Electronic Arts 2000 Annual Report Download - page 11

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EA 2000 AR
09
EA PUBLISHING
aggressive marketing while leveraging deep and strong retailer
relationships. In the end, we achieve the goal of increasing our
market share in both new and existing markets worldwide.
BRANDING One of the keys to success for Electronic Arts is in
leveraging the equity our franchises have established with
consumers worldwide. With that in mind, EA has unveiled a
new branding strategy that aligns our Studios and publishing
groups behind a consistent brand approach. To that end, we
have unified all packaging and promotions under the EA brand
umbrella using three brand logos: EA SPORTS, EA GAMES™
and EA.com.
EA SPORTS will continue to represent the high standard of
games consumers have come to expect. EA GAMES is a new
brand created to unify the entertainment portfolio that was
previously marketed under six separate brand names. Going
forward, powerful EA GAMES franchises such as
Command &
Conquer, The Sims, SimCity™
and
James Bond
will be linked
with solid EA GAMES branding. EA.com is the greatest new
exposure consumers will have to our branding initiative.
More than 22 million AOL subscribers will see the new logo
and millions more will see it on affiliated AOL sites including
Netcenter™
,AOL.com and CompuServe®
.The online audience
brings new consumers into the EA family and, by using a logo
so clearly linked to and identified with our EA SPORTS and
EA GAMES logos, we stand to build the overall EA brand to
great new heights.
At the core of this strategy is the iconography and equity
of EA SPORTS, the flagship of EA’s portfolio. EA SPORTS is the
most powerfully branded franchise in the interactive gaming
world. As always, high-quality gameplay and rich attention to
detail are the critical elements of our EA SPORTS success. In
addition, EA SPORTS titles capture consumer attention with
the use of cyber-superstars—renderings of top athletes such
as Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Heavyweight Champion
Lennox Lewis, Mike Piazza and Japanese soccer phenom
Nakata. In North America, we continue to lead the sports cat-
egory by a wide margin. The highlight for the year in North
America was
Madden NFL Football 2000,
which sold over 2.1
million units and outdistanced its direct competition by a
wide margin. EA’s largest sports franchise worldwide,
FIFA
Soccer,
continues to be a huge global success with revenues
for
FIFA 2000
of over $90 million. Recognizing the opportuni-
ty inherent in EA’s worldwide distribution, EA SPORTS has
reached out with existing franchises and created new titles to
capture global market share.
OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE The console transition that
started in fiscal year 2000 will continue in fiscal year 2001—
it will prove to be a watershed period for our industry.
Historically, transition has led to significant industry growth.
The transition from prior technology typically brings with it
a big step forward in the quality of the graphics displayed
in our games and, with it, opens the game market to new
consumers. These consumers demand increased realism and
quality in the games they play. While these console transi-
tions represent big opportunities for our industry, managing
the transition will be challenging for EA and all our com-
petitors. EA has successfully navigated several previous
transitions and, in each instance, emerged stronger, more
focused and with greater market share. As we position EA for
leadership of future console markets, we look forward with
an eye toward continued success through and beyond the
current transition period. While we are managing the console
transition, we will continue to drive toward an ever-higher
market share on the PC side of the business. Looking for-
ward, we are confident in our EA GAMES and EA SPORTS PC
lineup and in our ability to manage it successfully. With the
enormous success of our key PC franchises in fiscal year
2000, EA has proven an ability to create global winners in the
PC market. We will be selecting from an even larger slate of
winning titles in the coming year to continue to drive and
build market leadership.
NFL Blitz
Madden
17%
30%
Madden Market
Share vs.
#2 Competitor
in US