EA Chief Cites Need For More Innovative Games
Electronic Arts Inc. became the world's biggest maker of videogames by relying on a formula now widespread in the industry: pumping out sequels of familiar game franchises, like Madden football, that consumers bought almost on cue.
Context & Ripple Effects
By mid-2007 EA's playbook — annualizing proven properties like Madden that consumers 'bought almost on cue' — had made it the world's biggest videogame maker, and the corpus shows the formula was by then industry-wide. What changed across 2007 was EA itself signaling the ceiling of that machine: a March signing of Harmonix announced at GDC, followed in June by the formation of an EA Casual Entertainment group under Kathy Vrabeck aimed at lighter games for families and new consumers.
The chief executive's public call for more innovative games reads as the strategy statement laid over those moves, giving them a single narrative. How far EA will go to buy rather than build innovation is already being tested in rumor: an executive has hinted at Crytek ownership beyond the confirmed distribution arrangement covering Crysis, a claim that remains unconfirmed.
First-order effects
- EA's internal resource allocation now splits between the franchise units that generate the revenue and two vehicles for the innovation push — the Vrabeck-led casual group and Harmonix, whose signed-but-unshipped title becomes the most visible test of whether the strategy produces hits.
- Kathy Vrabeck's division puts a named organization behind reaching consumers outside the core franchise-buying base, converting the innovation rhetoric into headcount and a slate.
Second-order effects
- If the biggest publisher starts bidding for new categories, rival publishers face matching pressure, tightening the market for independent studios with original concepts — the space where the unconfirmed Crytek speculation sits alongside EA's confirmed Harmonix deal.
- The casual push drags EA into competition with whatever serves family and light gamers today, a segment its Madden-style annual sequels were never built to reach.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, growth at the industry leader shifts from annualizing owned franchises toward acquiring studios that originate categories — a structural tilt toward consolidation around the handful of teams capable of producing genuine novelty.
- Because the sequel machine remains the profit engine, innovation functions as a portfolio hedge layered on top of it rather than a replacement, entrenching a two-tier structure of cash-cow franchises funding speculative new ones.
The trend: Mid-console-cycle publishers are beginning to layer acquired innovation and dedicated casual divisions on top of annualized franchise machines, making external studios with original concepts the scarcest asset in the industry.