James Delahunty
15 Aug 2011 2:25
EA puts tremendous amount of faith in "Star Wars: The Old Republic."
EA has invested more than $100 million in the development of the online Star Wars title, which it hopes will gain similar success to World of Warcraft. Activision Blizzard's mega-popular online game boasts more than 12 million subscribers.
"We think it should be a very attractive season for Electronic Arts as we have quite a few blockbusters in the pipeline," said EA's Jens Uwe Intat, head of sales and distribution, Europe. No launch date for Star Wars has yet been announced by the developer.
"We have lots of people who have been subscribing to newsletters and webpages so we are actually feeling very bullish about the game," Intat said, adding that they were still in the process of fine tuning services for the game.
EA also has the launches of Battlefield 3, another Need for Speed iteration and Sims Pet to look forward to. FIFA 12 has also already taken record-breaking pre-orders ahead of its end-of-September launch.
The company has also expanded its avenues of potential revenue online. It is focusing on Facebook games which are free to play, but gain revenue from items sold in-game to enhance the experience. To boost its position in social gaming, EA is turning to its heavyweight franchises, with "The Sims Social" being a perfect example.