EA drops hints about upcoming titles

At a recent analyst meeting, Electronic Arts dropped several hints about upcoming titles for the 2009 fiscal year and beyond.

EA Sports president Peter Moore said that the company would be launching five new sports titles in addition to the previously-announced FaceBreaker and Playground.

The first unnamed title - described only as a "casual IP" - is scheduled for launch in fiscal 2009, with the remaining four "core IP" titles to appear some time before the end of fiscal 2011.

EA announced that it had extended the NFL football license through 2013 and is seeking to grow the football business while continuing share gains on its FIFA and NBA titles.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the company also announced new titles in the Skate, Burnout, Need for Speed and Rock Band franchises, as well as new Sims and SimCity titles.

A Lord of the Rings game was listed as an upcoming title for fiscal 2009, with that IP appearing on a slide next to developer Pandemic. BioWare, the other studio acquired at the same time by EA, was listed as being charged with "Mass Effect, Dragon Age, KOTOR" and a "new MMO."

The Godfather IP also appeared on the list of EA Redwood Shores properties, prompting some to suggest that a sequel is in development even though nothing official has been announced.

Finally, Black appeared on the list as one of Criterion's IPs even though -as indicated on Wired's game blog - a company spokesperson told D-Pad magazine that they were not looking at making another Black game any time soon.

EA previously announced a September 7 release date for Spore and also said that it would be aiming for USD 6 billion in revenue by the end of the 2011 financial year.