Recently EA sucks – it is still however, a good long-term investment

Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson has told investors that “Electronic Arts‘ overall game quality continues to fall.” Yes, those words be acidic. The analyst goes on to, for lack of a better term, flame EA for what he believes is shoddy output. Well it’s not just him who believes that, He sort of uses GameRankings as his source of info. You get the idea.

Wilson listed 20 of EA recent annualized franchises, you know those games that go “[insert sport][insert date].” IN almost every case the recent version of an EA game scored lower than the version released in 2004. In his own words:

Although market share has not declined dramatically to date, in years such as 2007, which promises to have tremendous competition, it seems likely if quality does not improve. EA’s aggregate review has also declined significantly in the past two years.

Wilson also notes that EA has also missed several opportunities with its attempts to establish new franchises. He noted poor reviews of Superman Returns, Batman Begins, Marvel Nemesis, NFL Head Coach, and Arena Football.

While The Godfather fared better with the critics than the aforementioned batch, Wilson said the game’s development and marketing costs kept it from meeting EA’s profit expectations. Despite Wilson’s negative tone, he still advises that investing in EA is still a good long-term opportunity as it is a marquee developer and publisher.

EA’s response? An EA representative had this to say:

The EA brand is strong with great games from franchises that continue to break sales records. Across the portfolio, EA always strives to drive innovation and quality into its titles. EA continues to invest in next-generation development and technology which will translate into high quality gaming throughout the next console cycle.

Heh, this sort of reminds me of the last thing EA had to say.

Via Gamespot

Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson has told investors that “Electronic Arts‘ overall game quality continues to fall.” Yes, those words be acidic. The analyst goes on to, for lack of a better term, flame EA for what he believes is shoddy output. Well it’s not just him who believes that, He sort of uses GameRankings as his source of info. You get the idea.

Wilson listed 20 of EA recent annualized franchises, you know those games that go “[insert sport][insert date].” IN almost every case the recent version of an EA game scored lower than the version released in 2004. In his own words:

Although market share has not declined dramatically to date, in years such as 2007, which promises to have tremendous competition, it seems likely if quality does not improve. EA’s aggregate review has also declined significantly in the past two years.

Wilson also notes that EA has also missed several opportunities with its attempts to establish new franchises. He noted poor reviews of Superman Returns, Batman Begins, Marvel Nemesis, NFL Head Coach, and Arena Football.

While The Godfather fared better with the critics than the aforementioned batch, Wilson said the game’s development and marketing costs kept it from meeting EA’s profit expectations. Despite Wilson’s negative tone, he still advises that investing in EA is still a good long-term opportunity as it is a marquee developer and publisher.

EA’s response? An EA representative had this to say:

The EA brand is strong with great games from franchises that continue to break sales records. Across the portfolio, EA always strives to drive innovation and quality into its titles. EA continues to invest in next-generation development and technology which will translate into high quality gaming throughout the next console cycle.

Heh, this sort of reminds me of the last thing EA had to say.

Via Gamespot