EA recouping Godfather costs with sequel

Industry analyst Todd Greenwald has revealed that Electronic Arts is recouping the development costs associated with it's Godfather titles by using the engine in five different franchises, with the publisher also working on a sequel to the game based on Mario Puzo's novel.

The game engine is also being used in upcoming movie tie-in The Simpsons, which Greenwald believes will be one of the biggest sellers on release later this year.

"We learned that EA is leveraging the significant amount of development time and costs that went into The Godfather game," commented Greenwald.

"The open-world engine was built from the ground up for The Godfather, and is now being used by five different franchises, including The Simpsons.

"The Godfather 2 is also in development currently, though timing is unknown," said the analyst.

After spending time at Electronic Arts in Redwood City, Greenwald came away impressed with the company's current line-up.

As well as positive praise for the The Simpsons game, he was impressed with the latest in The Sims franchise.

"We expect continued growth this year to be driven by MySims, a new franchise for the Nintendo Wii.

"MySims looks like it has the potential to do very well with the Nintendo demographic, especially in Japan," he commented.

And according to the NCP analyst, EA's casual portal Pogo.com has yet to reach its full potential.

"Pogo.com looks like an undervalued asset within EA. [It] has yet to meaningfully expand beyond the United States," he said.