Recession is hitting the world hard and no one seems to be spared. Recently Electronic Arts in a press release announced that it expects net revenue and earnings per share for fiscal year 2009 to be below the financial guidance previously provided on October 30, 2008. The revised expectations are primarily the result of lower than expected sales across North America and Europe.

The Company is continuing to pursue cost saving initiatives including a reduction of its product portfolio for fiscal year 2010 with additional associated headcount reductions and facility consolidations.

Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello said “While we saw significant improvement in the overall quality of our key products this year, we are disappointed that our holiday slate is not meeting our sales expectations. Given this performance and the uncertain economic environment, we are taking steps to reduce our cost structure and improve the profitability of our business.”

Further Mr. Riccitiello added, “While we are cutting costs, we remain committed to investing in great game quality, in new properties and in our direct-to-consumer initiatives. We will be launching several new titles and online games in fiscal 2010.”

In the given situation I expect EA might slow down its work on new game titles and many game releases might be postponed for a later date.