What Other Publishers Can Learn from EA

No one can accuse Electronic Arts (EA) of dragging its heels on adapting to the digital landscape. Eager to seize online opportunities, the publishing giant is now bent on presenting itself as a “software platform” and “a fully integrated digital entertainment company” instead of a behemoth with a sports label.

Earlier in May, EA CEO John Riccitiello explained the company’s new strategy through a conference call. He referenced EA’s decision to reduce its retail title count in favor of putting more energy into digital ventures, which reduced costs and freed up funds for what is gradually shaping up to be a new and intriguing direction for EA.

“Our [earlier] strategies could be defined as fundamentally ‘defensive,’” Riccitiello said. “Today, we are announcing a big shift to ‘offense’. Over the coming years, we will transform EA from a packaged goods company to a fully integrated digital entertainment company.”

Riccitiello also stated that EA is aiming to be regarded as a software platform, and referenced the growing success of its own online gaming community, Nucleus, which has nearly doubled its user base from 61 million to 112 million in a year.

EA’s recent acquisition of Firemint, the company behind the iOS hit Flight Control, also speaks of the publisher’s drive to spread itself across the digital, mobile, and social markets. Need a more solidly-worded idea of what EA is going for? Riccitiello has it for you:

“If you want to think about where EA is trying to go, it’s around this concept of about a dozen great IP that we can program if you will, 12 months of the year with 12 months of revenue across multiple platforms and multiple business models on a global opportunity,” he said. “The second thing is, to that, trying to add one meaningful new property a year, recognizing that some genre, some sectors don’t perform forever.”

Needless to say, what works for EA might not work for smaller studios looking to increase their presence in the digital, social, and mobile realms. Even so, EA’s aim to slow down on releasing games at retail isn’t a bad piece of advice for any game studio that aims to spend its funds wisely.

There’s also some good advice for smaller devs hidden away in what EA isn’t saying. For instance, Riccitiello spoke up about EA’s shift from a “defensive” strategy to an “offensive” one. The publisher is going through some necessary changes, but it has a pretty big skin to shed. Smaller, nimbler studios have a clear advantage in these strange years of industry transition: They’re far more maneuverable, and can adapt to change quickly.

Smaller studios are also tighter operations that stand a better chance of dealing with the problems that come with distributing through a relatively new medium. M.H. Williams over at IndustryGamers brought up one potential problem in his write-up of EA’s restructuring: Fragmentation.

“[EA] still needs to streamline its digital content offerings a bit more. As an example,” Williams wrote. “Mass Effect 2 DLC remains fragmented, with the content being available on Xbox Live, PSN, and BioWare’s Cerebus Network, but not through other platforms like EA’s own online store, Steam, or other download services. Amazon’s Kindle service is successful because the customer can purchase their content on almost any device with little trouble or effort. Can EA reach that level across its entire product slate?”

In other words, EA has succeeded in putting down roots as a software platform, but it still has some messes to clean up. Publishers of all sizes that are looking to expand content will find a decent role model in EA: Watching the company provides a pretty good primer of what to do and what pitfalls to avoid.

About Nadia Oxford
Nadia is a freelance writer living in Toronto. She played her first game at four, decided games were awesome, and has maintained her position since. She writes for 1UP.com, Slide to Play, GamePro and other publications, and is About.com’s Guide to the Nintendo DS.

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