EA CEO John Riccitiello.

OCT. 31, 2008 • During a financial conference call, Electronic Arts chief executive John Riccitiello said the publisher intends to invest $150 million into its digital distribution and online games business. EA will shed six percent of it work force to save $50 million. For the fiscal second quarter ending Sept. 30, EA’s net loss grew to $310 million from $195 million for the same period in 2007.

Impact: Clearly Electronic Arts sees online games as a major growth area as its traditional business seems to have stagnated.  From a long-term perspective we feel that it is better to have a loss now and invest for the future.  We would have liked to see this happen several years ago, but better late than never.