EA Electronic Arts To Release Console

ea console

Look out Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. I believe super publisher Electronic Arts is getting ready to produce and launch a video game console of it's own for the next generation in 2012. As each day passes more clues to their intentions become apparent and you don't have to look far for the evidence.

The hiring of Peter Moore:

Peter Moore, the former corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division was hired by Electronic Arts in July of 2007 to head the EA Sports division. In this position, Moore is responsible for product development, management of global products , marketing, and planning for all packaged goods and online offerings within the EA SPORTS brand.
Early in his career Moore became president of the US subsidiary of the French sportswear company, Patrick. A short time later he went on to become Vice President of Global Sports and Senior Vice President of Reebok Footwear. He is also a director of Timberland, the outdoors apparel and hip-hop fashion company. The line is that these are the reasons that EA acquired him - to bolster their sports line of video games into a brand such as Nike or Adidas or even, dare we say, Reebok.
While on the surface this makes perfect sense, I think Electronic Arts goals for Mr. Moore are far more lofty.
Why does EA feel the need to raise their brand image from video game publisher to sports authority? Will they be selling a new line of EA branded basketball sneaker or EA track suits and/or other apparel, not likely. I think Electronic Arts interest in Moore are more targeted to the latter half of his resume, which for tells the companies future plans.
Peter Moore, at one time was the President and COO of Sega of America and foresaw the development and release of the still popular Sega Dreamcast video game console. He also served as Corporate Vice President of various divisions at Microsoft pertaining to the Xbox and Xbox 360, which he is most famous for. Though he bungled the Dreamcast and killed any hope of Sega returning to prominence as a console manufacturer by not including a DVD player like Sony's Playstation 2 did and then repeating the same mistake with the Xbox 360's lack of an internal HD optical system, he is one of a few men with such experience in the video game console market.

Acquiring Other Successful Publishers

There is nothing new in a publisher trying to acquire one or more of it's rivals. After all if you can't beat them, the consensus is to buy them. This has worked well for EA. Over the past few years EA has gobbled up both BioWare and Pandemic Studios for the sum of $860 million, Will Wright's Maxis Games - the creators of 'The Sims' franchise, Peter Molyneux' Bullfrog Studios, Criterion, and many others.
They failed at acquiring UbiSoft through a hostile takeover and have now focused their sites on Take-2 Interactive, publisher of the Grand Theft Auto series among others.
While this seems to be business as usual and not indicative of Electronic Arts possibly releasing a console, I ask you to consider this: Should Electronic Arts enter the console arena they would have exclusivity rights to the following franchises:

Army of Two, Battlefield series, Burnout series, Road Rash, Need For Speed, Command & Conquer, The Sims, Def Jam series, Fight Night Boxing, Mercenaries series, Medal of Honor, KOTOR series, Baldurs Gate, NeverWinter Nights, WarHammer, Mass Effect, Spore, Tiger Woods Golf, Fifa, and of course Madden Football, as well as the rest of the EA Sports line-up. Add to that list anything Marvel, James Bond, or Harry Potter.

Should they also acquire Take-2 they would add to their exclusivity the following present and future titles:

Grand Theft Auto series, Manhunt, Bioshock, Top Spin, and their chief rival 2K sports. They also currently hold the publishing rights to Bethesda's TES: Oblivion andFallOut 3, aswell as the Sid Meier franchise.

Would you buy a console that did not include any of the above titles in it's library of games? Neither would I. An EA console would spell doom for both Microsoft and Sony. Nintendo has a huge backlog of original titles, some of which are the greatest games ever made, and would not suffer as much.

On-going rumors through out the industry john riccitiello

In the April 2008 issue of GameInformer magazine, the Rumor Mole wrote "...speculates that EA may enter the console arena in 2010. They're waiting to see if PS3 sales pick up first". Nothing since then has been released to the media concerning the matter...perhaps an April Fools joke? Perhaps not. At the D.I.C.E. summit this past February EA CEO John Riccitiello stated "I think that there's going to be fewer major publishers in 2010 than there are today. I think the second-tier players are going to thin out pretty significantly. The market share controlled by the few major publishers is going to be greater in 2010 than it is today." This statement, though not alluding to the release of a console, does shine a light on the ambitions of the company - one of total domination in the marketplace.

Why would anyone want to go into the console business?

We as game consumers are constantly reminded of two things: how much games cost to develop and that consoles are sold at a lost. The former is true, the latter, not so much. Sony's PS3 and Microsofts Xbox 360 are sold for less than they cost to produce, but only for the first few years. As technology gets better and cheaper the costs associated do as well. Each console generation lasts for about five years, with years one and two taking losses, three and four recuperating those losses, and year five is all gravy. Add to that licensing fees, manufacturing fees, and SDK (software development kits)sales at about $20 thousand+ each and you can see why there are always more than one console being sold in each generation. It is also easy to see why a company like Electronic Arts would want to stifle some of those costs.
Taking in around $4 billion annually, EA has the monetary muscle to risk on releasing a console. This would not fair well for either Sony or Microsoft, leaving their game catalog bereft of some if not most of their more popular titles. A merger or partnership between EA and one of these companies seems to me to be the most likely scenario. Shouldering the fiscal risk of console manufacturing and sales coupled with the exclusivity of EA's portfolio of titles would not only provide a better business model, it would absolutely decimate the competition.
Should the above statements come to fruition you can expect that those left out of the EA/console maker amalgamation to partner up with the remaining super publishers like Activision or Ubisoft, forever changing the video game console landscape. Deciding what system to buy in the future may no longer be about who makes it, but what publisher supports it.