Hasta La Gadget!

Electronic Arts has reported its Q4 2013 earnings, and the company boasted a $1.04 billion revenue, which is up from $977 million a year ago. Net income also saw a growth from last year, with $169 million in cold, hard profit for the quarter, compared to $56 million during the same quarter last year. However, it was the game sales that EA really wanted to show off.

Since the game’s launch in March, SimCity has sold over 1.6 million copies so far, even despite the fiasco that erupted during launch. EA says that half of these sales were from digital downloads, meaning that 800,000 copies of the game were sold through EA’s Origin gaming service alone, which is quite impressive.

As for other games that EA highlights, FIFA 13 has sold over 14.5 million copies in EA’s fiscal year 2013 so far, and EA says that Battlefield 3 Premium has over 3.5 million subscribers to date. As for the company’s latest iOS game, Real Racing 3 has seen more than 30 million downloads, and has been averaging over 2.5 million daily active users since its launch.

Despite all the hate that EA has been getting lately, including its “Worst Company in America” award for the second straight year, EA claims that they were the number one publisher in “Western retail markets” during the past quarter, as well as the number one publisher in the world when it comes to iOS games. Sales speak for themselves, we suppose.

EA points toward SimCity sales as high point in recent quarter is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

While Microsoft is planning its own reveal event on May 21 to unveil its next-generation gaming console, the company will also be at E3 in June to show off even more stuff the company is working on. However, Microsoft will also be returning to Gamescom later this August after skipping last year’s event, where they’ll be revealing the “next chapter of Xbox gaming experiences.”

Xbox EMEA social marketing manager Graeme Boyd tweeted the news today, but details have yet to revealed. Then again, we probably won’t hear more about Microsoft’s Gamescom appearance until the event gets closer. From the looks of it so far, it seems the company may spread out announcements for the Xbox 720 over three events.

However, since Gamescom is in August, that could be the time when Microsoft will release its next-generation console, thus being the purpose behind the company’s appearance at the event. Both Microsoft and Sony are expected to launch their new consoles in time for the holiday season, so we should be seeing them pop up early on in August and September.

Microsoft skipped Gamescom last year, with no word on whether or not the company would return, but it looks like they just can’t get enough, as they’ll be returning to the Germany event come late August. It’ll be interesting to see what new stuff they unveil, considering they’ll have E3 and their own event to splurge out details of their new console.

Microsoft returning to Gamescom to show off Xbox 720 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The SimCity series was first launched in 1989 and was created by game designer Will Wright. However, the man who built the series wasn’t a part of the latest SimCity launch that took place earlier this year. Instead, he sat back and watched the show, but it obviously was a bit painful to watch, and Wright wan’t too thrilled about how things went.

However, when speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Wright says that he “feels bad for the team,” but predicted that there would most likely be some backlash based around DRM issues and complaints. Wright says that the launch fiasco was “basically inexcusable,” and paying $60 for game that you can’t play it will obviously cause a lot of outrage, and Wright certainly understands that.

Then again, Wright says that the new game is “good,” and he enjoys “playing it a lot,” but the launch was pretty much a disaster for Electronic Arts. Even if the game publisher finally fixed all the issues with the game, the memory is still there of the time that you couldn’t access the game that you paid big money for.

In a slightly-related note, Electronic Arts will be sending out an update for SimCity sometime this week that will address a handful of issues. The update tweaks traffic routing, phantom air pollution, stuck school buses, and stuck university students crossing roads. Other updates include a slew of new items, as well as some audio fixes.

[via GamesIndustry.biz]

SimCity creator calls latest launch woes “inexcusable” is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In a piece of news that informs on the future of Star Wars video games after Disney shut down LucasArts last month, Disney and Electronic Arts have signed a multi-year agreement that will see the game publisher obtain exclusive rights to the Star Wars video game franchise, allowing them to make Star Wars video games from here on out.

Electronic Arts says that DICE and Visceral Games will produce new Star Wars titles in the future, as they join BioWare, who is continuing to develop games for the franchise. As for what to expect in upcoming games from EA, the company’s Labels President, Frank Gibeau, says that the new games will be “entirely original with all new stories and gameplay,” with some elements being borrowed from past films.

However, the agreement between EA and Disney doesn’t give the game publisher all the rights to the Star Wars game franchise, as Disney will still retain the rights for “mobile, social, tablet and online game.” Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but we’re guessing it was for quite a large sum of money, especially for something so popular like Star Wars.

However, this gets us thinking as to how these upcoming Star Wars games will be published. Electronic Arts doesn’t have a very good track record, and they were recently voted the “worst company in America” for the second straight year, which has us worried about the Star Wars franchise. It’s possible that EA could turn things around by the time they release a new Star Wars game, but we’ll ultimately have to wait and see.

Electronic Arts obtains exclusive rights to Star Wars games is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Maxis and Electronic Arts, the makers behind the fiasco that was SimCity, are back in action as they have revealed The Sims 4, which will be the latest installment in the life simulation series that we’ve all grown up with over the years. The game is set to release for PC and Mac sometime in 2014 with more details to come soon.

Electronic Arts announced the game on their official blog, saying that more details on the game “will be revealed later today.” EA says that “The Sims franchise is fueled by the passion and creativity of its millions of fans around the world,” and the publisher boasts that over 150 million copies of various Sims titles have been sold globally.

The last time that Maxis and EA released a Sims title was back in 2009 with The Sims 3, and 1.4 million copies of the game were sold globally within the first week of release. By next year, it’ll certainly be a long time coming for Sims fans, with The Sims 3 turning three years old this coming June.

As for what to expect in the new game, we may hear more about that later today, as EA has said, but we could see even more features than what we saw in The Sims 3, as well as the possibility of better graphics and new gameplay elements to make The Sims 4 more immersive. We’re also guessing that build your own character and house will become an even deeper process than before.

The Sims 4 unveiled by Maxis and EA is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.