EA Releases Performance Sheets, Lineup for Next Fiscal Year

In more finance-company-related news, gaming powerhouse Electronics Arts has recently released the results for the third quarter ending December 31st as well as their lineup for the fiscal year 2011 (which begins in April 2010, because they’re talking crazy business-man-talk). Highlights include EA being the largest packaged goods publisher in North America and Europe, operating profits being projected to be around US$925 million to US$1 billion, and the release of five titles with Metacritic ratings of 80 or above. Of course, if you don’t care about their money, you might be more interested to know what they’re thinking of releasing next year. Subject to change, of course.

A new Medal of Honor game sometime in Q2, meaning between July and September of 2010. Crysis 2 will hit Q4, so probably January to March in 2011. Looks like there’s 3 Need for Speed games coming out - Need for Speed World, the MMO version dropping in Q1, one being developed by Burnout developer Criterion, and possibly another NFS being developed by traditional creators Black Box. The “Shooter from Epic” is most likely the speculated ‘Bulletstorm’ IP that was reported as being in development by Epic’s studio People Can Fly back in August ‘08. Also, The Sims 3 for console dropping in Q3, finally. No sign of Mirror’s Edge 2 or Battlefield 3, though.

Of more interest to my Bioware-saturated mind is a couple of things. Firstly, Bioware recently reported that Dragon Age: Origins has sold around 3.2 million units, reaching triple platinum status. “This is a tremendous start for the Dragon Age franchise and we are extremely pleased with the great reception the game has already received from critics and fans worldwide,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder, BioWare and Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group of EA. “Our team is dedicated to crafting high quality, engaging new adventures and stories in the world of Ferelden for our fans!”

The upcoming DLC Return to Ostagar and the expansion pack Dragon Age: Awakenings certainly speak the truth of Dr. Muzyka’s ambitions. The list has a Q4 Dragon Age release for 2011; speculation ranges from the possibilities of a GOTY edition, another expansion pack or a fully-fledged sequel.

The second thing is that - despite not being on the list - EA CEO John Schappert noted that “something far-reaching” from the Mass Effect universe was going to hit in Q4 2011, meaning somewhere between Jan 1st and March 31st of 2011. Is he talking ‘canon’ or ’storytelling’ far-reaching, like the small and largely ignored Mass Effect: Galaxy? Or is it something even bigger? According to Kotaku, ME’s project manager Casey Hudson has noted that they would “Definitely want to make ‘Mass Effect 3′ a fairly short turnaround.” A one-year wait between games, especially games of this calibre, would be pretty damn short. Or maybe a spin-off? Blasto the Hanar Spectre, anybody?

Source: EA Reports Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2010 Results