It was fairly evident by the end of the year that EA was trying to turn things around in terms of their public image. There was a long period of time in which EA was labeled the bad guy of the publishers, pushing out the same few franchises year after year and offering very little support to the titles after they had been released. Their CEO, John Riccitiello, basically gave out a statement of mea culpe, that EA had truly fallen in the eyes of the gaming community and they were going to may headway in order to stop that decline. New IPs came rushing out the door, thanks to the increased support from their partners program, and we were treated to interesting and relatively good quality titles, such as Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge. After a failed bid on fellow publisher Take Two earlier in the year, though, their stock was slipping, and their fall titles failed to really catch fire on store shelves, with sales of games like Need For Speed dropping significantly from years past. EA posted loses towards the end of 2008, had a massive drop off in stock value and ended up putting the boot to a lot of employees in order to trim the fat. The new strategy didn’t have any immediate payoff, that was for certain.

Moving into the new year things haven’t looked much better. EA has sliced a significant amount of its staff in studios like Black Box, one of their stronger Canadian studios responsible for the troubled Need for Speed series, as well as most of EA Sports’ titles. That combined with a $641 million dollar loss over the last quarter meant that they would have to shave their workforce even more, up to 11% (or 1,100 jobs), and should see most of those layoffs occur before the end of next month. As the job loses and fiscal loses compound, things don’t look good for the publisher going into this year and next, and they’ve already announced delays to major titles and cutbacks to the amount of games they will put out during the next fiscal year. So, after all that bad news, Riccitiello has stepped up again with a new plan of action. And that new plan is focusing on the system that is selling the strongest in this generation: the Wii.

With such bold claims as being able tochallenge Nintendo on their own system in terms of game quality and content, EA seems fairly confident in their new strategy of putting 50% of their upcoming titles onto the Wii. It does make sense, considering how many of those consoles are out in the wild now, and given the strength that some third parties have been able to achieve it is a safe bet that success can be had on Nintendo’s platform. With EA Sports announcing new titles for the system to work with Wii MotionPlus (the upcoming peripheral that mimics one-to-one motion with the Wii remote) such as a Wimbledon Tennis game, they are poised to make at least some kind of splash on the system. Another shocking announcement was that they were bringing Dead Space to the Wii, a game which doesn’t seem like a natural fit for the system on first glance. Graphically, the game was astounding, and having that translate over would be difficult even if stylized, but the controls could lend themselves to a bit of IR. Very similar to Resident Evil 4, which worked well on Nintendo’s latest console, having an over-the-shoulder aiming system using more precise movements of the remote, and given the fact that you don’t really face all too many enemies at a given time, it does come to reason that it might be a viable option.

It’s a nail biting situation moving into that market for EA. They have made efforts to make some unique Wii titles, like Boom Blox, to limited success, and if their focus is going to be porting over successful IP to the system they may be missing a better opportunity developing titles that are specifically designed for the Wii. Like Dead Rising: Chop ‘Til You Drop seems to be doing, having a game already come out on a high-definition system and then brought to the Wii often raises the ire of the more picky gaming crowd, and can result in a lot of negative press based on expectations surrounding it. New IPs, however, are often treated with a little more cautious optimism. Still, their focus should be where the money is if they expect to bounce back in any way, and this seems like a relatively smart move. They are not set to disappoint the rest of their audience, however, with games like Mass Effect 2 being announced for the coming year, and The Sims 3 and Dragon Age being given a little more time to cook for quality’s sake. EA is looking to be lighter and more ready for the tough times that are ahead, and it’ll be good to see them get on their fee with a strong focus on new markets and new properties. After all, new games are always good for anyone willing to play, so the more the merrier.