Electronic Arts 2011 Annual Report Download - page 81

Annual Report
Under the program, we may purchase stock in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions in
accordance with applicable securities laws, including pursuant to pre-arranged stock trading plans. The timing
and actual amount of the stock repurchases will depend on several factors including price, capital availability,
regulatory requirements, alternative investment opportunities, and other market conditions. We are not obligated
to repurchase any specific number of shares under the program and the repurchase program may be modified,
suspended or discontinued at any time.
Fiscal 2011 Restructuring Plan
In fiscal year 2011, we announced a plan focused on the restructuring of certain licensing and developer
agreements in an effort to improve the long-term profitability of our packaged goods business. Under this plan,
we amended certain licensing and developer agreements. To a much lesser extent, as part of this restructuring we
have had workforce reductions and facilities closures through March 31, 2011. Substantially all of these exit
activities were completed by March 31, 2011.
Digital Content Distribution and Services
In fiscal year 2011, we significantly increased the revenues that we derive from online-delivered products and
services and we expect this portion of our business to continue to grow in fiscal year 2012 and
beyond. Substantially all of our games contain digital content. Many of our games that are available as packaged
goods products are also available through direct online download through the Internet. We also offer online-
delivered content and services that are add-ons or related to our packaged goods products such as additional
game content or enhancements of multiplayer services. Further, we provide other games, content and services
that are available only via electronic delivery, such as Internet-only games and game services, and games for
mobile devices. In fiscal year 2011, we made strategic investments in our digital business with the acquisition of
Chillingo Limited, a leading publisher of games and software for mobile platforms. Additionally, we expect to
launch the highly anticipated massively-multiplayer online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Our Operating Structure
We are organized around three operating Labels (EA Games, EA SPORTS and EA Play), our EA Interactive
organization (EA Mobile, the combined results of Pogo and Playfish, and Hasbro) and our Global Publishing
Organization. Each Label and EA Interactive operates globally with dedicated game development and marketing
teams. Global Publishing operates in three regions – North America, Europe and Asia – and is responsible for a
number of business functions such as: strategic planning, field marketing, sales, distribution and operations.
EA Games Label
The EA Games Label is home to the largest number of our studios and development teams, which together create
an expansive and diverse portfolio of games and related content and services marketed under the EA brand in
categories such as action-adventure, role playing, racing and first-person shooter games. The EA Games portfolio
is comprised primarily of wholly-owned intellectual properties and includes several established franchises such
as Battlefield, Dead Space, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Medal of Honor and Need for Speed. EA Games also
develops massively-multiplayer online role-playing games, which are persistent-state virtual worlds where
thousands of players can interact with one another (“MMOs”). Star Wars: The Old Republic is an example of an
MMO currently in development at our BioWare Austin Studio. EA Games titles are developed primarily at the
following EA studios: BioWare (Edmonton, Canada; Austin, Texas; and Montreal, Canada), Criterion
(Guildford, England), DICE (Stockholm, Sweden), EA Los Angeles, Visceral (Redwood City, California;
Montreal, Canada; Shanghai, China; and Melbourne, Australia), EA Mythic (Fairfax, Virginia), and EA Canada
(Burnaby, Canada).
EA Games also includes the EA Partners group, which contracts with external game developers, to provide these
developers with a variety of services including development assistance, publishing, and distribution of their
games.
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