EA's stock and what the Analysts think

Ever since the release of Mass Effect 3 we have seen a turmultuous fight between us, the consumer, and EA. And it really seems like the investors and stock analysts haven't missed a beat of this either. It almost feels like they are watching the reaction of the consumer and watching to see what EA says. But one has to wonder, how many of these investors might be gamers or business saavy themselves? Well, I have some stock/news updates.

Over the course of about 4-6 months, EA's stocks have taken a downward turn. Now granted in that time, there have been other ups and downs. but they cannot seem to get back to their Pre-Mass Effect 3 numbers. You can see the trend here: https://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:EA .

Yesterday, the stocks closed at $12.00/share, and Pre-market as of 9:07 am EST today (6/22/2012), EA is going to oepn lower at $11.80/share. This has not been lost on the top Stock Analysts. Citigroup has cut (downgraded) EA's stocks to Neutral from Buy(http://247wallst.com/2012/06/22/top...az-msi-onxx-pby-rl-rgr-sxci-trow-mrk-ilmn-pg/).

With this it appeared that COO Peter Moore tries to blame it on a "unbelievablly difficult transition". (http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/...-more-stocks-slamming-into-52-week-lows.html/)

-Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) Chief Opertaing Officer Peter Moore says that the video game industry is currently experiencing an “unbelievably difficult transformation” and added that the conventional wisdom of “when the new consoles come out, everything is going to be fine again,” no longer pertains, according to an interview published Wednesday by Kotaku. EA shares have traded between $12.20 and $26.13 in a 52-week range, but closed down 5.21 percent on the day at $12.

In essence, Peter Moore is attempting to lump all game companies together claiming they are all hurting. While this may be partially true for some, EA's stocks have taken a substatially harder hit. I would fathom a guess and call this a very weak PR spin to try and turn the attention away from their poor performance.

Earlier in the week, Peter Moore stated that he and EA are coming to grips with the Digital Transformation in an interview with Gamasutra:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/..._to_grips_with_the_digital_transformation.php

-Moore says, "The company has a vision and a mission, which we don't talk a lot about externally, but you find it a lot when you go to the [EA] office. In broad terms, we talk about uniting through play, bringing people together through play. The mission is to build the world's best digital playground with fun for everyone, anywhere, anytime. We think that the future of gaming is cross-platform play, always having something with you that's a gaming device, but everything you do connects." -

In an interview with Hartware.Net (http://www.hartware.de/news_55173.html), Frank Gibeau praises the new Microsoft Smart Glass to further their vision with thier Cross-Platform:
-Translated via GoogleTranslate:

Frank Gibeau, head of EA label at Electronic Arts, Microsoft SmartGlass praises for the networking of the Xbox 360 Tablets: According to Gibeau had the enthusiastic publisher of Smart Glass products and rate it as a very clever move by Microsoft. Gibeau says literally. "We love the idea of ​​Smart Glass is a killer." The EA Manager believes that SmartGlass corresponded exactly to the philosophy of Electronic Arts, because it enables you to post content across platforms. "The Nintendo is under enormous pressure, because now you need a new system more," added Gibeau.
This makes his position clear Gibeau: While Nintendo's Wii U also put on several screens and deliver a tablet controller directly, but Microsoft offers a similar concept, one must erweben without new hardware. In addition, one could include in this way devices with Google Android, Apple iOS and Microsofs own Windows Phone, which guarantee a more willing customer base.

Gibeaus colleague Andrew Wilson, who is responsible for EA Sports at Electronic Arts agrees to the praise with a "Smart Glass will develop video games for new audiences, it changed how people interact with their console me.." Wilson thus guaranteeing that Electronic Arts will incorporate Smart Glass in the future in his games to offer customers real added value."

Now we have to wait and see how the technique depends on whether customers and Nintendo's Wii U at the end but is not more followers. Both the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft's U SmartGlass will this year come on the market.

It seems that with the downturn of their current customer base, they are turning to others to rebuild their poularity.

But as we see with the stocks, this may be a smokescreen that investors are seeing through.

Has it not occurred to anyone at EA that maybe, just maybe, they're drastically overspending on advertising and not allocating enough resources to actual development? They've been in the business of overselling awful games for so long that people have stopped buying the hype. Especially on sequels, the market is already pretty fixed. Fans are going to realize another entry in a beloved series is coming out without being assaulted by glitzy commercials and Twitter campaigns, so why waste so much money on them? Why not dump those resources into making sure the game itself doesn't suck, and then let your hardcore fan base do the advertising for you?

Here's a tip, EA: a shitty game you can access and participate in from anywhere at any time is still a shitty game. You're tanking because you produce garbage, not because you aren't giving people wide enough access to your games. Focus on developing quality titles and stop wasting time and resources on boondoggles that no one wants.

For some reason, they think they are infallible, and they will pay dearly for it. It truly is quite sad at how low they have gone. Releasing rushed, half assed products with tons of overpriced DLC that often was cut from the game or locked on disc, insulting their consumers, and blaming everyone else but themselves. They do everything but hold themselves accountable. Didn't realize that children could now run corporations, because that's what they sound like to me.

I wish the news was worse for EA. A lot worse. Once they (and Activision) are gone maybe we can get back to games being games again and not an avenue for fleecing people.

As I said in a different thread, there's always a market for quality, and those trying to fill it. There's good games out there. It's just that companies like EA and Activision hog the spotlight. We just gotta look for the good games, and support the companies that make them.

Rob Fahey from Gamesindustry would like to call BULLSHIT as seem comparing NASDAQ to Activision and EA.

@Buu That was an excellent article!! Thank you for bringing this here!

For me this article reinforces so many things about EA/BioWare. For a company whose stock prices are in the basement, their refusal to rally fans to a beloved franchise along with their defensive remarks and lets not forge their mixed messaged pr department makes me think they're in denial.
How long can a company operate that way and not completely crash.

Eventually it must adapt or perish, but I seriously doubt adapting will come without a crash and burn. EA itself has a corporate aversion to innovation. If there's no in-house avenue to pursue new titles you're really chasing out the risk takers since they have no way to pursue their visions. It limits the ways anyone can truly move up the ranks and bring usefull change.

By buying companies wholesale it does protect you somewhat since you're leaving the risk of developing those new titles to someone else. However it's hard to believe that it doesn't lead to a combative power structure. If you buy "X" company and that company succeeds it's a threat to other people's job security and I would guess as well a source of envy. In the end any relative success EA has is really in spite of, rather than because of, the corporate structure.

ATGHunter have been saying that since the start: Based on the PR of EA, their corporate philosophy is from 50s and early 60s. It's a model that doesn't work anymore. Distribution around the world is fast and words spread without control.

For instance,you have to treat the same product differently by the media you distribute, and by the market you want to reach. In the past that was made locally. the manager with the differentiated media, or the distant market were the managers of THAT SPOT. Today the big guys manage EVERY SINGLE PLACE. Instead of adapting to act as the little managers they are homogenizing everything, making customers unhappy and leave. One example is the debate about the price of hard and downloadable copies.

Probably those japanese guys will move in july to buy EA, when their stocks reach 10 bucks.

Everyone except Riccitiello and Patcher knows what's going on.

Pachter: EA's CEO John Riccitiello Fears For His Job Due To Stock Failure

Dude, I want to know if John Riccitiello have an illness that make him prematurely senile. Looks like it.

http://www.gamefront.com/rumor-ea-ceo-john-riccitiello-to-be-removed-peter-moore-to-step-in/

For all their talk about Games going through an incredibly difficult transition right now, I don't see any other companies stock plummeting like this.