ELECTRONIC ARTS Company remains on top of market

Electronic Arts has become a video-game powerhouse without much gore.
REDWOOD CITY Calif. (AP) -- Video games are no longer simply about getting the highest score or disgracing an opponent. They're also about immersing yourself in make-believe worlds you help fashion.
No one understands that better than Electronic Arts Inc., the video-game publisher that has evolved over two decades into an entertainment powerhouse as muscled as some of its game characters.
EA sees itself not as a toy maker but as a provider of mainstream amusement that adapts to cultural shifts along with its customers.
The company publishes the all-time best-selling computer game, The Sims, which is essentially a digital dollhouse. Addicted players from investment bankers to housewives have bought 27 million copies in three years. It's an example of what EA does best, luring gamers from outside the testosterone-charged, under-25 crowd.
EA also was the first video-game developer to successfully exploit a franchise model -- games built upon story sequels, sports-like seasons and expansion packs that have fans buying follow-up versions year after year.
Experts in their field
The company's rivals develop plenty of hits. And EA can't take credit for all the breakthroughs in visuals and ever-more addictive features.
But no one can argue with its ability to create games that sell, squeeze every dollar out of them and get them on retailers' shelves.
In the 14th iteration of Madden NFL that hit stores last week, gamers can be coach, owner and quarterback, controlling not only the plays on the field but the price of hot dogs.
Don't be fooled by the recreational opportunities at EA's shiny and expansive Redwood City headquarters, where employees can use a theater for video-game playoffs or hit the couch in a darkened break room with a flat-screen TV and a dozen other game setups, chalking off the time they spend there as research.
Last year, EA's 4,000 employees produced 22 games that each sold more than a million copies, while five sold more than 4 million. EA's profits tripled to $317 million in the fiscal year ended in March, and company executives expect revenues to top the industry's growth of about 15 percent this year.
"We're relentless, and we're serious about it," said company president John Riccitiello.
'Mature' popularity
Yet for all its predatory business prowess, EA shows little blood lust in its video games.
Most of EA's games are Boy Scout-clean compared to all the gory mature-rated games on the market, some of which have players slash an enemy's neck with glass shards or pull out body organs. Even with EA's James Bond games, the Bond girls are more clothed than some players would like.
EA's management opposes gratuitous violence and sex, but it hasn't avoided M-rated games entirely, and does plan to produce more, says Riccitiello. He cites Alice and Clive Barker's Undying and another M-rated game, Medal of Honor.
But some analysts say EA may have to rethink its Disney-like approach if the popularity of M-rated games continues to rise. The "mature" category represented 18 percent of all console games sold in 2002, up from 7 percent in 2000, said Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities.
$2.5 billion empire
Founded in 1982 by Trip Hawkins and Bing Gordon, the company has turned into a $2.5 billion empire. With recurring revenue from its fortress of franchises, Pachter thinks the company will rule the $10 billion gaming industry for another 10 years.
EA has what analysts call the industry's strongest balance sheet, reporting more than $1.6 billion in cash and short-term investments and no debt in the last quarter.
As other Silicon Valley companies shrivel, EA just constructed a new building at its headquarters and plans to double the size of its Los Angeles studio from 300 developers to 600 in two years.