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EA's Quarterly Profits Down 31%
On the heels of announced layoffs, Electronic Arts reported reduced profits for the just-ended quarter. From the Gamespot article: "Whether the layoffs propped up EA's stock is debatable, as its share price lost over 2 percent of its value, $1.18. Trading was heavy indeed--twice normal volume, in fact, with 7.3 million shares changing hands. And no wonder: Shortly after the US markets closed, EA announced its earnings for its third fiscal quarter, which ran from October to December 2005. Besides being of great import to stockholders in the world's biggest third-party publisher, the report was seen by many as being a bellwether of the game industry's overall health."
EA's management doesn't suffer marketplace losers for very long.
This is the second time in a few months that EA management has specifically and publicly expressed their extreme displeasure with Microsoft and the 360. Outside of some of the bigger sports titles, 360 projects are getting canceled at EA.
I don't think they will outright cancel their 360 support, at least not yet, but before the seemingly endless disasters that have plauged the 360 they were almost entirely focused on the PS3. There isn't much room left between their current 360 support and just dumping the Xbox platform.
EA's management loved putting Microsoft in their place when they very publicly ignored the Xbox online service. I have little doubt they would hesitate for a second to do the same with the 360 as a platform.