Electronic Arts 2008 Annual Report Download - page 83

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The Sims label offers a variety of other online communities including The Sims On Stage — a creative
community featuring karaoke, comedy, poetry, and movie mashups.
EA Casual Entertainment Label
The EA Casual Entertainment label is focused on creating compelling casual games for a mass audience of
core and non-core gamers alike. Casual games are intended to be easily accessible, requiring a minimum time
commitment to learn, play and enjoy. EA Casual Entertainment is responsible for a broad portfolio of games
designed for consoles, handhelds and PCs (including Pogo.com,our online casual games and community
website), as well as cellular phones (through EA Mobile).
Pogo
TM
. Through our Pogo online service, we offer casual games such as card games, puzzle games and
word games. We had over 1.6 million paying Club Pogo subscribers as of March 31, 2008, up from 1.5 million
paying subscribers as of March 31, 2007. In addition to paid subscriptions, Pogo also generates revenue
through online advertising and sales of digital content. We are continuing to expand our Pogo offerings in
Europe.
EA Mobile. Through EA Mobile, we are a leading global publisher of games and other content (ringtones,
images, etc.) for cellular handsets. Our customers typically purchase and download our games through a
wireless carrier’s branded e-commerce service accessed directly from their cellular handsets.
We engage third parties to develop games for cellular handsets on our behalf at their own development and
production studios and, to a lesser extent, we develop cellular handset games internally at our development
and production studios located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Romania and India. In
fiscal 2008, we released over 30 games for cellular handsets.
Many of our EA Mobile games are designed to take advantage of multimedia enhancements in the latest
generation of cellular handsets, including high-resolution color displays, increased processing power, improved
audio capabilities and increased memory capabilities. We publish games in multiple categories designed to
appeal to a broad range of wireless subscribers.
Hasbro. In August 2007, we entered into a strategic relationship with Hasbro through which we can create
digital games based upon a significant number of Hasbro’s classic board games and toys, including
MONOPOLY,SCRABBLE (North America only), YAHTZEE, TRIVIAL PURSUIT, NERF, G.I. JOE, and
LITTLEST PET SHOP. We intend to develop Hasbro’s properties into video games for children, families and
casual gamers and to publish them across a variety of platforms including cellular handsets, handhelds, PCs
and consoles.
Console, Handheld and PC Games. EA Casual Entertainment works with third party developers and oversees
internal studios and development teams located in Los Angeles, Montreal, Salt Lake City and the United
Kingdom that are responsible for console, handheld and PC games geared primarily towards children, families,
and other casual gamers. In fiscal 2008, these games included Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
TM
,
Boogie
TM
, and Smarty Pants
TM
. For fiscal 2009, EA Casual is releasing a number of new titles, including Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
TM
, Boom Blox
TM
, and ZUBO
TM
as well as several new titles based on well-
known Hasbro games and toys.
Global Publishing Organization
Our Global Publishing Organization operates in three regions, North America, Europe and Asia. These
organizations work closely with each label to publish (i.e., market, sell and distribute) our products (other than
EA Mobile games).
Our North America publishing organization is headquartered in Redwood City, California. We have local
offices in several states including California, Washington and New York, among others. We also have a
distribution center in Kentucky. North America net revenue increased by 17 percent to $1.942 billion, or
53 percent of total net revenue in fiscal 2008, as compared to $1.666 billion, or 54 percent of total net revenue
in fiscal 2007.
Annual Report
7