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An Environmental Analysis for
Electronic Arts/EA Sports /FIFA18
Fernando Ortenblad Sigaud
Full Sail University
Project & Portfolio II: Business and Marketing
10/31/2017

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The STEEPLE Analysis (Citations required)
SOCIOLOGICAL:
Ignites the passion for football while playing the game.
When you log in to FIFA18 by the first time you need to choose your favorite team, the one that
you support or like most. This future is able to create connection between players from all over
the world. Where you can find and team up with fans from your favorite football club and play
together against others rival in a worldwide competition (acelerateideas.com, n.d).
It creates several communities between players, according to the team they support, the region
they are playing and the level they are inside the game.
One of the future modes inside FIFA18 is called EA SPORTS Football Club, that connects the
customer with Facebook, mobile and tables, where he can show his results to his friends and
even to all FIFA community.
FIFA18 manages to connect players with real soccer news and events. Where you are able to
know recent result’s, and know how your team is doing in real life.
TECHNOLOGICAL:
FIFA main idea is to simulate soccer, at FIFA18 they introduce Real Player Motion Technology,
a new system that innovates the gameplay of real players, more accurately through motion
capture. Where several new animations show exactly how famous players like Cristiano
Ronaldo or Neymar moves on the real pitch.
Allowing customers to feel the life-like tendencies of the best football players in the world,
having a unique experience while playing (easports.com, 2017).
ECONOMIC:
Over the past five years Electronic Arts stocks price increase in an extremely high pace, going
from $12,89 per share on November 5, 2012, up to $112,73 per share on November 11, 2017.
With an appreciation of 774,32% during this period (yahoofinance.com, 2017).
According to Electronic Arts 2016 annual report, FIFA franchise represents 16 percent of the
total revenue of the company.
ECOLOGICAL:
Electronic Arts are focused on reducing the carbon footprint. One of the tactics being used in
recent years is to turn the company from a package goods business into a complete digital
business. This attitude will significantly reduce the EA’s carbon footprint (ea.com,2017).
Electronic Arts have taken several steps to reduce their energy consumption, especially at their
global headquarters in California, where they utilize eco-friendly products and promoted
recycling education to all their employees. Bringing awareness and sharing best practices
across the company (ea.com, 2017).

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POLITICAL:
According to EA.com, the company does not make direct political contributions to individual
candidates, parties, and committees, but if they decide to do they will disclose their contribution
on their website (ea.com,2017).
LEGAL:
To protect from customer lawsuits, Electronic Arts added inside their video games a term of use,
where the customer and EA expressly waive the right to a trial by jury or to participate in a class
action (Plunkett,2011). This prevents large of unhappy customers to unite together and take a
unified stand against the company. The term of use appears only at the first time that the
customer loads the game if the customers did not agree with the term of use the game will not
load to next part.
On 2014, Electronic Arts entered into a $40 million settlement with an NCAA’s Collegiate
Licensing Corporation because of not paying the licensing fee to use player likenesses in their
NCAA games (Investopedia.com, n.d). EA SPORTS FIFA has a different agreement with the
FIFA Entity, but since the purpose is to create a realistic simulation of soccer games involving
soccer teams, EA needs to take extreme care to avoid having new problems with former players
or even teams.
ETHICAL:
In 2016, Electronic Arts launched inclusion EA, a global training inside the company focused on
awareness, identification and committed action. Where leaders from different areas of the
company delivered sessions to set expectations of leadership and create an inclusive work
environment inside the company (diversityjournal.com, 2017). A great idea of engaging with
their employee’s community.
Electronic Arts have an established set of values that reflect the vision of the company. These
values are the heart of the company code of conduct and are supported by the company
policies (EA Global Code of Conduct, 2005). The company called the ACTION Values, that
means Achievement, Customer Satisfaction, Teamwork, Integrity, Ownership, and Now that
define EA ethical behaviors and how they do business.

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The SWOT Analysis (Citations optional)
Provide at least three statements in each of the four sections of the SWOT chart: Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Include explanations and details within the chart that
make your points clear. A phrase is not enough. Each point should be a short paragraph.
HELPFUL HARMFUL
INTERNAL
STRENGTHS
1. FIFA 18 offers diverse games modes
that manage to call attention of
different customers, like “The journey”
mode that was introduced in FIFA17
and now gain a new chapter, the Career
mode returns with new changes, and
the Ultimate Teammode that offers a
great platform for competitive online
play, where customers are able to hire
their favorite soccer players and
compete with gamers from all over the
world.
2. Immersive atmospheres, with
realistic players visual. Creating an
authentic game that shows an accurate
rendering of the match-day experience
(easports.com, 2017).
3. FIFA is distributed in over 35
different countries worldwide and is
available on several platforms, like
PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Personal
Computer, XBOX One, XBOX 360,
Nintendo Switch, mobile, and tablets.
Being enabled to attracts several types
of customers.
4. FIFA18 are inside the EA SPORTS
Division, responsible for 43% of
Electronic Arts revenue.
WEAKNESSES
1. Each FIFA series releases are tied
into the begging of the European
Soccer Season, where any problems
with the production or the distribution
of the game will jeopardize sales and
makes their assets less profitable.
2. FIFA 18 depends on the success and
availability of third parties’ platforms
and hardware’s. Which limits their
performance, design capabilities, and
graphics. Making EA having high
production costs to adopt FIFA to the
hardware and platform developers
(Market Line, 2017).
3. On FIFA18 you can create a player,
but not a team, and inside the Ultimate
Team, the customization to build your
team is really poor. Konami Pro
Evolution soccer, his greatest rival
inside the soccer genre, has a much
better teamcustomization where you
can build your own t-shirt and select
the sponsor your team is going to have
for the next season.

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EXTERNAL
OPPORTUNITIES
1. Virtual Reality FIFA mode, that
immerse the customer inside a soccer
stadium. Where they can run side by
side with his famous player or favorite
team. Making goals and celebrating like
they were on the pitch.
2. With the current increase in online
gaming and extra digital contents,
Electronic Arts need to continue to
create new features inside FIFA
Ultimate Team(platform to compete
online). According to
gamesindustry.biz, FIFA Ultimate Team
together with the Ultimate modes of
Madden and NHL represents $650
million in annual revenue. Where half
of that is generated by extra digital
content (Handrahan, 2016).
3. Electronic Arts is famous for
purchasing small studios to expand
their gaming labels. These strategic
acquisitions add new teams and
several new intellectual properties to
the company that is able to strengthen
their distribution infrastructure around
the world.
THREATS
1. Mobile Gaming is the future and FIFA
is already doing really well inside this
sector, but they face an intensive
competition especially by apps that are
much easier to play like Angry Birds
and Candy Crush.
2. Piracy and other forms of
unauthorized copying. According to EA
2017 annual report, these are a big
problem for them, especially in some
countries which their products are not
protected by laws or their legal
protection are ineffective. This issue
affects FIFA18 total revenue.
3. FIFA 18 are in an intensely
competitive market, that changes
rapidly as new platforms are
introduced. Where their parent
company faces a significant
competition from companies like
Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft and any
other company that provides different
sources of interactive entertainment
(EA annual report, 2017).
4. Electronic Arts have faced several
lawsuits in the past, that manage to
decrease their reputation. In 2014, they
paid about $ 40 million to an NCAA’s
Collegiate Licensing Corporation
because of not paying the licensing fee
to use player likenesses in their NCAA
franchise game.

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Conclusions:
Electronic Arts nowadays are the leading global interactive entertainment
software company (easports.com, 2017). Delivering for more than 35 countries, it
is clear to understand that sports titles are an extremely successful within the
company, where FIFA in 2016 represented 16% of their annual revenue. The
recent release of FIFA18, with its immersive atmosphere, realistic players and a
new diversity of game modes, such as the new Ultimate Team, shows that the
company will have an increase in the 2017 sales revenue for the game, especially
due to the increase in online gaming and the extra digital content. But if they want
to continue on a higher pace in the coming years, Electronic Arts needs to create
ideas and strategies to overcome the dependence of third-party hardware and
platforms.
EA Sports FIFA is inside an intensely competitive market, that change rapidly as
new platforms are introduced (EA annual report, 2017), for this reason, and to
continue to grow, it is necessary to introduce the game inside new platforms like
Virtual Reality and even create a better mobile game that nowadays are becoming
more important than pc gaming and are considered the future of the video games.
FIFA is already inside and is doing really well with the FIFA Mobile but on a long
run can lose market share for games like “Candy Crush” and “Angry Birds”, that
are easier to learn and play.
To conclude, Electronic Arts are on the right track with the EA Sports FIFA,
always creating new contents and immersing the customers inside the stadiums,
FIFA has a huge potential for the next years especially because of the Russia
World Cup 2018, it is a great time to call new customers attention to enjoy the
game. But they need to continue to take care on licensing fee to avoid lawsuits
like happens a few years ago with a NCAA EA game, something that can
jeopardize the image of the company and the game. The company needs to
continue to purchase small studios that can add new ideas and intellectual
properties to help games like FIFA increase their potential and market share over
the countries.

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References:
Aceleratedideas.com. (n.d). FIFA goes social with EA Sports Football Club.
Retrieved from: http://www.accelerated-ideas.com/news/fifa-goes-social-with-ea-sports-
football-club.aspx
Diversityjournal.com. (n.d). Electronic Arts – Building an Inclusive Culture at EA and in
the Gaming Community.
Retrieved from: http://www.diversityjournal.com/16610-electronic-arts-building-an-
inclusive-culture-at-ea-and-in-the-gaming-community/
Electronic Arts Global Code of Conduct. (2005).
Retrieved from:
https://secure.ethicspoint.com/domain/media/en/gui/8089/GlobalCodeofConductMarch2
005.pdf
Easports.com. (2017). Environment.
Retrieved from: https://www.ea.com/environment
Easports.com. (2017). Political Activities Disclosure.
Retrieved from: https://www.ea.com/politicalactivitiesdisclosure
Easports.com. (2017). Real Player Motion Technology.
Retrieved from: https://www.easports.com/fifa/features/real-player-motion-technology#
Easports.com. (2017).
Retrieved from: https://www.easports.com
Ebscohost.com. (2014). Market Line SWOT analysis of Electronic Arts.
Retrieved from:
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.oclc.fullsail.edu:81/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=23&sid=
949c2276-b2d9-46d3-8575-4b6be358c36c%40sessionmgr4007
Handrahan,M. (2016). EA’s Ultimate Team earning around $650 million a year.
Retrieved from: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-03-02-eas-ultimate-team-
earning-around-usd650-million-a-year
Investopedia. (2016). Electronic Arts Loses Its “Madden NFL” Lawsuit.
Retrieved from: http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/032216/electronic-arts-
loses-its-madden-nfl-lawsuit-ea-atvi.aspx

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Plunkett,L. (2011). Remember, Electronic Arts won’t let you sue them either.
Retrieved from: https://kotaku.com/5843178/remember-electronic-arts-wont-let-you-sue-
them-either
Yahoo Finance. (2017). Electronic Arts Chart.
Retrieved from: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/EA/chart?p=EA