I don't have any links or sources on this one. Call it a rant based on a hunch. EA had a pretty piss-poor FY09, despite their coming around again in quality of software, and public relations.  Mirror's Edge, the new Need for Speed game, and the latest Guitar Hero title all fell short of their target sales projections, and on top of that, three of their FY09 titles got pushed back off the calendar, two of which actually mattered (The Sims 3, and Godfather II to be specific).

Now, normally, this would be a major problem, and something indicative of a downward spiral in a publisher. However now that EA's pulled their hands from their ass and their head from the sky, I have a feeling they'll straighten up in FY10. Those delayed titles which were expected to pad their fiscal year 09 will be dropping soon, and giving them a boost (providing they sell well, which I have some reservations about predicting). They're looking to trim their current portfolio down to about fifty or so titles, eliminating some of the riskier business, a pain for indie gamers in the short run, but a move that will benefit them as a publisher. Compounded with their FY09 delay titles, EA recently announced their latest string of sequels, all of them projected to perform well (projections with which I have to agree). We're looking at seeing some very high-performance franchises hopping back into the market.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 is slated for this year, which, despite it's rather poor online component, drew solid numbers, online and off, and had a pretty damn entertaining single player. On top of it being the nature of sequels, DICE are a strong codehouse, and will know to fix their mistakes for the sequel. I'm expecting a hit.

The Mass Effect trilogy is currently slated to go multiplatform for the first time this year. There's no doubt the game will sell well, whichever platform it hits, however I have my reservations that all ports of the game (assumedly being primarily developed for 360) will be released simultaneously. If there's to be any discrepancy in street date, I have feelings it'll be due to optimization issues with the PS3 port. The game didn't seem too keen on running at a decent 30 on it's primary development platform, and I predict that they'll have some big issues trying to port an already flawed engine to architecture as alien as the PS3's.

Dead Space [Wii] has if nothing else, a shot. I'm loathe to hope for success in a title that's getting stripped down, and ported to a same-generation console a year after it's mother title's street date, but nonetheless, the original performed very well, and if they get a solid developer behind it, they'll be sure to bolster their lackluster library of Wii titles.

My question to you: How do you feel EA's going to perform in FY10? Will their current portfolio be enough to ward off Activision's steady rise in the industry?