Electronic Arts 2008 Annual Report Download - page 80

Our games span a diverse range of categories, including action-adventure, casual, sports, family, fantasy,
racing, music, role-playing, simulation, extreme sports and strategy. We have created, licensed and acquired a
strong portfolio of intellectual property, which we market and sell to a variety of consumers. Our portfolio of
wholly-owned properties includes established brands such as Need for Speed
TM
,The Sims
TM
and Battlefield, and
games scheduled to debut in fiscal 2009 such as Spore
TM
,Mirror’s Edge
TM
and Dead Space
TM
. Our portfolio of
games based on licensed intellectual property includes sports-based titles such as Madden NFL Football, FIFA
Soccer and Tiger Woods PGA Tour»,and titles based on popular culture such as Harry Potter, The Godfather»,
and the yet-to-be released Warhammer»Online. Through our EA Partners business, we also co-develop, co-
publish and distribute video games that are developed and published by other companies, including the MTV
Games/Harmonix game Rock Band. Beginning in fiscal 2009, we also expect to release video games based on
board games and toys from Hasbro, including NERF, MONOPOLY and TRIVIAL PURSUIT.
Another cornerstone of our strategy is to publish products that can be iterated, or sequeled. For example, many
of our sports products, such as Madden NFL Football, come out in a new edition each year. Other products,
such as The Sims and Godfather, can be sequeled on a less-frequent basis. We refer to these successful,
iterated product families as “franchises”.
We develop our games using both internal and external resources. We have development studios and related
functions located worldwide, such as BioWare (Canada and United States), Black Box (Canada), Blueprint
(United States), Bright Light (United Kingdom), Criterion (United Kingdom), DICE (Sweden), EA Canada,
EA India, EA Los Angeles (United States), EA Montreal (Canada), EA Redwood Shores (United States), EA
Romania, EA Salt Lake City (United States), Mythic Entertainment (United States), Pogo (United States and
China), Pandemic (United States and Australia), Phenomic (Germany), The Sims (United States) and Tiburon
(United States). We also have quality and assurance functions located in several countries such as China, India,
Korea, Singapore and Spain and localization functions located in several countries such as France, Germany,
Italy, Japan, Romania and Spain. We also engage third-parties to assist with the development of our games at
their own development and production studios.
Our global sales network allows us to market, publish and distribute games in over 35 countries throughout the
world. In North America, we generate a significant portion of our net revenue from direct sales to retailers.
Outside of North America, we generate net revenue primarily from direct-to-retail sales although, in some of
our smaller territories, we also work with third parties to distribute our games. Our games are also available
via online stores, including our own online store, and via direct digital download from our website. We also
market and distribute games and other content for cellular handsets through wireless carriers.
In fiscal 2008, sales of Rock Band, distributed for three platforms, represented approximately 10 percent of
our total net revenue. In fiscal 2007, we had two titles, Need for Speed Carbon and Madden NFL 07,
published on 10 platforms, each of which represented approximately 11 percent of our total net revenue. In
fiscal 2006, we had one title, Need for Speed Most Wanted, published on eight platforms, which represented
approximately 10 percent of our total net revenue.
We were initially incorporated in California in 1982. In September 1991, we reincorporated under the laws of
Delaware. Our principal executive offices are located at 209 Redwood Shores Parkway, Redwood City,
California 94065 and our telephone number is [phone].
Significant Business Developments in Fiscal 2008
Label Reorganization
As described in more detail below, in fiscal 2008, we reorganized our business into four operating “labels” —
EA Games, EA SPORTS, The Sims and EA Casual Entertainment — and an additional group that works
closely with the labels — Global Publishing, which operates in three regions, North America, Europe and
Asia.
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