Big acquisitions are off the cards for EA

EA has admitted that it has enjoyed mixed success with its acquisition strategy and suggested that it’s not something people should expect more of in the immediate future.

"I think our history with acquisitions is somewhat marginal in performance," CFO Blake Jorgensen told the Credit Suisse Annual Technology Conference, as reported by Games Industry.

"We have some that are spectacular, and some that didn’t do so well. It’s a headcount business, right? You’re buying headcount, and that’s always difficult to manage in acquisitions. It doesn’t mean we won’t do them, but I think where we’ve been most successful is in smaller acquisitions that we’ve integrated very quickly."

EA’s previous acquisitions include BioWare, Pandemic, PopCap, Firemint, Maxis Chillingo, DICE, Criterion and Black Box.

In future the company will apparently favour expanding its existing internal teams.

"I’m also a huge believer that we’ve got great opportunities inside our organisation," Jorgensen added. "We’ve built a really strong bench of talent at all levels, and our view is just [to] find great ideas, either through our own development or through licensed IP, and leverage your talent base to try to build that."