Actually, EA has been in some trouble for a while. They were losing a lot of market share to Activision and Nintendo, which is why they started on their drastic shift in direction. Sadly, neither of the two bets (Dead Space and Mirror's Edge) have paid out the way they had hoped. But, fact of the matter is that all companies are hurting right now. Maybe not as much as some other industries, but there's still a lot of hurt. The only two companies that seem to be doing just fine are Activision (due to WoW) and Nintendo.

Seeing as how America's in a huge recession right now, it's not a big surprise.

Another bet for EA was Spore. I'd have thought that would have brought in more than it did. My guess is they thought so too.

One of the things that's causing a lot of problems, I think, is the way that game development is structured. Every developer sort of lives milestone-to-milestone, and when a publisher runs outta cash, the developer's toast. Not so in the case of EA, obviously, but for a lot of the smaller developers who've been in the news recently (Free Radical, Aspyr, etc.), it's almost an issue of miss one payment and you're screwed.

It's not *good*, but it's the result of the hugely increased costs of doing business in the HD generation, while still adhering to old development methods. It's one of the reasons that Nintendo's so successful right now.

I'd venture that in a recession, the industry shifts probably towards "known" franchises - I'd guess that across the board, new franchises aren't doing as well as the old standards - disproportionately so right now, since if you're gonna rist $40-$60, you're going to do it on something you know.

It's a shame, because Mirror's Edge is REALLY, REALLY GOOD. It's the kind of game that in an ideal world, everyone would play because it takes what you consider generic videogame conventions and destroys them. Dead Space is also a fantastic game. Spore's a good game, but a victim of the absolutely impossible hype that the media (and in no small part, Will Wright) built up around it.

I hope they let go of the employee's responsible for "army of two".