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Analyst: Weak Sales of Mirror's Edge, Rock Band 2 Could Mean More EA Cuts
Nick Breckon
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Electronic Arts titles such as Mirror's Edge, Rock Band 2 and Need for Speed Undercover are expected to underperform this holiday season, and could spell more product and personnel cuts for the publisher, according to Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian.

"Specifically, we believe several EA titles are tracking below plan at retail this holiday, including Need for Speed Undercover (with disappointing reviews), new franchise Mirror's Edge, and Rock Band 2," said Sebastian, as relayed by Gamasutra.

Lazard predicts that a sluggish season could mean more layoffs for EA--in addition to the October 30 slashing of 600 jobs--and product cancellations, such as the company's recent termination of EA LA's Tiberium.

"Importantly, we believe EA is continuing to review its cost structure and franchise base, and it is possible that management will announce further cuts in headcount and the development pipeline (including existing franchises) over the coming quarters," added Sebastian.

While hard sales data of holiday titles has not yet been released, Lazard's "tracking" bills the aforementioned games as slower-than-expected sellers. However, Sebastian noted that Dead Space, FIFA 09 and Left 4 Dead have seen strong sales in spite of the overall disappointment.

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  • [deleted] 1271987451 legacy 10 years
    reply
    December 8, 2008 7:42 PM

    [deleted]

    • Amadan legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      December 8, 2008 7:45 PM

      Wow, I was just going to post the opposite. $60 for the songs, plus the ability to make custom track lists seem like a bargain to me.

      • pyide legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        December 8, 2008 7:53 PM

        Most of the enhancements and additions seem like they could have been done via a patch or update.

        I bought RB2, but I would have rather had a downloadable upgrade with the same functionality added to Rock Band 1 for $10-20 excluding any new songs. This RB2 disc is still a decent deal if you have no musical bias. $60 for 104 songs- DLC prices that would be over $200, but I really dislike more than half of the tracks.

    • derelict515 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      December 8, 2008 7:49 PM

      it was a great deal for me since I didn't have RB1.

    • chilln legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      December 8, 2008 7:51 PM

      rockband 2 rocks, added all the rockband songs onto one game, fixed some of the sorting issues, more fun songs... i see nothing wrong with it. its more goodness., i have like a bazillion tracks now.

    • DOOManiac legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      December 8, 2008 8:54 PM

      Look at how wrong you are. :(

    • [deleted] 308326993 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      December 8, 2008 9:45 PM

      [deleted]

    • ThomW legacy 10 years legacy 20 years mercury ultra mega
      reply
      December 8, 2008 10:13 PM

      I paid $40 for it and it was totally worth it for the songs alone, nevermind the improvements to the overall game.

      I'm surprised it's listed as not doing well. There have been a bunch of stories published saying Harmonix has been getting mad cash from MTV because the games are performing so well. I wonder if it's a case where EA overestimated how many hardware bundles were going to sell this year. It sounds like GHWT isn't doing so hot either, and maybe both companies overestimated demand this year.

      • [deleted] 308326993 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        December 8, 2008 10:27 PM

        [deleted]

      • hamachi legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        December 8, 2008 11:53 PM

        I love the thing. so much better for parties the RB1

      • node legacy 10 years legacy 20 years mercury mega
        reply
        December 9, 2008 12:25 AM

        I think they did crazy well on DLC, which doesn't earn EA anything since they just distribute the game (I believe).

        • Shadowdane legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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          December 9, 2008 7:35 AM

          Yah I don't think EA sees anything from DLC, I could be wrong though.

      • Rice-Rocketeer legacy 10 years legacy 20 years mercury mega
        reply
        December 9, 2008 12:59 AM

        100% agreed. It's a bargain to get those 83 (84?) tracks + those 20 free tracks at $60.

      • [deleted] 1271987451 legacy 10 years
        reply
        December 9, 2008 3:21 AM

        [deleted]

        • bigmaki legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
          reply
          December 9, 2008 7:42 AM

          No, not just you. I'm one of those people who put literally hundreds of hours into Rock Band 1 and I still haven't taken the time to beat all the tracks in Rock Band 2 because there aren't nearly as many I enjoy playing.

        • MatzL.E. legacy 10 years
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          December 9, 2008 7:46 AM

          Yep. Spot on: most of them are weaker, some are really great.

          That's why I imported the RB1 songs (*shakes fist at Metallica) and play them with RB2.
          The "mystery setlists" often do contain RB1 songs. For the normal setlists, you can shoose RB1 and DLC tracks. That gives you most stars to go on in the game - you can leave out the crappy RB2 songs most of the time.

      • [deleted] 716648330 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        December 9, 2008 9:25 AM

        [deleted]

    • MatzL.E. legacy 10 years
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      December 9, 2008 12:59 AM

      The set lists are the best idea of all music games!

      We used it for our christmas party last friday and it was great to just put 3-4 tracks in it: "X is singing this, then I'm doing the drums on that,....".
      That would have been a PITA with RB1 - loading screen after loading screen.

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