Analyst: Tiberium Cancellation Damages EA's Credibility

While Electronic Arts says it recently canceled Command & Conquer FPS Tiberium because its quality just wasn't up to snuff, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey suggests such moves may be cause for concern. "Continued lack of management execution and/or product quality, damages new management’s credibility and dampens our excitement for the company’s shares," says Hickey. At the time EA canceled the title, which had been in development at its EA Los Angeles studio, the company declined to disclose how much money it had invested and said it had no plans to specify its losses from the aborted project. Hickey expects EA to lower its expectations for its fiscal year performance -- nonetheless, the analyst says he's still "cautiously positive" on the company's prospects, expecting strong performance from Warhammer Online and encouraged by new IP like Dead Space and Mirror's Edge. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter adds a different opinion on what the cancellation might mean for EA -- he says canceling Tiberium actually adds credibility for the publisher as far as concern for game quality. "Canceling a bad game goes a long way toward preserving the quality of the overall lineup," says Pachter.