Electronic Arts Games - Research Paper Example

At present, EAs sports games are the most successful products such as Harry Potter, Need for Speed, Medal of Honor, The Sims, Battlefield, and the later games in the Burnout and Command and Conquer Series. The top EA competitors in the market are Activision Blizzard, Sony Online Entertainment, and Take-Two. Take-Two, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, was offered $2 billion by EA, but the offer was rejected. EA has time and again been criticized due to their acquisition and management practices for buying lesser developed studios mainly for their intellectual property possessions and then developing radically different games of their franchises.

EAs' overall performance had revealed a descending trend in quality over the past few years and was anticipated to influence market shares during competitive seasons (La Monica, 2005). A lawsuit was filed against EA, alleging them to breaking United States anti-trust laws by signing exclusive deals with the NFL Players Association, the NCAA, and Arena Football League, to use players' names, likenesses, and team logos. This restricted other companies from being able to sign similar agreements.

 Recently, EAs Maxis studio declared the release of a new game on Facebook, named Spore. Spore Islands will let customers contend against one another; constructing an island and developing species on it, while at the same time sending their creatures to friends islands to take over them.