Electronic Arts 2009 Annual Report Download - page 86

EA SPORTS Label
The EA SPORTS Label brings together a collection of sports-based video games marketed under the EA
SPORTS brand. EA SPORTS games range from simulated sports titles with realistic graphics based on real-
world sports leagues, players, events and venues to more casual games with arcade-style gameplay and graphics.
We seek to release new iterations of many of our EA SPORTS titles annually in connection with the
commencement of a sports league’s season or a major sporting event when appropriate. Our EA SPORTS
franchises include FIFA Soccer, Madden NFL Football, Fight Night, NBA Live, NCAA Football, NCAA
Basketball, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and NHL Hockey. EA SPORTS games are developed primarily at our EA
Canada studio located in Vancouver, British Columbia and our EA Tiburon studio located in Orlando, Florida.
EA Play Label
The EA Play Label is focused on creating compelling games for a mass audience of core and non-core gamers
alike. EA Play games are intended to be easily accessible for people of all ages, requiring a minimal time
commitment to learn, play and enjoy. EA Play Label products include (1) wholly-owned franchises such as the
life simulation games, The Sims and MySims and (2) games published under licenses such as Harry Potter under
license from Warner Bros., and video games based on Hasbro board games and toys, including Littlest Pet
Shop™, MONOPOLY,SCRABBLE (North America only), TRIVIAL PURSUIT, NERF, and GI JOE™. Our EA
Play Label oversees internal studios and development teams located in Redwood City, Los Angeles, Salt Lake
City, and the United Kingdom and works with third party developers.
Global Publishing Organization
Global Publishing is responsible for distribution, sales and marketing of our products (including strategic
planning, operations, and manufacturing functions), and for centralized development services in support of our
Labels (such as product certification, quality assurance, motion capture, art outsourcing and localization within
the local markets in which we operate). Global Publishing also includes our EA Interactive business unit, which
includes our Pogo online games service and our EA Mobile wireless games publishing business.
Distribution, Sales and Marketing. Our global sales network allows us to market, publish and distribute games
for all Labels throughout the world. Our North America publishing organization is headquartered in Redwood
City, California. We have local offices in several states including Arkansas, New York, Minnesota and Texas,
among others. We also have a distribution center in Kentucky. Our international publishing operations are
headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices throughout Europe, Australia, Asia and Latin America. We
also have various distribution centers in Europe including the Netherlands and Switzerland. Marketing activities
primarily focus on television and online advertising, print advertising, retail merchandising, website
development, event sponsorship, and trade shows.
Central Development Services. Our Central Development Services group provides development services to our
Labels, such as product localization, quality assurance and certification, motion capture, art outsourcing and
media mastering. By grouping these services together within a single, centralized organization, we expect to
continue to achieve efficiencies, while improving the overall quality of our games by providing more
sophisticated and robust services than any of our Labels could sustain on its own. Key components of Central
Development Services’ strategy are outsourcing to third parties and moving work offshore to lower-cost markets.
EA Interactive. EA Interactive is comprised of our Pogo and EA Mobile businesses.
•Pogo. Through our Pogo online service, we offer casual games such as card games, puzzle games and
word games. We had approximately 1.8 million paying Club Pogo subscribers as of March 31, 2009. In
addition to paid subscriptions, Pogo also generates revenue through Internet-based advertising and sales
of digital content.
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