Electronic Arts 1999 Annual Report Download - page 4

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leagues, including The FA Premier League in England, La Liga de Futbol Profesional
in Spain, and Die Bundesliga in Germany. EA’s soccer-related titles generated
$200 million in sales this past fiscal year, and these licensing agreements solidify our
position as the world’s premier software publisher in the world’s most popular sport.
We also built several exciting new franchise properties to maintain our strength
on the PlayStation. Knockout Kings™, which features 38 of the most famous boxers
in history, sold more than one million units in its first six months and is well on
its way to being the newest EA SPORTS franchise property. Tiger Woods 99 PGA
TOUR®Golf was very well received in its initial product launch. Our soon-to-be-
released title featuring the stars of World Championship Wrestling has tremendous
promise. We also recently licensed the rights to the Formula One brand, a natural
complement to EA’s auto racing product family that should prove as attractive to our
growing international audience as the popular NASCAR titles are in North America.
Clearly, EA has built a very strong position on the PlayStation platform, and given
the upcoming introduction of Sony’s next-generation PlayStation 2, we believe the
future holds even more promise. We have been working with this extraordinary
new technology and have already begun both updating our franchise properties
and developing new properties for PlayStation 2. As with the original PlayStation,
our objective is to be the leading independent publisher for PlayStation 2, and we
intend to be a major factor in the launch of this revolutionary hardware platform
during calendar 2000.
At the same time, we also remain firmly committed to supporting Nintendo’s N64™
console. In fiscal 1999 we released 9 N64 products — including World Cup 98,
Madden NFL 99, Beetle®Adventure Racing, and NASCAR 99 — and we will
continue to devote significant development resources to this highly regarded
platform.
Expanding Presence on PC
Driven by faster microprocessors, better sound and graphics technology and
declining hardware prices, the PC has grown to comprise nearly one-third of the
interactive entertainment software business. EA has long been one of the top three
publishers of PC entertainment titles, but we aim to be the market leader on this
increasingly important platform. The core of our strategy has been to improve our
PC product offering, especially in the categories PC gamers prefer, such as
real-time strategy, simulation, and role-playing titles.
TM