EA’s past acquisitions ‘spotty at best’, admits CFO

EA has vowed to be more ‘careful’ about purchasing companies in the future, accepting that it has made mistakes with past acquisitions.

Speaking at the UBS Global Technology Conference (as reported by GameSpot), CFO Blake Jorgensen said that the inconsistent hit rate of studios and firms picked up by EA had led the publisher to be more wary – but confirmed that it would continue to seek expansion.

"[We’re] always looking at potential acquisitions,” he said.

Our history with acquisitions has obviously been spotty at best, so I would say there is an extra level of caution around that.

"We also believe we have the ability to do it ourselves in many cases, or hire people to do it. So we’re careful about acquisitions.

But we’re going to continue to look for those opportunities and having a strong base globally allows us to be able to do that."

Among the companies closed by EA after their purchase are Syndicate and Dungeon Keeper developer Bullfrog, Wing Commander maker Origin, Command and Conquer outlet Westwood, SimCity creator Maxis Emeryville and the original studio behind the Star Wars: Battlefront games, Pandemic.