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Right after Peter Moore took the reins at Electronic Arts, he's been gung-ho to take the publishing giant's EA Sports label on a global level. He's even planning to expand the EA division outside the borders of video gaming.
Just how grand are Moore's plans for EA Sports? Enough to claim that fellow industry giant Activision-Blizzard can't compete with them. Quite a statement to say against the company that brought us the Guitar Hero franchise, which generated US$ 1 billion in 26 months.
Not that we've heard news of Activision-Blizzard actually planning to
release a sports title to compete with EA's brand, but then with Activision and Vivendi Games now under one roof, they are a serious force to be reckoned with.
EA Sports, Moore reveals in an interview, wants to lose its "ultra-serious" reputation and is going to target the mainstream gamer. Globalization is key, as he explains:
We need to globalise, and we’re taking many steps to broaden the appeal of our product portfolio. Consumers get a chance to vote at the cash registers, and what we’re seeing is that our games are as popular as ever. This is an area in which Activision-Blizzard really can’t compete with us.
EA Sports has released games on virtually all platforms, including the PC, and the DS and PSP handhelds, but then Activision can claim the same. Vivendi Games has some powerful titles under its belt as well, including World of Warcraft.
We don't expect to see a punch out between the two publishers since they don't target the same audience, but we do expect some competition to happen in terms of market share.
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