlier period.

Excluding items, the company earned 6 cents per share versus 14 cents in the year-earlier period.

Wow, that's incredibly vague!  So did they make a profit or endure a loss?  All depends on whether you count "items"...  Either way, they're way down from last year.  And yes, I know

The company, which is changing the way it accounts for revenue from certain games played online [..] was not immediately clear if the accounting change was responsible for the weak outlook.

Still, I wish I could do that kind of accounting when working out my taxes...