EA has announced its preliminary medium-term release schedule, and although it did not include announcements of any exciting new IPs, this year’s holiday period is looking to be chock full of sequels once again. These include Dead Space 2, Dragon Age 2, Crysis 2 and a console version of The Sims 3.
Crysis 2 and the Sims 3 for console are both due out in the last 3 months of 2010. Crysis, previously a PC exclusive, will be making its console debut just in time for Christmas.
Dead Space 2 and a Dragon Age sequel are then scheduled for release in the first few months of 2011. Both games will be launched on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
There was also mention of an unannounced shooter which Epic Games is developing for EA.
Looking more short term, EA is preparing to release the much hyped Battlefield: Bad Company 2, as well as a modern take on the Medal of Honour series later this year.
EA has also recently revealed its latest fiscal quarter earnings. The publisher is looking in much better shape than it was a year ago, thanks largely to it tightening up on spending. Although EA grossed 24-percent less turnover in the final quarter of 2009 than its previous year, the company managed to shrink its net loss from $641 million to just $81 million, a definite step in the right direction.
Although EA released less games in 2009 than in 2008, it would seem that a strong line up of quality AAA titles enabled them to come a lot closer to breaking even. EA’s biggest sellers for the year were Dragon Age: Origins, Left 4 Dead 2, Fifa 10, Madden NFL 10 and The Sims 3. EA claims that it was the largest publisher in the US and UK between April and December 2009. It claims to have sold the most PC and PS3 games during this period, and the second most Xbox 360 games after Activision.
The publisher also got off to a good start this year, with Mass Effect 2 shipping 2 million units in its first week.
