By Rick Horrow and Karla Swatek
September 28, 2012
It’s a tale of two games for EA Sports, as two of its signature titles continue to trend in opposite directions. First, the good news comes from FIFA Soccer 13, which launched last week with unprecedented success. The game in its opening day sold 353,000 copies in North America, a 42% increase over last year’s title. Fans played 1.4 million online games in the first 24 hours after FIFA launched, up 35% year-over-year. And interest in FIFA isn’t limited to North America. Worldwide, more than 1.3 million copies were pre-ordered.
However, what should have been a banner week for the company was overshadowed by the announcement that NBA Live is being cancelled for the second time in three years. While it’s not a cancellation of the entire series, just this year’s edition, EA Sports continues to fall far behind rival 2K Sports’ NBA series. At some point, EA Sports will either need to find new leadership for the troubled title, or cut its losses altogether.
