Electronic Arts announced in a recent earnings report that Skate outsold Tony Hawk Proving Ground by a nearly two to one margin. That news is both shocking and expected. Shocking in that the Tony Hawk juggernaut was upturned. Expected in that innovation beat out a tired franchise.
Make no mistake, the Tony Hawk franchise has been one of the crown jewels of gaming for years. However, just as with any series that gets turned over once per year, the innovation long ago left the series and has seen marginal improvements at best. In many ways it has mimicked the Madden Football franchise that many berate Electronic Arts for. But wait, how does it make sense that such a stalwart as Electronic Arts are the ones behind the innovative franchise?
Simple, they can afford to make a mistake. For every Madden and Harry Potter franchise, Electronic Arts has moved more and more into original gaming. Yes, Madden is a disappointment as it rarely changes and buying out the NFL exclusivity contract certainly didn’t help EA’s reputation as an innovator. But look beyond that and you will see a company that often takes chances in ways that other companies cannot.
There are two types of companies that innovate-those that have nothing to lose, and those that have everything to lose and therefore one loss isn’t so bad. Take Nintendo for example. After the disappointment of the GameCube, Nintendo went back to the drawing board for the Wii. They knew that both Sony and Microsoft had them beat unless they threw caution to the wind and really tried something new. Like it or hate it, the Wii was the outcome of Nintendo being in that perspective. Electronic Arts, on the other hand, has little to nothing to lose from a bomb here or there. Their sports franchises and movie tie-ins bring in enough money on their own to support failed original intellectual properties.
It’s cliché, trite, and perhaps even long in the tooth to bash EA for not being more innovative. However, it misses the point. While such a large company is often bad for competition, it is also often good for risk taking. It’s an unholy alliance that gamers simply have to accept.
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